I am gearing up for winter, and would like to use my BX2230 for snow handling (FM snow blower.) Does anyone have a recommendation on tires?
I currently have turf tires (R3) installed - but I notice alot of people posting videos of FM snow blower have flat-tread R4 tires.
Does anyone have experience with Re turf tires in the snow?
Yes, I have a lot of experience (40+ years) using turf tires on 16 to 33 hp tractors. Our normal "soil" is a disintegrated granite sand in the Rocky Mountains. This is a large crystalline sand that works very well with turf tires, and poorly with anything more aggressive.
Since we have the turfs on anyway, and since they are so much better for sidehill and overturning stability we like to use them in the winter. The problem is that turfs are as poor on ice and snow as they are good on sand.
Our solution is to make up a custom set of tire chains. We use the same geometric configuration for the front and rear chains, with the front chains being about what you would normally see, but the rear cross-tire members are a little larger chain size and might have "V grabbers" or studs affixed to the links as well. This combination makes it possible to use the fronts only until winter really hits - and sometimes the front chains are handy in the summer as well. For both the front and rear chains we make up our own chains starting with the standard outer parallel circumfrential chains which we make to be positioned a little farther into the steel wheel area to allow easy installation of elastic rubber tensioners. Since we will not be abrading against this section of the chain, the outermost chain circumfrential pieces can be a size smaller and therefore more flexible than normal chain sidewalls. Use of the tensioning rubbers is very important.
The cross-chain components are the aggressive parts of the chain that does the work. For these we connect the cross chains into their "X" chain configuration circular rings as connectors which are first bent into shape and then welded or brazed. If brazed, I prefer a high % nickle composition brazing material.
I'll look around and see if I have a picture of chains built this way, and include them if I can find them.
Good luck, ask any questions... rScotty