RimGuard: Front and rear?

   / RimGuard: Front and rear? #1  

jigs_n_fixtures

Platinum Member
Joined
Jul 31, 2021
Messages
828
Location
Salmon, Idaho
Tractor
TYM T233
I’m headed over the mountain to the nearest dealer tomorrow to have RimGuard put in the rear tires. Since the trip to the dealer is a 3-hr drive one way: Would it make sense to have them RimGuard the front wheels while I’m there.

My tractor is a TYM T233, which is a bit bigger than a JD 1025.
 
   / RimGuard: Front and rear? #2  
In my opinion no, tire is too small to make much difference in weight and the likelihood of having flats is much higher on the front so the idea of having to deal with fluid filled flats sound like a pain in the butt to me.
 
   / RimGuard: Front and rear? #3  
You can do the Rim Guard yourself if you can rent, borrow, or steal the dual nozzle and valve stems needed. Most overfill the tires which then ride poorly. You need weight for traction and for ballast to reduce the risk of rollover and pitchover. You need tires with load dependent grip, too, otherwise only a partial success by adding weight. If you use this machine to mow your lawns, be prepared for the ruts and track marks. Talk about a rough ride ? Those tires are going to be very heavy after loading and have a lot less air volume. Can you manage them by yourself or going to need help if they want to flop over when changing the wheel track to the max for hill stability. Got a loader ? Fronts will have enough weight from the loaded bucket. That's all you need plus air pressure. If rollover is your principle concern, get iron and park it as low as possible. Add a front 'anti-roll' bar between the front axle and the body. Just like on every car. One from a car junkyard. This reduces the lean angle of your tractor running on a sidehill. This forces the front tires to do their part inrestraining the turning motion induced by drive tire(s). If you start going down hill, most novices will lock up the (rear) brakes and loose control after this. Instead find a gear slightly lower than your ground speed and gently take steering control regardless of the speed and back off the throttle.

Couple of other things to consider:
The Rim Guard probably won't change the c.g. height very much because its own c.g. is slightly below the wheel center. It's best use is with a hydrostatic transmission because changes in tractor ground speed aren't matched with rolling of the internal tire fluid very well, so the loader or snow plow work with constant changing directions won't feel this pain so much.
As for use on hilly ground, c.g. height and rear axle track width are the principle actors here. Ag. tires are best here as well, because of the tread design. This supports less side load than the verticle tipping force, so they will slide unless your wheels dig in or some other stopper prevails. Then you will roll over, maybe 1-1/4 times as the video records seem to show.
Get a bubble meter and keep the side angle in full view. You can also have a friend attach a strap at the transmission location and pull the tractor sideways with a vehicle. Be smart about it. You only need a few readings of pull force (from a suitable scale). Make a plot of pull force vs. angle. It should go down as angle increases. Extend the curve out to zero force. That's the angle you NEVER want to see on your inclinometer.
 
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