Tires tire selection

[ket]

not being a tire expert and never have given any thought about circumference ratio of tires, I could use some more help chooseing tire's tire size on front is5-14 tires on back are8.3-24.. how do you figure up what is correct size so not to do damage to drive train.. this will be used most on lawn care but something alittle agressive would be ok
I've talk with goodyear tire dealer and he can get the rear tire in a r-3 tread but does not know where I can locate tires for the front other than plain rib tire .. any one got a source

 

[BrettFF205D]

better email www.millertire.com. Those guys are very helpful and they LOVE to sell tires. bw
ps, the will get the ones you want

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Raise one side of your tractor off the ground and measure the distance around the tire at the center of the tread on both tires. (be sure tires are properly inflated) Divide the larger number by the smaller number to get your aspect ratio. When you buy your new tires, make sure you keep as close as possible to that aspect ratio. plus/minus5%. Plus is better. Firestone sells 8.3x24 turf's. (try their web site) You may need to use 14" pick up or utility trailer tires for your fronts. I'm still running the original cain tires on the front of mine with turf's on the rear. Been doing it for a year with no problems. Dola.

 

[roger_scotty]

Obviously you want to stay with the same "LOADED ROLLING CIRCUMFERENCE" front-to-back ratio....or as close as you can. Sometimes you can do this by buying a sort of turf tire for the original wheel rims. I've heard them called "diamond treads". They are the same profile and aspect as an Ag tire but smooth tread.
But diamonds aren't available in most sizes. Best check with someone like miller tire.
The other option is to go with a fatty turf tire. It lowers the tractor a little and really improves stability. Problem is, matching your "LOADED ROLLING CIRCUMFERENCE" ratio front to back requires that you buy new wheels. When I looked for my tractor, Miller had those too.....By now there must be other specialty wheel dealers, but I don't know who they are.
Matching the rim size and bolt pattern was easy, but matching the offset was more difficult. Still, when I stopped trying to buy Yanmar brand wheels and just started looking for wheels of standard size and bolt pattern - which turned out to fit Yanmar and many other imports as well - the price dropped about 75%. For the 75% difference in price I was going to have the centers re-welded for the correct offset when I stumbed on a set of proper wheels and bought em. In the process I found out that Denver has a number of wheel shops that will find and modify any wheel reasonably.

 

[pennwalk]

Is there a Firestone ag tire dealer anywhere near you? Firestone/Bridgestone seem to have a better selection. I good dealer will know all about this stuff and should be able to steer you right. I looker into the wide turfs for my 186D. the smaller wheels necessary to mount the wide turf were very expensive from the local Yanmar dealer. Was is something about import tarifs? Finding a local wheel shop that can make up the wheels you need sounds like the way to go if you decide to go with wide turfs. Let us know what you find out.

Chris