Traction Wheel Spacers

[CurlyDave]

The red Prowler spacers arrived yesterday, installed today with blue locktite. Kept all the metal parts warm with a propane torch to keep the locktited parts over the recommended 60 degrees.

Everything fit beautifully, the the stance of the backhoe is 8" wider.

I didn't get too much chance to test drive because of cold and lots of slippery snow packed down in the driveway area.

The chains came in also, but I haven't opened the boxes yet. They are heavy, and I probably won't get a chance to check them out until Thursday. One of the other deacons at our church discovered that an elderly couple is going to be completely out of firewood in a day or two, so we are taking a load up there in the dump trailer tomorrow. Got the load in the trailer this afternoon, but sunset was 4:40 PM and I am not taking a truck & trailer up an unknown, but steep driveway in the dark.

 

[ultrarunner]

Progress reports are always good...

As to the firewood... It is sure a blessing when neighbors help neighbors.

The entire SF Bay Area is under a continuing Wood Burn Ban... reason is the air is worse than Bejing China per the evening news...

Can't be wood smoke because soon it will be two weeks since the latest ban started.

Stay warm and watch for Black Ice... had a very lucky experience on 50 heading from South Lake Tahoe to Carson City... car did two complete 360's and somehow managed to to avoid oncoming traffic and gardrails... very lucky as a teen and a wild ride I hope to never experience again.

 

[dragoneggs]

Progress reports are always good...

As to the firewood... It is sure a blessing when neighbors help neighbors.

The entire SF Bay Area is under a continuing Wood Burn Ban... reason is the air is worse than Bejing China per the evening news...

Can't be wood smoke because soon it will be two weeks since the latest ban started.

Stay warm and watch for Black Ice... had a very lucky experience on 50 heading from South Lake Tahoe to Carson City... car did two complete 360's and somehow managed to to avoid oncoming traffic and gardrails... very lucky as a teen and a wild ride I hope to never experience again.

Lived in SF and do travel to Beijing quite often. I can understand the comparison but hard to believe. In Beijing you can look at the sun on a 'clear' day. Tell me this is not the case in SF!

 

[ultrarunner]

I'm looking at SF right now and very clear from across the Bay...

It seems the media is reporting non-stop on this... I'm sure it will be water cooler talk in the morning.

My point is soon it will be two weeks of no fireplace use so fireplaces certainly are not the issue.

Dave and I have the same model Deere and I'm always learning something from his posts!

 

[mikehaugen]

What do you guys recommend for clearance on the inside. I have plenty of room inside the fenders, but only about 1" to the rops. I have been thinking about chains, but figure I'll need spacers- I just don't know how big. I want to get as small as possible. I was thinking 1" but that gives me about 2" of clearance, is that enough for chains?

 

[CurlyDave]

When I looked at the inside of my tires and wheels, the clearance without spacers was a guestimated 1" or so.

I don't what chain experts would recommend, but stock clearance was way below my comfort level. I think 3" clearance would be about my minimum comfort level, but the 2" spacers were sold in sets of 4 and almost everyone else had installed 2 on each side.

I knew that if I just left 2 on the floor of the shop to see if I could get by with only 2 spacers I would still be tripping over them 25 years from now. I have stuff in my shop that has been hanging around for 40 years, still looking for the right application. It will end up being a problem for my heirs...

 

[vtsnowedin]

What do you guys recommend for clearance on the inside. I have plenty of room inside the fenders, but only about 1" to the rops. I have been thinking about chains, but figure I'll need spacers- I just don't know how big. I want to get as small as possible. I was thinking 1" but that gives me about 2" of clearance, is that enough for chains?

I think two inches between the side of the tire and the vertical face of the fender or the ROPS is enough. You shouldn't leave more then a link hanging loose on the inside and if you break a cross link the centrifugal force makes the loose end fly up toward the top of the fender not inside to the vertical face. Keep a couple of repair links in the tractors tool box so that when one brakes way out in the woods you don't have to let it slap all the way back to the shop.