Will a tractor float with dual or triples?

JohnDeere2Cylinder · May 29, 2013

Will a tractor float with dual or triples? With today"s wide tires and no fluid in the tires, how deep a mud hole filled with water could a tractor drive before floating? You smart engineers must have a formula for the amount of weight a specific tire would float. For a parade once, I put triples (15.5 x 38) on back and floatation tires on my wide front. It felt like I could walk on water. Could I?

frrankmn · May 29, 2013

Water weighs 62.4 pounds/cubic foot If a tractor weighed 3000 pounds you would have to displace 3000 divided by 62.4 pound per cubic foot equals 48 cubic feet. You can find a chart that says how many gallons a tire holds. each cubic foot is about 7.5 gallons. From there a little simple arithmetic will get you how many tires you would need to displace the 48 cubic feet.

G1355 · May 29, 2013

I don't think it'd float, most triples are skinny, you'd have a better chance with the big metric duals, but they won't float, on our 435 case ih with wheels/duals, and our 9400t track John Deere, the Deere will go they way more mud,water, tracks won't sink near as bad as tires.

One tractor that looks like it would float is a eltoro 1950sOliver, but it wouldn't either, it'd sink. Here's a picture.

Hoofer B · May 29, 2013

or you could take your tractor in a puddle and try it.

Fordfarmer · May 29, 2013

I heard someone made a County - don't know if it was the 4 or 6 cylinder version - float once. Put four 23.1x26 tires on it, stripped as much weight off as possible, and put helium in the tires. Truth or just a story? I don't know...

gtractorfan · May 29, 2013

This reminds me of a Mythbusters episode. They wanted to know how many pounds it would take to pull 3 barrels underwater (55 gal I presume) as was shown in the Jaws movie. So they got three drums and hooked them to a cable and pulley with a scale attached. I think they found it took the same as the water weighs that the barrels hold.

rustyplow · May 29, 2013

I remember seeing that vidio on youtube. Just did a serch for it but no go. Bigfoot monster truck took a ride down the mighty miss, But I couldn't that one either.

Robert Major · May 29, 2013

Hi
County tractors based in England did this them selves, with an equal wheel tractor in the late 50"s, early 60"s I believe. They used wide tires, made flotation tanks in the rim dishes and on the rear and front end of tractor. They reversed the tires to get it to paddle as well.
Then drove the tractor from France to the U.K, across the English channel.
There is mention of a passing tractor in the light house log for that day apparently L.O.L.
There has been guys done it with duals on lakes with a county equal wheel too, they used to be county parts guys in the U.k. Adrian Tavenor is the name that rings a bell.
when it got to the U.K they hitched an implement on and worked a field. it ran a few mins then ran out of fuel.
Search County Sea Horse on a web browser. it will tell you all you need to know.
Regards Robert

Bill in Colo · May 29, 2013

I've a friend with a four wheeler with duals they use to cross a river with.

rustred · May 30, 2013

even if it did float it would do no good anyhow as 3/4 of the tractor would be under water. look at ships how much is under water when floating.

larryanderson · May 30, 2013

You see cars weighing 4000# being swept down raging rivers. The answer would be no as too much weight.With enough modifications anything is possible.

JohnDeere2Cylinder · May 30, 2013

Thanks for all the replies so far. I know big ships talk about displacement. The ship can float as much as the weight of the water it displaces. I was just wondering if anyone ever calculated the displacement of tractor tires. Thanks.

samn40 · May 30, 2013

This stunt was performed for charity on the river Bann here in Northern Ireland by the local Massey Dealer. It takes quite a bit to make them float
Sam

ericlb · May 30, 2013

depends on how much the tractor weighs, the only vehicle i have seen actually foat was when bob chandler drove one of the original; bigfoot trucks into the Mississippi river back in the late 70's, that thing did indeed float, but thats a highly modified truck, even back then, when i was young Volkswagen had a commercial out where one of their bugs was floating in a pool, we decided to try that with my buddies '62, ummm... dont know the particulars, but the 62 did not float, it cost over 1500 dollars in the late 60's to repair the car and i dont remember what to fix the pool it not only has to be drained and cleaned, but the car had broke some tiles on the edge and so forth too

samn40 · May 30, 2013

This is the County after crossing the English Channel from France to England. You will see it has a lot of tanks to help with buoyancy.
Sam

ericlb · May 30, 2013

should have mentioned, now you guys know that alcohol wasnt involved in any way on this decision to float the vw right?

Ken Macfarlane · May 30, 2013

Valtra make a floating tractor. I assume its for peat bog work. I think just big tires on it.

http://www.valtra.com/news/405.asp

JohnDeere2Cylinder · May 30, 2013

JD 730 w/Triples

RLA · May 30, 2013

I can't tell you that?? But my wife's uncle
built a skidder, army 4x4 with B52 Tires &
wheels, He called it the Swamp Fox, I KNOW it
will float.. & Drive over a lot of brush it
was the first BIG FOOT....

randallinMo · May 30, 2013

JohnDeere2Cylinder: Would you take $5 for that shirt??

RandyB(MI) · May 30, 2013

Here's what I know about "engineering". In order to float , the weight of the water it takes to fill all the tires must be more than the empty tractor weighs. In other words , a ship will float as long as it wieghs less than the amount of water it would take to fill it. If you fill a row boat 1/2 full it will still float. The bouyancy of the tires can only be known if the weight of the volume of water it takes to fill them is known.

mkirsch · May 30, 2013

(quoted from post at 04:23:48 05/30/13) This stunt was performed for charity on the river Bann here in Northern Ireland by the local Massey Dealer. It takes quite a bit to make them float

That one is practically walking across the surface of the water.

If you let the tractor settle into the water more, it can float on a lot less.

Will a tractor float with dual or triples?

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