Toolcat Snow Blowing Tires

[Kurtis22]

Hello,

I just joined the Toolcat Club. Just purchased a 2010 toolcat and a 2410 quick attach snow blower with high flow. I am in the snow removal business and I take care of a couple town home associations and hoping this is my answer to less headaches. I am excited to use this machine.

I have found TBN very helpful on making my decision on purchasing the piece of Equipment.

My question is what should I do for tires? I think you can put light truck Snow tires of the standard 29" toolcat rims. If so what size and what load rating would be good enough to get the job done. Any info will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Kurtis

 

[toy1]

I have a 2011 toolcat with snow blower and I use turf tires, First and formost with the toolcat turf tires I can park it in my Garage I had a demo toolcat and it had r4 and it would not make in into the garage. Second I mow with the toolcat and it is ok on the turf, you have alot of weight in the toolcat design and it would be difficult to stop it in a snow storm.

 

[Spudgunner]

If you'll try the search function, you'll get a boatload of discussions about tires on a TC. Like you, I use my TC for commercial snow removal. We have a lot of hills in our sub and I used chained LT235-15 tires on trailer (6-hole) wheels. There are other possibilities as well, but this has worked very well for me. I have both a Bobcat 72" SB-200 blower and a Q-A 85" blower that I'm slowly adapting to the TC communication bus. If you've not yet wrung out the electrical compatibility issues between your Q-A blower and the TC's comm bus, it'd be good to check that out. There are a number of answers to that issue.

Hello,

I just joined the Toolcat Club. Just purchased a 2010 toolcat and a 2410 quick attach snow blower with high flow. I am in the snow removal business and I take care of a couple town home associations and hoping this is my answer to less headaches. I am excited to use this machine.

I have found TBN very helpful on making my decision on purchasing the piece of Equipment.

My question is what should I do for tires? I think you can put light truck Snow tires of the standard 29" toolcat rims. If so what size and what load rating would be good enough to get the job done. Any info will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Kurtis

 

[DEWFPO]

The standard tires are 27" with 29" optional. I don't find the R4 tires to be great in the snow on steep icy slopes. They may work in the flats but I wouldn't know that. I have a set of chains. I have also found that adding 500-800 lbs. of sand in the bed helps a lot with traction. The SB is very heavy.

DEWFPO

 

[Kurtis22]

Thanks Spudgunner, I did some more research and yes the 235 75r 15 are supposed to fit the standard rims. Didn't think of the trailer tire option and I might look into that before I put truck tires on the toolcat rims.

As for for your Q A blower -they sent my a 5 prong adapter wire that came with the blower- that runs into the cab, that controls the hand controller, which that controls the chute. I mounted the new controller right to the toolcats joystick with hose clamps. Drilled a hole in access plate on passenger side and ran the power wires right to starter. Is this the electrical compatibility issue your talking about? Thanks

 

[Spudgunner]

The electrical issue: Yes, that's what I'm referring to. Basically, bypassing the TC controls seems to be a common approach. On down the road, if the Q-A controller becomes a pain, you can mount a Bobcat blower controller(computer) out on your blower just like Bobcat does with theirs and use the stock chute control buttons on the console. The Q-A controller is nice in that it's very, very simple (at least if it's the same controller they've used for years).

Tires: I used six-hole trailers wheels...not tires. I snagged some LT235x15's off of craigs list. Trailer tires might work just great with chains. Seems to me the stock orange wheels are a bit too wide...but that's just my Mark III Eyeball Estimator and it is prone to error.

 

[Kurtis22]

Spud. Thanks for the info again. Very helpful! Tires-I am assuming you put the Light Truck tires on those trailer rims? hence the LT stands for Light Truck??? Right? Another question. Where did you get your tire chains and and what size would I need. I am defiantly going to use this approach over trying to put tires on the toolcat rims. Thanks again!

 

[Spudgunner]

Spud. Thanks for the info again. Very helpful! Tires-I am assuming you put the Light Truck tires on those trailer rims? hence the LT stands for Light Truck??? Right? Another question. Where did you get your tire chains and and what size would I need. I am defiantly going to use this approach over trying to put tires on the toolcat rims. Thanks again!

No problem..and yeah, the LT stands for Light Truck. Mine are six ply and they seem to do well. If I could find some 8 or 10 ply I'd be even more happy but it seems one has to go to 225x16 size before that happens. Since 16" trailer wheels are available this might be an option if you want a heavier sidewall. I've not tried the 16" tires...so I'm being a keyboard commando in that case rather than a real user. The 16" tires are also 29.5" tall, IIRC.

I got my tire chains from, believe it or don't, tirechain.com. I got the V-bar critters with the cam-locking tightener and they have done outstanding, IMO. I believe Timm9, a frequent poster to this forum, builds his own chains and really is a good chain resource. If you search on his name you'll find some stuff that might help you out. WRT to chains, I deflate my tires to around 10 PSI, apply the chains, tighten them up and then reflate to full rated pressure. Loose tire chains are a recipe for pain.

Edit to Add: With a Toolcat, make absolutely sure that any loose tire chain is very well secured so it won't fling around. Loose ends will spin around and tear the grease fittings off the upper control arms. Learned that one the hard way when I used plastic wire ties to secure the chain ends instead of metal lap links. Fortunately I only lost one zerk before stopping.

 

[Kurtis22]

No problem..and yeah, the LT stands for Light Truck. Mine are six ply and they seem to do well. If I could find some 8 or 10 ply I'd be even more happy but it seems one has to go to 225x16 size before that happens. Since 16" trailer wheels are available this might be an option if you want a heavier sidewall. I've not tried the 16" tires...so I'm being a keyboard commando in that case rather than a real user. The 16" tires are also 29.5" tall, IIRC.

I got my tire chains from, believe it or don't, tirechain.com. I got the V-bar critters with the cam-locking tightener and they have done outstanding, IMO. I believe Timm9, a frequent poster to this forum, builds his own chains and really is a good chain resource. If you search on his name you'll find some stuff that might help you out. WRT to chains, I deflate my tires to around 10 PSI, apply the chains, tighten them up and then reflate to full rated pressure. Loose tire chains are a recipe for pain.

Edit to Add: With a Toolcat, make absolutely sure that any loose tire chain is very well secured so it won't fling around. Loose ends will spin around and tear the grease fittings off the upper control arms. Learned that one the hard way when I used plastic wire ties to secure the chain ends instead of metal lap links. Fortunately I only lost one zerk before stopping.

More great info Spudgunner. I have another question for you about tires. I am learning, so please be kind. I have been shopping for rims.......Did you buy 15 X 6 inch rims or 15 X 7 inch rims. I know that the 225 tire size stands for Millimeter in width. But I am not a 100% sure that 225's will fit on a 6 inch rim. I think I need to go to tire school. Your response is greatly appreciated.

 

[Spudgunner]

Wheel width for my 235/75x15's is 6". The place I bought my wheels has a website...here's a link: Catalogs_trailer. If you go to the chapter on wheels you'll see what sort of selection exists. I got the white modulars for my TC and they've worked well.

Tirerack.com has quite a bit of tech info on tires such as this one about tire diameters:
Tire Tech Information - Diameter Comparison of Light Truck Tire Sizes. One nice thing about the 235/75x15's is that there seems to be a better selection of tires chains with better prices. It's a common size.

 

[SASKBOY]

View attachment 5610_a.bmp
Just put on a set of 2006 Toyota Tundra rims and Goodyear winter tires. 260/70R17 6 bolt Toyota truck tires are perfect fit. Picked mine up used with only one season on the rims and tires.
The traction on snow and ice is greatly improved and the 30" diameter does not cause any issues with the snow blower or the box blade. The increased height may be an issue for a bucket, as I have not tested that yet.

 

[foggyday]

I have had three series toolcats 2003, 2005 and now 2009 D model. I run turf tires all year round and put chains on mine, Never had a problem including going into ditches that were drifted even with road, By lifting the sb200 snowthrower up You had plenty of weight on the front. I added a 3 pt hitch * aftermarket* and now have snowblower up front and box blade rear. You could go thru the throulbe of getting snow tires but Standard bar tires work fine. IF you go the truck tire route get a heavy enough ply . regards

 

[Spudgunner]

I had an extra set of gnarly tires off my 2000 Tundra and I had excellent results with them over the past 6-9 months. I recently replaced them with chained LT235-75x15 tires that I use during the winter. That particular 6-hole bolt pattern is extremely common. The tires off my Tundra (Cooper Mud-Terrain, IIRC) worked much better than the stock R-whatever's that came with the machine (D-series).

 

[houstonscott]

Put tracks on it to plow snow. HS

 

[1965tontruck]

Put tracks on it to plow snow. HS

That is really nice. Where did you get the tracks?

 

[trlbrkr]

New sneakers, replaced my oem 29" that I run chains on front during ice winter like we have now. Bought 16" rims from a local rv dealer for $287- with tax but you can get them online for $225-
Amazon.com: JG 16x6 6/5.5 Silver Mod Trailer Wheel: Automotive
The tires are Hankook 225716 studded RW11 cost $790-
Tires are same size as oem so I can run my chains if needed.
With initial rim install hand screw lugs tight while lifting tire with bar to align on hub. Rims are thinner and center hole is larger than oem rim.
I am impressed with traction on ice and surprised at how much better machine rides even with 70 psi in tires.

 

[Tlysflys]

Very interesting. Is the tire size 225-70-16 or 225-75-16?

 

[trlbrkr]

225/75/16
Friend just sent link for reasonable cost $90- aluminum wheels that I would of considered
16" 6 on 5.5 Lug Aluminum Trailer Wheel #367655

 

[Spudgunner]

225/75/16
Friend just sent link for reasonable cost $90- aluminum wheels that I would of considered
16" 6 on 5.5 Lug Aluminum Trailer Wheel #367655

Nice!...but you can get the same thing in the steel version and save some coin. That's what I did and they work great. I will confess they don't look near as nice as the AL wheels, but there's practically no upkeep other than washing them off every year...or so...

 

[Tlysflys]

I got the rims but I am having trouble getting studded tires - how much do you think the studded add versus M&S winter tires?