Snow Will chains help much on snow?

[lambs]

I have an MF 1010 with turf tires, 2wd. Was thinking about trying some chains on the rear tires if it ever snows here again. I'd mainly be using it with a small blade to help pull out concrete driveways for folks in the neighborhood after the snowplow comes through.

My concern is whether or not this is very practical. I could do a lot with ag tires on, but if I added chains to the the turf tires, would it really give me much traction?

The tractor weighs around 1300 pounds.

This could all be a moot point; we're not even getting rain right now.

Anyone ever tried chains over turf tires out there?

Thanks for your thoughts.

 

[rope1]

Chains will help a ton, also look at putting some fluid/weight in your rear tires. Used to have a little L2500 Kubota 2wd and it went thru a foot of snow easy with chains on. Go to Tire Chains by Tirechains.com, cheap as anywhere I've seen for little odd ball turf sizes.

 

[Egon]

Chains will help more than a tire change.

If buying ladder type chains make sure they are two link type otherwise the ride may be rough.

 

[Oleozz]

I used loaded turfs for six years to plow snow and chains would have been a big help. Many times I would have to move the snow downhill; with chains I could have plowed either direction but overall the turfs didn't do bad.

 

[ray66v]

Chains do help, although I found that with enough weight on the rear tires they are not always necessary, and then I can avoid the damage they can do to the driveway.
At my current home I have a gravel drive so I do not use them at all. This helps to keep from pulling the gravel up into the snow and plowing it into the lawn. I do have a 4wd TLB w/turfs so it's pretty easy to do that.

 

[jimmy1]

Hi lambs:

Chains will help for sure, at least in my experience. I had a 20 HP Toro Wheel Horse with a front mount 44 inch snow blower. Tractor about 600 lb's, 2 WD and the blower out front about 150 lb's and me in the seat at 210 lb's. I have about a 5 foot slope to get up from my garage to my drive way and that tractor clawed its way up everytime with chains on.

Sold that to my SIL and bought a new AGCO ST 22a 4 WD with turfs last year. Now I have a tractor about 1250 lb's 4WD with a rear mount 60 inch blower that is 400 lb's and of course me in the seat and the first time I tried to come up that slope I got stuck! Now that was the first snow and it was unusually wet but chains work.

Jim

 

[sunnyside360]

I've got an older MF 1045 MFWD with turf tires (loaded). I realized the first winter we had it (1990) how helpless it was when trying to plow snow. Bought a set of chains and solved the problem --- unbelievable improvement.

 

[lambs]

Wow. Thanks to all of you who took the time to respond! I will have to check this out.

 

[art]

Seems strange that if on blacktop that turfs have the most traction on pavement. That does give the most amount of surface contact to both tire and driving surface and obviuosly you did turn on the snowblower so you should be riding on nearly no snow.

I'd say start out with out!!!!! Then if really needed figure out which set!

 

[sunnyside360]

If you do get chains, I'd suggest the rubber bar type which will not mark your concrete/asphalt driveways. I had a set of these on my last 2 WD lawn tractor (about your size) with a snowblower and it worked great.

 

[lambs]

Thanks, Sunnyside. I didn't know rubber bar chains existed, but that is what I'd prefer. Appreciate the advice.

 

[wh22366]

For ten years I ran a little Ford 1710 4wd that came to me with turf tires. Just before snow flew each fall I'd put on a set of rear chains and plow and load out snow all winter with nary a slip. Worked great in mud season too. The secret really was that the chains stood proud of the tread. I've sold her and bought a MF1540 with R4's. It appears that standard chains would hide in the lugs and be a useless addition.

I can only hope that I get good traction this year with beet juice tire loading and additional 3 pt weight. Anyone out there ever use ring-type chains on R4's? Any comments on what the R4's will do without chains?

 

[WilliamTO-35]

I made a set of tire chains for my TO-35 tractor with 12.4/28 inch rears. They worked very well in snow, especially with the worn out lug type tires I had since they stood out on the tire, and helped on hard packed snow and ice too. I used standard oblong link utility chain, with no bars welded across. When I finally bought new lug tires, the chains tended to fall between the lugs, and weren't much of a help. Turf tires are flat enough so that chains will work. With good tires, my traction in snow is fairly good, but on hard snow or ice traction was poor. To address that problem, I put a couple of dozen sheet metal screws with hardened hex heads into the lugs of each tire, and my ice traction improved dramatically. I've left the screws in the tires year around, and they cause no problems.

 

[SDT]

Chains are about the only thing that will help in snow or ice. You will find Ag tires less useful than turf tires in snow.

The good thing about turf tires is that you can use relatively inexpensive ladder chains withen them, whereas these chains are not ideal for ag tires because they tend to settle into the valleys between the cleats.

SDT

 

[Egon]

A chained up turf tired toy tractor working in mud and snow. The chains help on either mud snow or just dry ground!