Archive through December 11, 2014

[dlbarnett]

Bob E. I do the same, replace the lug bolts with studs and lug nuts, makes it way easier to get loaded tires on and off.

With all this talk of tire chains let me throw this out for discussion. What give better traction in mud or dirt, turfs with chains or ags? the reason I ask is I currently am running turf/chain on the 123, I want to put ags on, but if the best traction is turf/chain, then I don't want to waste the money.

 

[vthomley]

Dog, its tough to beat chains in snow, ice, mud, anything. AGs are great, they look great, only real advantage of AGs would be the smooth ride.

I do the tire swap - Ags in the summer, fluid loaded turfs n chains in the winter.

 

[aschumacher]

Doug, I think past discussions have concluded that turfs and chains are the best combo. Ags let the chain drop between the lugs and fail to give full ground contact.

 

[dfrisk]

GERRY - 2005 to 2014 is nine years. You got me beat... only left the chains on three years so far. I did have chains on the 70 for 2-3 years when I was doing serious landscaping several years ago. Even loose, they increased traction enough that in a hard pull cutting several inches of fresh yellow clay I ripped the sidewall out of one of the 6-12 GY turf tires that were stock on older CC's. Sidewall buckled and just ripped about six inches. Tire was a little low on air pressure.

DOUG B. - For best traction in loose dirt and mud, the guys are correct, turfs and chains are better than ag lugs. Not by a whole lot, but switching from chains to lugs would be a step backwards.

 

[mhomrighausen]

NOW I <u>know</u> that I am an oddball. Even with the big Ag tires on a tractor I've never experienced any trouble mounting chains. Even my neighbor, Ian was amazed at how quickly I mounted a set on the 125 when we installed the snowthrower on it. No letting air out, no huffing and puffing. He watched and said that I made it look easy. It isn't that hard. Of course I had one excellent instructor many years ago. I learned to put chains on the cars by my Dad. I guess over fifty-five years experience helps.

 

[dlbarnett]

Thanks for the input on the tires. As cool as Ags look, I guess I'll stick with turf/chain combo.
I use this over at my cabin, not much grass to tear up. Mainly need all the traction I can get

 

[bwittman]

I have watched this discussion with interest as to how much weight is used, what chains are best, installation practices etc. The question that I have is: "How much weight and traction modification is enough, or maybe too much?"

It seems to me that fluid-filled tires, weight unknown; up to 75 pounds of weight per wheel and usually a two hundred plus pound wheel weight in the seat; along with the front weight of a blade or thrower would, at some point, become counter-productive for the power of our tractors to handle. At what point do our axles snap? At what point do the wheel seals fail? At what point does it becomes unnecessarily hard on drive shafts and flanges, hydro pumps, clutch assemblies, brakes, and the like?

I know our tractors are IH tough, but there must be a point of breaking, somewhere.

 

[digger]

There's no such thing as to much weight!

My old 1450 standby,
90 pound starter weights inside and 3 54 pounders on the outside for good measure,

 

[hydroharry]

Dennis - you know I did wonder about the chains not wearing out as quick if they had a little loseness in the cross links but the side links were tight. That might be a real key to getting the cross links to dig/bite in by having a little slipage in them but I think it's important the side links are tight so the chain doesn't slip out of position. The side links are really what's holding them on the tire. So, to update my position - nice and tight sidelinks with the cross link sections just having a little play.

 

[dlbarnett]

Brian W. Yes there is a limit to what these little tractors will take before breaking. But fortunately there are ways to beef them up
My 106 sgt tips the scales at 2000 lbs without me on it. I've broken two diff carriers and one axle, I upgraded to the dart carrier and axles, built dual disc clutch etc etc.
The 106 sgt is an extreme case of use, excavating means pushing the bucket into solid ground until you run out of traction or power, working the bucket to loosen the ground and push more.