Soil Type Right Tractor Tire

After posting below today I did some searching today and was really stunned at what I found. I found a lot of people talking about the type of soil you have and getting the right tire to match the soil type. WHAT kind of BS is this? I buy a tractor and now I have to get tires to match my ground? Dirt is dirt and it comes from the same place, Rock and organic material. Simple as that.

The hole point of a tractor tire is to get traction, Right? I read that tires made over seas are made for soils there and not hear and the ones from hear don't work over there? I really don't get it. Its like saying tires sold out in the South West wont work in New York.

All I know is there are Long Bar and Long Bar Short Bar, 23* 30* and 45* tires Bias and Raidial Power Tork, Supper Tork, Field and Road and on and on. You would think after 100 years they would have figured it out by now, But no its all in marketing now, And New and Improved and Better than so and so and Super Gum Dipped and on and on. I would think a tractor tire is made for Hard, Soft and Muddy conditions and still get good traction and clean itself and not ball up. Right? All I know is what I was taught, Soft ground wide tires with deep lugs or duals the same way, Pulling track old and hard and sharp. Tire pressure should be to ware the outside edge of the lug of the tire is just off the ground with a load on the tractor, So tire pressure can and will be changed according to need.

So what do you think about all this hype about rear tractor tires? Bandit

It's true. I like firestone tires and they pull the best where the soil is fairly loose. But where I'm at where it's hard clay and usually muddy they just fill up and you end up with slicks. When it's dry they will sit on top and leave rubber marks on the dirt. Goodyears are worse, at least the older ones. The older firestone field and roads were much better that the 23° radials. I see they are now making a version with narrower and wider spaced tread that might work. The old style armstrong/titans pulled real well too in the hard ground. The ones like yours with the fat bars in the middle would be mostly useless for hard pulling like plowing sod in our ground. However there is a price to pay, as said the thin, wider spacing of the bars means they wear faster on the road. If you get just a few miles from where I live and the 23° firestones pull the best.
I don't think the European tire thing is as much about traction as it is about clean out. I heard somewhere that over there there is a law that says tractor tires have to be clean within so many feet of leaving a field to keep the roads clean, so the tires are designed to clean out fast.

I think that if you are going to work the tire/tractor hard then tire choice is somewhat dependent on soil type, for example the Goodyear DT810 are a double short bar on either side of the center line, they wear very well and have good traction on dry sandy soils, but ask the to pull anything on a wet sticky surface and you will be stuck before you can sneeze...

Having said that, if you are not asking the tractor or tire to work to the maximum of its ability the your choice is not so important.

I think it's more about usage than soil type. Whether it's dry, wet, side hill, swamp, logging, hard surface, etc. Around here, Firestone is the favorite for pulling in the field. But I'm told Michelin is the tractor tire for longevity if you're going to wear it out on the road. I have some Europeanish style GoodYears, with an extra heavy center lug area, on my backhoe, which hold up well under all the weight.

YUUUUUP! I don't like mismatched tires, Just don't look right, No Sir it just don't look right at all. Bandit

I got to meet some swell fellows from Scotland last year at the Ferguson tractor show. We talked about tires and soil conditions that were different in Indiana compared to what Scotland has. Most of their plowing is done in wet soil while ours is usually done with dryer ground. They prefer 45 degree bar tires for better cleaning and better grip on side hills. I like the 23 degree Firestones, but they slide sideways on their wet ground faster than the 45 degree tires do. They were also teasing me that I paint my moldboard plow when done, but mine has to set outside. Just one or two rounds in my ground and it's scoured anyway. They always grease theirs as the wet ground won't remove the paint like the gravel/sandy ground I have does. Was a very interesting time of visiting, even though they did talk a bit funny....

I've seen some really useless tread types, like the wavy tread Firestones on Dad's old Allis. But mostly common sense makes the difference. if it's so wet that one tire vs. another makes the difference between getting stuck or not your ground is too wet to work and you are just compacting it. Just my opinion.

Jon...I agree....some soil types require certain tire design.
Here Cent. Wi...Clark CO. so a little West Cent.,Generally clay..clay loam soils 23 degree Firestones plug up in any little wet area when maybe 95% of the field is ready.

Best tires for me have been Armstrong/Titan 45degree tread [not long bar-short bar] And 7000 45 degree Firestones [discontinued]

Trying BKT 45 degree..... but not in service long enought to know how long they willlast. They do hook up and pull well in my dirt !!


John

One of the best old tires I can remember was a set dad had on an old MH 44 diesel, I think they were Firestone Super Torker tires. Those tires wound dig in and get traction like no other tire I ever seen. They would clean they self so easy even in mud. I fact I can remember only one time that tractor got stuck and had to be pulled out. Worst us the Firestone 151 field & road 23* tread that if they spun at all they turned to slicks and the tractor was stuck, But they were the best tires for the hay field as they didn't mark up the field or damage the hay.

I guess the worst thing for any tractor tire is speed on the road, I knew one old guy that none of his tractors were ever in road gear on the road, He just eased down the road. He use to say the road eat tires running fast and running them slower don't bother them. There must be something to it cause he never bought tires from being wore out just ruined by running over junk.

My dad always said that I was funny about tires, And I guess I am. On a 1 ton truck I want a good open hi-way tread on the front and the back get some good hi traction tires on it, Ware them down and make wagon tire out of them. On the farm a ton truck is useless to me with hi-way tread all the way around, They get stuck to easy. When I want to go I go any ware I want to go. I got these just before the snow flew last fall. Bandit

The ag engineering departments of some colleges have done studies on tires way back when I was in college.

Georgia did a study on tire size, diameter and width back then. They found that narrow, large diameter tires were better in light soils that wide tires with a smaller diameter. Conversely, the wider, smaller diameter tires worked better in heavy soils.

I don't remember seeing any tests on tread types, but those may have been done more recently.

I don't have enough experience to add a good opinion here, but I will say, these tires on my Ford 4400 are USELESS. They spin out on wet grass!!!! Not sure if it is just a backhoe thing, or what, but they are horrible.... Bryce

there is absolutely NO BS about it. You need to do some more research.

I think the one with traction on it works the best radials are definitely better for field work .