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TURF VS R4 TIRES

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Gerard
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 36 kentucky
TractorPoint Premium Member -- 5 Tractors = Very Frequent Poster

1999-11-19          10248


I'm going to be buying a compact w/loader for a small horse farm and have a tire question. I'm split between turfs and R4's. I'm going to be snowplowing,cutting finished lawn, bushogging pasture and maybe some light grading with a box blade and rippers. I'm leaning towards the R4's as they seem to be a good compromise between the traction of ags adn the grass friendliness of turfs but I don't want to lose too much traction. I've also read in the posts that R4's are not as good as turfs in snow which seems contrary to common sense. It seems turfs will load easier with snow and not "clean" themselves like R4's would. My only concern about the R4's is how bad the R4's will tear up the grass. It's not a golf course but it is finsihed grass.



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TURF VS R4 TIRES

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Roger L.
Join Date: Jun 1999
Posts: 0
TractorPoint Premium Member -- 5 Tractors = Very Frequent Poster

1999-11-19          10254


One nice thing about the turfs is how easily that automotive chains can be made to fit them. Turfs plus chains are about a match for ag tires in snow and lots better on ice. I leave my chains on all winter. ....


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TURF VS R4 TIRES

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Mike S.
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Posts: 1
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1999-11-19          10258


My last 3 tractors were equipped with turf tires, so this time I ordered my 4400HST with R4's. During mowing my yard, they will leave a light impression of the bars if the ground is soft due to a recent rain--but this impression quickly disappears (usually over night). Due to the engineering problem JD has with the front axles, it is necessary to avoid sharper turns than half-way to steering lock to avoid tearing the grass out of the yard. If you check a series of recent posts on this forum, you will find numerous comments about tur turf-tearing and the R4's will tear the turf worse than turf tires. I chose the R4's as a compromise between turf tires and ag tires, but am not completely satisfied only due to the fact that the R4's ride so much rougher than turf tires for mowing. I was also surprised that one user indicated on this forum that the turf tires were better for snow blading since my past experience is that turf tires easily load up with snow rapidly if the snow was wet. The Goodyear turf tires loaded up much faster than the Titan turf tires which had a more aggressive tread. It was also my hope that R4's were better for loader work, but one posting on this forum mentioned that they were not and I have no experience here for comparison since my previous tractors did not have a FEL.
Mike S. ....


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TURF VS R4 TIRES

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bo
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Posts: 1
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1999-11-19          10260


roger- How do manage to put automotive snow chains on rear turf tires? Seems that they would be a tad bit small for rear turfs. ....


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Roger L.
Join Date: Jun 1999
Posts: 0
TractorPoint Premium Member -- 5 Tractors = Very Frequent Poster

1999-11-20          10266


Good question! Sometimes it requires splicing together a couple of sets of old car chains. The advantage is that car chains are made to have this done to them with hand tools and common parts....whereas tractor chains are not so easy.
Around here tire chains used to be common items. Car and truck had a set. Then 4wd got popular and now used automotive chains are cheap to free. I just buy a few sets, get a couple of pairs of pliers, plus some splicing links at the hardware store, jack up the rear of the tractor, and mix and match parts until the chains fit like second skins. In a couple of hours I've got them done. This used to be a common automotive experience for anyone living in cold climates. Chains usually needed to be fitted to a particular car tire. Rarely if ever did a set fit properly "out of the box". If one tried to use a set that was even slightly too loose, they would eat up the tire in short order on the highway.....and I'm keeping them on the tractor for the winter season! So what I am doing is just extending the automotive knowledge to the turf tires.
BTW, the small chains for the new small diameter imported car tires work great for chains on the front turf tires on compact tractor tractors. I made up a little set of these for the Yanmar and although dinky, they turn the front turfs into real snow-eaters..................Roger ....


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