[tom dooley]

Buying a 500 horsepower 4wd and was wondering what the best tire setup for mud was. Is bigger always better? eg. 900 duals vs 710, or triples
Also a brand preference for value, and tread life.

The tractor is pulling a vertical cultivator in wet clay.

Thanks

 

[cptusa]

Brand preference = not goodyear or titan.

 

[West Central]

Tire shops will tell you tripple 520s are better in mud than say 800 duals.

 

[Jason Hildebrand]

Trelleborg 900/60R42s or 900/60R38s, more traction than 800s or 520trips. That would be my ideal. My neighbours have 620trips on an STX, also quite impressive.

 

[offroadnt]

We have one with 900 duals, that sucker will float . I've never had to tow it filling sloughs, sometimes the scraper will drag it down and I have to unhook and hookup from a different angle but she will pull herself out of three foot mud holes. It works nice in different soil and load conditions. The only issue is the width, it's just over eighteen feet wide.

 

[Northern Farmer]

Usually each tire manufacturer depending on the tire size may have more then one tread design and for mud I'd say choose the tire that has the extra tall lugs and the bars are at more of a sloped back angle to the tire along with a fewer count of bars per side for a given tire size ( a Firestone 23 degree tire lug would NOT be a good choice for example ) . Think rice tire lug and spacing, then back off a bit from that concept.

Also the spacing between the tires, especially if really getting into the mud and sinking down some, its a given that too close a spacing will fill the gap with mud and then you have one big huge slick that is fairly useless.

 

[Flying 2 Farms]

I was just talking with a salesman yesterday from John deere dealership he says there is some new Michelin tires that are supposed to be real good they are designed to run lower pressure and still not damage side walls so you can get a larger footprint they also flex more to shed mud and have divets between lugs for shedding mud better we were talking 800's but I would defiantly do some research I think Firestone has some new tires out too.

 

[Don Boles]

I was just talking with a salesman yesterday from John deere dealership he says there is some new Michelin tires that are supposed to be real good they are designed to run lower pressure and still not damage side walls so you can get a larger footprint they also flex more to shed mud and have divets between lugs for shedding mud better we were talking 800's but I would defiantly do some research I think Firestone has some new tires out too.

I believe you are referring to IF "Increased Flexion" tires.
The allow 22% more load for the same pressure.

 

[SWMan]

I would agree with what Northern Farmer says here, you want your tire to clean well. A narrower tire will clean better than a wide one and from my experience this would put triples ahead of wide duals, just makes the machine wider on the road. Triples are the closest thing to tracks from what I have seen.

 

[durallymax]

I was just talking with a salesman yesterday from John deere dealership he says there is some new Michelin tires that are supposed to be real good they are designed to run lower pressure and still not damage side walls so you can get a larger footprint they also flex more to shed mud and have divets between lugs for shedding mud better we were talking 800's but I would defiantly do some research I think Firestone has some new tires out too.

The Axiobibs? Not very new, been out for quite awhile. Firestones equivelant is their AD2 series. Both tires are IF. Some of the AD2's are VF IIRC. For VF Michelin you need Xeobibs, but you wont find them on big tractors right now.

You want a steeper lug for cleanout so the 23* is once again not a good choice (really only a good choice for hard ground, otherwise has too many downsides). Treadwear is definatley poor with the 23*, it will wear longer than cheap tires but the last few sets of them we have had develop terribly uneven wear below half tread that leads to terrible loping. A couple lugs will be bald then the next will have 50% tread, then bald etc etc. The steeper Michelins work better. This is with a lot of road time though.


Best value in your situation would likely be Trelleborg. Most OEM's charge more for Michelin over Trelleborg but the performance is very close. Lots of happy Trelleborg owners.

 

[SouthernSK]

The Goodyear 520 46 inch diameter triple tires we have clean very well in the mud and almost never get plugged. The lugs are narrow, deeper, and seem to be spaced a little further apart.