An Unusual Question

[trook]

Hey guys, don't give me too much grief, but I have an unusual question to ask: Driving on pavement vs hard ground with R1 tires with combined weight of 10k lbs of tractor, fel, implement and loaded tires.......how much more wear can one expect to occur when driving on pavement? This assumes that the distance will be the same on pavement vs normal / hard ground. 10%, 25%, 50%?

I am asking this question to help weigh options when considering driving on pavement for a total of 50 miles per month vs having to spend the time loading and unloading from a trailer several times during the same month. Also, if driving on pavement will not cause more wear on R1 tires than hard ground, I can use a larger equipment that may not fit on my trailer.

 

[sweettractors]

In my experience, driving on pavement vs driving on dirt wears the tires around 50% faster. Ken Sweet

 

[RaydaKub]

In my experience, driving on pavement vs driving on dirt wears the tires around 50% faster. Ken Sweet

I wouldn't doubt that a bit.
However, I would ask how many miles does the tractor drive in the field or gravel road in a year vs. those 50 miles? If you're farming even a quarter of land, how many miles do you drive back and forth to till, plant, cultivate, spray, harvest, and plow that quarter of land? I bet the miles would add up in a hurry. Would you even notice the 50 highway miles compared to that? And how many years would it take before the accumulated miles would hit your wallet? It might still be worth it.

Edit: OK, it was 50 miles a month. That could be more significant. Still something to consider though.

 

[DT86]

Double double.

 

[DT86]

I'm not sure how many road miles a month I do, probably not 50, maybe 35.


I do know with radial tires, front and rear, that there is zero noticeable wear on my REAR tires.


There is also zero noticeable wear on the FRONT tires during the summer, when there is rarely any extra weight on the loader. (As in only the empty bucket, hay spear or nothing at all.)

However, during the Winter and Spring things are different. I am carrying extra weight out front, such as rolls of hay or my grapple bucket, 99% of the time I am on the road. The accelerated wear from road miles with the added weight is quite obvious, especially to the out side 1/4 of the tires.

So percentages, I have no idea. I say with radials you won't notice any difference in wear between field and road use.

 

[trook]

I wouldn't doubt that a bit.
However, I would ask how many miles does the tractor drive in the field or gravel road in a year vs. those 50 miles? If you're farming even a quarter of land, how many miles do you drive back and forth to till, plant, cultivate, spray, harvest, and plow that quarter of land? I bet the miles would add up in a hurry. Would you even notice the 50 highway miles compared to that? And how many years would it take before the accumulated miles would hit your wallet? It might still be worth it.

That is what I am asking. 50 miles on the road vs 50 miles in a field. Or, for that matter, 500 miles on the road vs 500 miles in a field (with no weight on the front end other than a FEL). Will there be any appreciable difference in tire wear?

 

[RaydaKub]

That is what I am asking. 50 miles on the road vs 50 miles in a field. Or, for that matter, 500 miles on the road vs 500 miles in a field (with no weight on the front end other than a FEL). Will there be any appreciable difference in tire wear?

As the other guys noted, yes, it will wear faster. How many years does a tractor tire last in the field? Quite a few. If the 500 road miles cause it to wear down in 3 years vs 6 years, but you can do more work at the remote site because of bigger equipment and not wasting time loading, that might still be a good trade off.

 

[kevinwak]

On the farm when I grew up we had a few fields that were ten miles down pavement from home. The tire wear on these drives was significant. Our bigger farm tractors (200 HP+) would really show it. I have had no actual way to measure it, but I would say that a single trip up north would wear the tires more than the entire rest of the years field work ( cultivating 1000 acres three times a year)
Now there was no other reasonable way to transport a tractor and a 50' seed drill or cultivator than to just hop in the seat an drive it there.

Yes your tires will wear huge on the pavement, but it still might be the best option. Maybe ask around at the dealer or tire shop and find out what the price on a new set of tires is and that will help in determining the best option. It should be easy to calculate the cost of trailering, just take your trucks loaded mpg and divide that into the 50 miles per month. Multiply that by the cost of a gallon of fuel and you have a monthly cost to trailer. Then divide the cost of the new set of tires by the monthly fuel costs.

Sent from my iPhone using TractorByNet

 

[MHarryE]

I am with DT86. Radials are a major improvement over bias ply in regards to pavement wear. Due to vandalism our tractors o home every night. Our newer tractors are all radial equipped. They show no sign of the odd pavement wear pattern we get on the old bias ply tires. One thing - I don't measure lug height. If the bars are wearing down evenly I wouldn't notice it. Wat I notice on the bias tires is the height difference along the bar due to tread wear.

 

[Looking4new]

I heard somewhere that with a 4WD tractor if you put your front tires on backwards that they wont wear out as fast on pavement. I got my dealer to do that with my CK and so far I cant see much wear, but I only have 92 hours on it.