NW Hick |
11-07-2012 12:39 AM |
Tire Presure
Hi Paul, Mind if I give my opinion about tire pressure? Too late! : )
First, lets discuss "goals" which is usually traction. Yet when you put wide tires on a vehicle the width contributes to flotation...sorta. See, the wide tire will express the same amount of rubber onto the surface (lets say dry pavement for a second) as a narrow tire at the same tire pressue. People will tell ya to air down in muck to help float across the mud, which is fine if you can lighten up the whole vehicle. But really, ya can't....that thing weighs about 800 lbs dry and with your can on it maybe closer to 1000 lbs, so to lighten it enough to make it float you would need tires two feet wide at 5 lbs. Tires with low pressure are sloppy and those ag tires have "unique handling charactaristics".
So, you've tossed Floatation out the window, especailly with the wheel weights on it, so ya may as well air the thing up as far as you feel comfortable with. I've had twenty pounds in mine, tho it exceeds the reccomended. The tractor operates at 8.2 mph maximum, in the mud and snow, so I really don't spend any time worrying about overheating and blowing out the tires. Maybe that's just me, but I've done it with ag tires, weights, and chains, then cut trails for the quads to go fourwheeling on.
Finally, a guy said to me once "Why do I always get flats in the rain and never on a sunny day?" The answer is that "Water is a Rubber Lubricant!" So, a thorn that would have squished under a dry tire slides easily into a wet one. I wanted to fill my tires, but have done my last calcium job and didn't want to go the Windshield Washer Fluid route I have seen used. I had a flat one day and poured Green Goop...Slime...in there and it just works. One job this week is to go buy a bunch more and add a quart or two to each back tire, which will give me weighted tires with a safe product that also self-seals against leaks. You can find the Green Slime at Harbor Freight for about $10 a quart, I think. It works pretty good.
Again, my opinion, for all it is worth
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