Tire tread wear

I would like to drive my SH to a number of shows this summer that are relatively close to my home (10-30 mi) but I have brand new rubber all the way around and am concerned about some comments I've heard in the past about rapid tire wear when driving on blacktop. I'm more concerned about the rears. Anyone had experience in this area??

This summer I drove my just finished SMTA 20 miles round trip, 5 miles in a parade on brand new Firestone Field tires. All on blacktop. Didn't even wear the nubs off.

Gordo

Yeh dont worry about it you have to drive a long long way before you would notice any wear on those tires.

I wouldnt worry. My gpa Olson restored my 58 350 in 2000 and the tires are still like new.

Gauger: Tractors with no load behind them or no chloride will have very little wear. You start pulling heavy wagons you notice it quite quickly, especially if that blacktop has chip seal.

I think I was the one who made that comment. I farmed in an area where we had a lot of freezing rain, sleet, and slush. The motoring public demamded chip seal on top of our asphalt, and that would peel tread off tractor tires in a hurry.

Hi Gauger: Last year I drove almost 100 miles on highway trips and I was able to pick roads that had wide shoulders so could use that gravel. I felt a little safer staying just outside the white line. You'll be suprised just how dangerous traffic can be. I had cars and trucks pass by me with their right wheels on top of the right white line. ...so I drove my left wheel a little farther away when I saw them comming by. The sloppy drivers seem most often to be talking on cell phones... Too high air pressure may wear the center... check your thread contact. just my 2 cents as I am aware other drivers feel different about those dern slow farm tractors any where near the right of way..(hot topic)good luck. ag

Hi Gauger again: There was a farmer badly cripled while driving his big wheel tractor in his lane by a delivery truck who drove right into his left duels. Clear daytime road. So maybe mount a rear view mirror on your left side just for extra safety? Tractor driver might be taking the highest risk of injury in a crash. Best bet is to drive defensive all the way. Tire damage will be nothing compared to even a slight crash. ag

Hi Gauger again: There was a farmer badly cripled while driving his big wheel tractor in his lane by a delivery truck who drove right into his left duels. Clear daytime road. So maybe mount a rear view mirror on your left side just for extra safety? Tractor driver might be taking the highest risk of injury in a crash. Best bet is to drive defensive all the way. Tire wear will be nothing compared to even a slight crash. ag

Hi Gauger again: There was a farmer badly cripled while driving his big wheel tractor in his lane by a delivery truck who drove right into his left duels. Clear daytime road. So maybe mount a rear view mirror on your left side just for extra safety? Tractor driver might be taking the highest risk of injury in a crash. Best bet is to drive defensive all the way. Tire wear will be nothing compared to even a slight crash. ag

Just runnin' up the road empty isn't gonna hurt 'em much.

It's when ya get to draggin or carrin' a load and/or machinery that peels 'em off in a hurry.

Allan

Too high air pressure may wear the center... check your thread contact.

Click to expand...

Hmm, I was going to suggest just the opposite, that tread squirm was the source of most rapid wear. That for road use the tires should have more pressure to keep them from distorting and scuffing. Increasing the load without a corrsponding increase in pressure would make it worse.

I looked through some of my old reference material to see if the tire companies had anything to say on the subject. Found tables of weight capacity vs. pressure but nothing addressing different pessures for different surfaces. I guess in 1933 Firestone didn't worry a whole lot about driving farm tractors on pavement.

I always heard the more air pressure the less wear, but that doesnt make since to me.

Gauger: To give you some idea of the load factor. I once bought some hay out of the field about 15 miles from home. I went with Farmall 300, tires loaded and one set of wheel weights and two 20' wagons. We piled on 420 x 40 lb. bales. I had a long hill to climb on way home, road was chip sealed. Before I started up the hill, I debated with myself whether I should separate the wagons and climb the hill one at a time. In the end I decided the old 300 was up to the task. Once into the hill I couldn't quit. The tires were leaving tread marks, close to 3" wide, basically every tread that hit the road slipped 3". I started the hill in 3rd gear high on TA, never did shift
TA, but I can tell you that mile seemed to take forever. What I was seeing as I looked behind tires was little shavings of black rubber on the road. It left black tread marks that stayed there for weeks. That one trip did make a noticable difference on those tires, and most of it occured right on that hill.

Not many people saw that happen, I really never said much about it. I did hear some quite fantastic stories around the community speculating on how this might have happened.

Jim Becker: Good point to ponder. My thinking is that uniform lug contact all across the width of the tire as lugs contact the surface wounld distribute load uniform thru out the lug to the case and that would be less wear... But as I've found through life... a good sounding well thought out effort at using logic all too often is wrong... but I'll stay with this untill I see some test data.. Of course lug design most likely plays a big role. The old Army ww2 tire with a continious center rib may have been low road wear? ag
(hope I only get one post tonite unlike earlier in this topic)

Don't worry. I've driven to many shops and pulls the few years before I got a truck and trailer big enough to haul them. The one year I had over 100 miles racked up on my Farmall "M" between pulls, shows, and tractor runs. There is very little wear. Just a little bit on the back sides of the lugs. I normally run enough pressure to get the intire lug pretty making contack with the road. I know many pullers LOVE road worn tires. It actually makes them better. I've seen road worn tires sell for almost the price of new ones.

Jason: Road worn tires may be great for pulling, but they are not worth a tinker's damn in the field. And you are right road worn tires pull great on hard surface.