Tire direction - does it really matter?

[woodlandfarms]

My tractor has 8 tires, so in repairing flats and other stuff they get jumbled around, to the point that some no longer point in the "proper" direction.

Does this really matter? To me I cannot see a reason as the tractor is equally strong both forward and backward, but maybe someone who worked in tire design knows.

These are bar tires BTW (actually kinda R4 is but whatever).

 

[mahlers]

My understanding is they're designed to clean out better when moving forward, and have better grip when going in reverse. I was told the better grip in reverse is to give you the ability to get out of situations that you got yourself into. Not sure if any of that is true, but it seems to make sense.

 

[jbrumberg]

It is my understanding that R-1's go better forward than reverse in mud (You do not need to ask me why I know this ). Jay

 

[Wombat125]

My Unimog manual indicated that ag tires should be run forward to maximize traction and backwards to minimize noise on the road. Some guys ran the rears forward and the fronts backwards for the best of both worlds.

I'm guessing the PT won't go fast enough to where road noise is a factor, so I guess I'd run them forward.

 

[tuolumne]

A lot of guys mount the tires on their combine backwards, so that if they start to get into a bog they can back out more effectively. R1s definately go better forward.

 

[jbrumberg]

I know of a few tractor operators who do a lot of woods work who have reversed their fronts to help them back out of troublesome mud. Jay

 

[jwstewar]

The old guy up the hill from me ran the ags on the back of his 8/9n backwards so he had betters brakes coming down the hill. When he went back up the the hill though it sure would through big chunks of sod.

 

[jimmysisson]

look at the pic of the unimog. If the front left tire was your tractor R1, you can see how when the "points" of the tread are coming up the mud can fall out, whereas if they were reversed the mud would most likely stay in. My old neighbor ran the right one correctly mounted (points down on front) and the left reversed - claimed it helped him to back out of the silage pit using the split brakes. I think it's all about the cleaning of the tread.
Jim