790 Rear Wheel Spacing

[beartracks]

I'm looking at buying a 790, and like many, have been debating the R1 vs. R4 question (and don't want to necessarily start that debate again here).

I have 240 acres of mostly level terrain, primarily woodlands with about 4 miles of trails to mow. We currently have 6 food plots totalling about 2 acres. We also have a 22 acre hayfield, but a neighbor makes the hay for his beef cows, so I don't deal with that. Uses for my tractor include:

1. Rotary cutter for mowing the trails.
2. Tiller for working food plots.
3. Rear blade for grading 1 mile of gravel driveway which washes out nearly every time it rains. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, as it convinced the wife we NEED a tractor!

At this point, we have no plans for a loader (at least that's my current story).

So, two questions: How much can you widen the spacing on the Ag tires, as the 790 looked (and felt) a little narrow when I drove it at the dealership? And secondly, will the Ag tires churn up the gravel driveway if I'm tooling down the road to another area on the property? I have no "significant" side hills to work on, but like anywhere there's frost in the ground, it can be wet and muddy here in the spring.

Thanks,

Ed

 

[Nuru]

Don't you need the loader to move the rocks to replenish the rocks you will put on the driveway in the future to keep it from washing out?

 

[dirt ditch]

I just bought a new 790 with R4 tires and have put 9 hours on it this week. The operator's manual for the tractor did not say anything about widening the rear wheel spacing, but the operator's manual for the 300 loader said to invert the front wheels for a wider spacing. The dealer did that on mine so the valve stems are now on the inside. My 790 is very stable with wheel weights and ballast box, but I live in Kansas where what we call a hill everyone else calls a mound.

It would be a good idea to get a quote from the dealer with a loader. I was amazed that with the dealer discount the price was not that much higher with the loader than without.