Mowing Tire Pressure for Mowing

[KennyG]

Up north here there is a slight possibility we may actually mow lawns someday, so I thought I would look for some suggestions on tire pressure for early (spongy ground) mowing.

I have a JD2320 with a 62D MMM and R4 tires. Will lowering tire pressure help reduce tracking in the early spring and how low should I go in the front/back tires? Any suggestions appreciated.

 

[Henri88]

Up north here there is a slight possibility we may actually mow lawns someday, so I thought I would look for some suggestions on tire pressure for early (spongy ground) mowing.

I have a JD2320 with a 62D MMM and R4 tires. Will lowering tire pressure help reduce tracking in the early spring and how low should I go in the front/back tires? Any suggestions appreciated.

Are they turf tires? If so I don't see any advantage to reducing air pressure in your tires.

 

[leonz]

Reducing tire pressure will not make difference, and will add to the wear of the differential as the tires will slip more than they should.

Reducing the tire pressure will also add more strain on the tire beads as well so its a non starter.


How far are you from Sebawang, Bay City or Ithaca?

 

[AKfish]

How low a tire pressure are you considering? I'd have to guess that your owner's manual recommends that you maintain the rears @ 12-16 psi. Fronts can be double that - especially with loader use and heavier loads.

Shouldn't have a problem with bead slippage unless the tire is basically flat...

As well, I wouldn't worry about increased wheel slippage affecting your differential - if your wheels are slipping AT ALL - you'll have to get off the lawn - PRONTO!

You'll have messed up turf; long before any differential problems - IMO.

It won't hurt anything to drop your tire pressures by 50% - if you're not loading the tractor - temporarily. You may just find that a little more "spongey flex" to those R4's will lessen the leftover tracks.

AKfish

 

[KennyG]

My owners manual isn't very helpful. The dealer delivered the tractor with about 20 psi rear, about 25 psi front and I've kind of left it there, but the tires seem a little hard. I know that large tractors with radials sometimes run pressures in the single digits to decrease compaction and increase traction.

I was thinking of dropping down to the 12 to 15 psi range (just for mowing in the spring) as long as the sidewalls didn't seem to be flexing too much. I got the tractor last June and I didn't have any noticeable lawn tracking but we didn't have any wet conditions after that.

I'm in the SW corner of MI, across the lake from Chicago.

 

[Villengineer]

R4's usually have very stiff sidewalls so I doubt lowering their pressure is going to do much.
I would think that getting all the extra weight you safetly can off the tractor would be more significant. ie drop the loader, wheel weights, etc that you don't need for stability.

 

[Reg]

Lowering the tires' internal pressure will increase the area, thus lowering the ground pressure - but R4s still have a fairly low rubber:gap ratio on the ground, so they will still PRINT a good pattern on "lawns".
One thing worth remembering about R4s is that you TYPICALLY run a higher pressure in the fronts than the rears.
I know, this is mostly about loader work and the loader is most of the rationale for R4s anyway, but I have done a bit of rollering/packing with tractor tires and front R4s seem to press deeper than loaded rears - so at least take the loader off for wet mowing.

I am seeing some green stuff starting to infest my yard again.
I could go out and mow it while the ground is still wet and if I do it with the tractor that has loaded R4s on maybe I can kill off some of its surface roots, but it will come back in a month.
I'm changing that tractor to turfs this week, so maybe I'll leave it for a dryer day.

 

[Henri88]

My owners manual isn't very helpful. The dealer delivered the tractor with about 20 psi rear, about 25 psi front and I've kind of left it there, but the tires seem a little hard. I know that large tractors with radials sometimes run pressures in the single digits to decrease compaction and increase traction.

I was thinking of dropping down to the 12 to 15 psi range (just for mowing in the spring) as long as the sidewalls didn't seem to be flexing too much. I got the tractor last June and I didn't have any noticeable lawn tracking but we didn't have any wet conditions after that.

I'm in the SW corner of MI, across the lake from Chicago.

If I remember right, the recommended pressure for the 2305 in the manual is 20psi rear and 22 front.

Sorry KennyG, just remember you have a 2320, not 2305.

 

[prosperity]

Since I went from mowing with a 757 to my 2520 with R4's last season, I'm on a mission to get a better ride while mowing.

I'm going to try the 50% reduction of tire pressures.

My manual states max pressures (R4):

Front 35psi
Rear 30psi

So I'll try 18 in the front and 15 in the rear. Also, my rears are loaded.

I'm not real confident that it will make a huge difference being the R4's have such stiff sidewalls, but going to give it a try.

 

[megotatractor]

LOL, will it EVER warm up??? I don't see any advantage to lowering the air pressure on the R-4's. PSI between tire and ground shouldn't change much. If like my unit equiped with HDAP tires then yes lowering the tire pressure increases the "footprint" due to the round shoulders of these tires. -In fact if I lower the air pressure too much on the fronts I can actually have some trouble turning the steering wheel. Generally I only reduce air pressure to improve the ride when the ground gets hard, in the spring when the ground is soft I go with my snow-plowin pressure, which is the max rated for the tires. I'm afraid rutting the yard is part of owning a heavy duty machine.

 

[Reg]

Since I went from mowing with a 757 to my 2520 with R4's last season, I'm on a mission to get a better ride while mowing.

I'm going to try the 50% reduction of tire pressures.

My manual states max pressures (R4):

Front 35psi
Rear 30psi

So I'll try 18 in the front and 15 in the rear. Also, my rears are loaded.

I'm not real confident that it will make a huge difference being the R4's have such stiff sidewalls, but going to give it a try.

The downside risk of course is that you roll a tire off a rim, which could be very sudden and BAD especially if it is the down side front when you're on a side slope.

I doubt that 18 or even 15 would be an issue though - - Please report back, as soon as you reasonably can.
If we don't hear from you again I shall assume the worst.

 

[prosperity]

I'll be setting the tractor up for mowing today including setting the tire pressure - looks like I will be doing my first mowing this Thursday.

Will report back after this weeks trial.

 

[KennyG]

I just checked my tire pressure (first time since it came back from the dealer after the 50 hour service). The fronts were at 25 and the back tires were at 35 psi! No wonder it felt stiff. I'm going to try about 15 rear and 20 front and see how it feels on the grass.

No rush about it though. It snowed this weekend. :laughing:

 

[prosperity]

Well, I kind of chickened out for the time being.....

I'm embarrassed to say that this is the first time I've checked the tire pressure on my tractor in the 4+ years I've had it. This is odd because I've been through a couple zero-turns, and the first thing I do with them is get my tire pressure where I want it.

Anyway, I have:

24psi front
18psi rear

The max in the manual is:

35psi front
30psi rear

I was going to go for 50% of the max. My rears are almost there @ 18psi, and since there are loaded I don't want to mess with them.

For the fronts - I do a mix of mowing and loader work in the summer. For what loader work I do I've never had my front tires sag the slightest bit. If I lower the front pressure, I would have to be airing them back up every time I use the loader.

So....I'll live with as I have. Now I'm trying to justify the price of that Michigan seat!