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Front tires - tube type or tubeless

T

TomIn

Member
The front tires on my Ford 640 and Ford 961 are definitely showing their age. A couple of the wheels are also showing a fair
amount of rust and dents. I see that three rib tires are now offered in both tubeless and tube type. Are there any
advantages to going tubeless? Will both types work with my existing wheels or aftermarket wheels now being sold?
 
If rims are old, dents, and rusty, I would use tubes.
I have had a few rust holes in rims and they won't hold air.
Play it safe and use tubes.
 
Kind of a toss up. The new tubes are junk right out of the box or bag anymore and the tubeless tires will go to leaking through the sidewalls in a few short years from poor quality tires. This has been my experience the last several years now. I usually tube small tires and rear tractor tires the rest I suffer with the tubeless method.
 
I expect your existing rims are designed for tube use. The bead seating area of a tubeless rim has a different angle which better matches the tubeless tire beads. New tubeless tires may seal ok on your rims, but they could lose seating more easily when in a turn and hitting a rut or obstacle. This is definitely a case of YMMV.

I would repair, clean, and paint your existing rims (inside and out) regardless of the type of tire you decide to use. My choice is to use tubes in the new tires, whether I used tube or tubeless tires, in these cases. I use heavy duty tubes rated for bias and radial use, not the cheapest that can be found. A tire shop likely has good ones as they don't want comebacks.

This post was edited by Jim.ME on 03/02/2023 at 05:24 am.
 
I'm not a fan of tubeless on tractors or implements at all. New equipment comes that way, but it's a good bet you'll be putting tubes in them in five years.
 
Tubeless tires came out after your tractor was made for cars and years later implement rims for tubeless came out 20 years after your tractor was built so unless you put new rims on in the past few years your rims were not made for tubless and may even have the centers rivited in and those rivits were known to leak as they were not ment to hold air.
 
I don't know if the rims on a older tractor will work with tubeless tires. But one advantage is the ability to just plug a tire quick like and keep going. I had a tire on the front go flat on a tractor I needed and didn't want to take the time to break a tire down. So I put a plug in it and kept going and thought I'd just put a tube in it later. Never did put the tube in and never had a problem with the tire. Traded the tractor in a couple years later with the plug still in.
 
Vintage Ford front wheels are not designed to run tubeless tires. Tubeless wheels require a different shouldere where the tire bead meets the wheel and usually include a shoulder to help in keeping the tire on the wheel if run flat....on onroad vehicles anyway.
 
(quoted from post at 05:21:53 03/02/23) The front tires on my Ford 640 and Ford 961 are definitely showing their age. A couple of the wheels are also showing a fair
amount of rust and dents. I see that three rib tires are now offered in both tubeless and tube type. Are there any
advantages to going tubeless? Will both types work with my existing wheels or aftermarket wheels now being sold?
Click to expand...

Your tractor is of the age that unless the front rims have obviously been replaced in the last 30 years or so, that the rims are tube type, and won't seal without tubes UNLESS extreme measures are taken. That is, lots and lots of Permatex around the bead.

There is no law saying tubeless tires have to be mounted tubeless.
 
I've been running tubeless tires on rims that were designed for tube type tires way back in 1952. Its not a tractor but my 52 Mercury original wheels hold air just fine with the good second hand Cooper tubeless tires I installed.
On the tractors I have I think all have tubes in the front tires.
 
It sounds like most folks prefer the tube type. My tractors are about 100 miles away at my country place. I just called the only farm equipment tire dealer in the county. It appears that they only seem to deal with tube type tires in that size range. They seem to only sell Alliance Farmpro or Firestone Regency tires in the 6.00 x 16 size. The Firestone tires are about $20 more per tire. Does anyone have any experience with either tire?
 
Just about any tire I ever had a flat with the tire was beyond any pattchiong with plugs. On some might get by with a boot and tube but not even on road vehicals do a tire when getting a flat is repairable with a plug.
 
If the rim centers are riveted, I'd recommend tubes. I like tubeless if I can use them. If a tubeless tire gets a nail hole, you can air it up and it will get you somewhere. With a tube, it will leak much faster and probably won't hold enough to move it. But then with tubeless if you seldom use the tractor, the beads tend to start leaking. So in that case I'd use tubes. In small tubeless tires like on my mowers I've had good luck with green slime in the tires. Never had a flat with them.
 
I have tubeless on my Super A in front. I bought new rims for it off of yesterday's tractors and they worked well with tubeless tires. It's nice to be able to plug the tire and not have to patch a tube. Both tires have several plugs in them.
 
What are you doing with your tractors that you get punctures like that. From the first I can remember back in the mid 50's we never had a punture on any piece of farm machinery like that. If something went into the tire it either had to be booted or was junk.
 
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