RICHARD C. - Those Vredestein V61's do seem to appear more on green/yellow tractors than the yellow/white or red/white. Since all the garden tractor frt tires are imported anymore I sure wish they made a 4.00 X 8, I'd put them on my 70 & 72. Nice looking 140.
RICHARD P. - I was born & raised on a 160 acre grain hog & cattle farm in north-western IL, I also ran equipment for MANY of the neighbors.
I've put thousands of thousands of hours on full size ag tractors, as I've said many times here, My 1954 stage II Super H FARMALL and Dad's '51 FARMALL M are both out in the shop, had them both out Friday afternoon "Choring" with Son. I've had tractors axle deep in mud more than once. When the ground is dry it does not stick to the tires, when it gets damp like the bottom of a plow furrow it will stick a little, but when it's wet the WHOLE tire and if the tractor has duals even between the duals fills up completely with mud. Tractor tires like I said are NOT self-cleaning.
I also run Firestone Flotation 23 Deg. G-1 lugs on both the tractors I mow with, the 982 has Carlisle Multi-trac turf tires on the front and the 72 has the stock GY utility tires IH put on it in LVL back in 1968. If Vredstein made a 4.00 X 8 V61 I'd put those on both the 70 & 72 frt wheels but I'm afraid I'm going to put Deestones on.
There was a year or two when Dad was still farming the axle-mount duals got installed on the 450 FARMALL or the Super M-TA Farmall or the 4010 deare with the outside tires running backwards, and maybe a year when the furrow side dual was mounted backwards on the M to plow with, but normally they always got mounted properly.
The only other tread design ever used by ag tractor companies on a 2 WD steering axle was an R-3 tread design, diamond shaped knobs for tread, regular ag tires are R-1, and now R-1W, and cane & rice tires are called R-2-0, also R-4 is the endloader, grader, skid steer loader lugged tire. The R-3 also was referred to as an "All Non-Skid" tire, Allis Chalmers made a BIG 180 HP ag tractor, a 7080 I think the model was, and they offered an 18.4 x 16.1 frt tire that wasn't available as a three-rib tire so they used the R-3 tread design, seems like maybe White and Ford used them as well, I don't remember JD using them but maybe they were an option on a late 5020 or 6030. I know IHC didn't use them because I was the tire, wheel & rim BUYER for the FARMALL Plant from 1979 till 1981 and the biggest tire IH offered on a 2WD tractor was the 14L x 16.1 which was available as a three rib F-2 tread design. Just on tires alone I was responsible for $5 MILLION worth of inventory every MONTH, and that was in 1980 Dollars. I still have ALL My ag tire technical catalogs from GY, BFG, Firestone, & Armstrong, which were the FARMALL approved tire suppliers. I even have the IH OEM price lists dating back to the early 1970's.
So Yes, I think I have the experience to speak knowledgably about farm tractor tires.
Like Steve B. said, Mount Your tires any way You want, and I'll mount Mine according to my tech. books. Frankly, I've been running My 982 around my concrete driveway quite a bit the last 2-3 months and I'm amazed at how much my Firestone's have worn. I'd hate to think how fast a lugged steer tire would wear on a hard surface.
