Tires Winter use Tires

[DK35vince]

I can tell you I have R-4 tires and they are near useless pushing any amount of snow without chains.
I run chains on all 4 tire, and it makes a MASSIVE difference.
Last week we had a 12"+ snow, with chains I had no problem at all pushing a 9' snowplow.
My neighbor has turf tires, rear blade with loader bucket and was struggling bad trying to clear his 800' drive, I went over with chains on a 4, went up and down his drive pushing my front mounted 9' plow, never spun a tire.
Took me minutes to clear it.

 

[JLH4]

I run plain ladder chains loose on R4s all winter even though we don't get much snow, plowed 6" a couple of weeks ago, but with no snow there is mud. R4s fill up with mud quickly then you have racing slicks and you just sit and spin all 4 wheels.

 

[pokey1416]

Grooved R-4’s for me. Don’t need 4WD unless I’m slipping on ice underneath and tired of using the diff lock. Last winter I wasn’t grooved - I’m a firm believer! You’ll get opinions on the value of grooving.

 

[dstig1]

Up until this year I was plowing with a rear blade and have R4s. They are useless in the snow and ice. I got chains immediately and initially went with Duo style on all 4. I normally stay in 4wd in the winter. My driveway is paved but it is also fairly steep in a few sections. Even with chains, there is one bad spot where I have slid sideways for a bit when it was super icy (I call that spot the "The Point of No Return"...). The problem I had with the Duos was that the ride was beyond rough into abusive. After a few years of bouncing my head off the roof of the cab if I got going too fast, I swapped the fronts for 2-link ladder chains and the ride got tons better. I still had the Duos on the rear as they did not seem to cause as much trouble back there.

This year I modified/refurbed a Sweepster rotary broom setup (build thread in Build it Yourself subforum) and have been using that exclusively. I put the chains on the front tires, but have not needed them on the rear so far. Still in 4wd all the time. We also have not really had ice this year so far... But this seems like a good combo as you don't need the same amount of traction as when pushing with a blade.

No experience with turfs but R4s are awful in the winter. But they are also very tough which is important when I use the grapple to lift logs and get into the woods. Chains fix the traction issue in the winter and I retain the rest of the benefits of the R4s for everything else.

 

[51allis]

Yooperdave, I too live in the U.P., near Esky...I have an LS XR4046 4wd with AG tires and have yet to have any issue with traction and that might be because I use the diff lock all the time in 4wd when pushing/scooping snow on our farm spread, I have a back blade that I push along with scraping backwards on the bucket when needed. I just get a running start and level the bucket using the float function on the valve and away I go...We have gotten lots of snow this year. I don't see the need for chains BUT when I used to use an old Ford 3400 2wd...that is what I needed chains for.

 

[oldpilot]

I have a steep hill on the road side of our driveway. My previous tractor was a 1975 International Harvester 284 (actually a Japanese Bison with an American overcoat) with agricultural tires. It was useless on the hill even with chains. (The hill is asphalt, but more important after the first big snowfall is also packed snow/ice.) I now have a Mahindra of about the same horsepower. It too is useless on the hill. With both tractors I scoot right up with the plow raised, turn around, and plow downhill.

I had chains on both tractors. In theory they should work better on Mahindra Baba with her industrial tires, but in reality they don't. I suspect that, without the chains, the Baba would be marginally better because of more rubber on the road. But here in coastal New Hampshire, with so much "wintry mix," which ends in ice, no chains would mean no plowing, not with 25-28 horsepower.

The ag tires were definitely better in the woods in the springtime. When the ground is wet, that's when the turf tires really slip.

 

[LD48750]

I keep hearing how great turf tires are in snow but mine are useless.

Two link ladder chains on the front of my Ford 1510 & I am good to go.

What am I doing wrong?

 

[RoyJackson]

I keep hearing how great turf tires are in snow but mine are useless.

Two link ladder chains on the front of my Ford 1510 & I am good to go.

What am I doing wrong?View attachment 730755

Turfs are good in the snow, up to a point

 

[CobyRupert]

I think for effectiveness in snow, worse to best, it’s R4 construction, R1 ags, turf, chains.
I also suspect that in deeper snow, where your not clearing it, or compacting it enough that there are times R1 lugs beat the turf treads.
Or situations where the increased turf tire contact points can beat chains on a hard surface.

 

[Tony H]

I have been using turf tires without chains to plow my driveways for a number of years.
My driveways are pitched at least 10' over a couple of hundred feet of run.
I usually plow down hill, stay in 4wd, and try to not push my luck (no pun).
Do industrial tires offer less traction in the snow?
I see lots of people using chains and wonder if they really need them.
Just wondering what drove the use of chains?
TIA
Yooper Dave

Industry tires, in my opinion, can easily slip and then you got no traction. Maybe a bit less traction then AG tires. I find that snow traction depends heavily on temperatures. Very very cold and traction increases. You can hear the snow squeak. Closer to the freezing mark and snow get slippery. Just this year I bought chains. In the past, I had plenty of traction all winter
It was in the Spring that a late snow would cause all kinds of trouble on small slopes.