Tires What kind of tires?

[Steve02]

So to a novice like me (don't even have a tractor yet) it sounds like the "best" combination of tires would be R1's on the back and R4's on the front. You would have to make sure that they were the same size (if you have 4wd). With this scenario you could get the traction from the R1's in the back and then still have the R4's up front for heavy FEL work.

 

[AndyMA]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Here's a pic of a front tire on my B7500. It has a 302 loader that is filled with damp topsoil in the photo. Inflation is about 12#. The R4's put a lot more rubber on the ground and are stiffer than R1's................chim )</font>

Chim, what does the manufacturer recommend for tire pressure? These tires look like thay have too little air pressure to me. Tough on tires. (and unsafe)

Andy

 

[chim]

That's about 1/2 the recommended max pressure. If I had more than a few scoops to do, airing them up a bit would be good. These tires have quite stiff sidewalls. Running them at "normal" pressure while mowing (and without the loader) would result in a pretty rough ride...................chim

 

[To20Chris]

I just spent a few hours trying to drag a box blade through mud (an exersize in futility), so I'm not real thrilled with R4s right now. They load up in mud REAL fast and shear it off. Suddenly you have four slicks spinning in wet goo. I can't give a direct head to head with R1s. I put new shoes on my TO20 a couple of years ago, and while I'm not nuts enough to drive it into my new mud pit, I'd bet they have much more guts in the muck. I have driven it through really wet mud dragging a 5' brush hog cutting high grass, and it pulled quite well (having a separate brake on each side works real well too!). At least the R4s look real cool /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif

 

[KiotiJohn]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( These tires look like thay have too little air pressure to me. Tough on tires. (and unsafe))</font>
If the tires were steel belted radials, there would be a problem with running them low. However, these tires are nylon, and there are many many articles about running them successfully a little lower to increase traction and soften the ride. However, I believe what I read was that they should be at least 75% of "normal" pressure but I've read of people running them at less than half. John

 

[fire72]

If you've decided turfs are out, my personal thinking would be to go with the additional traction of the R1's unless there's a reason not to, such as crossing lawn you don't want to damage. R4's are a decent compromise, but I'm biased toward R1's. Bear in mind that my place is nothing but hills, with several large wet spots from seeps under the hill. I prefer the R1's because of my plowing and disking and moving deep snow, but I keep the tractor off the lawn unless it's pretty dry. Heck, I had to put the "baby" R1's on my garden tractor just to get up my hills while I'm mowing, so I may be just a bit biased...

Fire72

 

[Henro]

I am pretty happy with my R4s except when I have to deal wtih wet slopes or mud. Mud fills them quick and they become slicks. There is not a lot of grip on wet grassy slopes. One uncontrolled slide convinced me to put my chains on early in the fall and leave them on till late May...

Otherwise I love the R4s...at least for what I do...

 

[Yankee]

I've got to say that with all the discussion around tires (about which I went around in circles when evaluating too), the tires on my *mower* (RFM) are the larger issue, not the tractor tires. I can traverse reasonably damp turf with my filled R4s with little or no marking. But the mower can leave quite the ruts on the same ground! Nearly 500 pounds, tiny wheels (compared to the tractor).

Bill

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Wet clay will fill up R4s in a hurry. But they are a good compramise tire if the tractor is also going to be used on the lawn as well as off the lawn.

My experience with ag tires is limited to antique tractors, but R1s will self clean in mud, snow and clay, but they tear up a lawn in a hurry.

 

[hockeyhead]

I like my R4's also, and I have filled them with clay mud turning them into slicks. Any tire I chose was the same monies when I bought, I also checked cost on a second set of tires and rims $850 for turfs or R1's on my TC-30