any suggestions for better traction.

[brown1]

have a husky mz5225 that for the price I haven't been terribly impressed with. i have always lacked good traction. i put fluid in rear tires and am running minimum pressure. right now it is down due to a bad could and i borrowed my neighbor's simplicity zt and loved the traction it provides. my husky seems to leave marks at every turn where the neighbors was flawless. would getting bar tires help this? any other simple suggestions?

 

[Sawyer Rob]

Put tire chains and wheel weights on it...

SR

 

[brown1]

how about bar style tires or particularly at101's?

 

[Sysop]

If your mower is leaving bad tracks on turns as it is, bar tires are going to be worse. If you're not impressed with it, I don't think adding different tires or chains or any other traction aids are going to get you into the realm of pleasure you had with the neighbor's ZT... I'd sell it and replace it with something able to do the job to your expectations.

 

[gladehound]

Traction on any 2 wheel drive vehicle can be improved with appropriate ballast. ZTRs with little rear overhang and a seat that is mostly in front of the rear wheels have poor traction. I would suspect that your neighbors simplicity either has the seat or the engine or both more rearward compared to your ZTR and this is the reason it has better traction. A simple fix is to adding an appropriate amount of weight as low as possible and behind the rear wheels. What amount of weight is appropriate is something you will have to determine. Adding weight behind the rear wheels counterbalances the weight of the deck, frame, casters and your body weight, which is mostly in front of the rear tires. If your ZTR is balanced poorly to start with, a substantial amount of weight may be needed. However, too much weight will cause the front end to get light. It may not be practical to add as much weight as you need but it's a cheap thing to try if you have some exercise plates lying around. Try adding one 50 pound plate to the bottom of the frame as far back as possible, test and go from there.

If you do trade your machine... I haven't tried the simplicities. But Laser Z's after 2009 have great traction (they were good before 2009 also but even better after 2009)

 

[RalphVa]

Bar tires have no turning force and slip. My R4s are much worst about this than turfs I had on the previous tractor. R4s are tougher though, in keeping their air.

Ralph

 

[SPYDERLK]

Bar tires have no turning force and slip. My R4s are much worst about this than turfs I had on the previous tractor. R4s are tougher though, in keeping their air.

Ralph

R1s, a type of bar tread, have good turning traction, but disturb the ground in sharp turns.
larry

 

[DHD]

have a husky mz5225 that for the price I haven't been terribly impressed with. i have always lacked good traction. i put fluid in rear tires and am running minimum pressure. right now it is down due to a bad could and i borrowed my neighbor's simplicity zt and loved the traction it provides. my husky seems to leave marks at every turn where the neighbors was flawless. would getting bar tires help this? any other simple suggestions?

How big of an area are you mowing ?
Are you losing traction on sloped ground or wet areas ?
How steep (degrees) are your slopes ?

 

[brown1]

not sure degrees of grade but i do have a pond in front of my house that stays wetter than the rest. i like to mow this up and down the grade mostly for looks. i did notice the simplicity had the engine more rearward than mine. i am mowing 2ac+\-. i was aboe to put in about 2 gallons of washer fluid in each tires to add weight which helped a little. not sure if photos do any justice but i tried to attach a few to show what im dealing with.

 

[sixdogs]

If your mower is leaving bad tracks on turns as it is, bar tires are going to be worse. If you're not impressed with it, I don't think adding different tires or chains or any other traction aids are going to get you into the realm of pleasure you had with the neighbor's ZT... I'd sell it and replace it with something able to do the job to your expectations.

Great advice there to sell and replace with what you really want. It has taken me few decades to learn this but I used to struggle with things I bought that weren't what I wanted or were disappointing in performance. Then one day it happened.

I bought a XXX brand weedwacker and that POS just was hard starting and that's not what I thought I bought. It was a well regarded machine with good advertising and dealer comments but starting was not it's best point. After one day, I advertised it for a low price and when the guy came to look at it he had no problem with the starting issue. He was more interested in the good price. Off he went and the burden was lifted from my shoulder. I then bought a machine that started nearly always on the first pull and did a good job on the weeds.

There have been several things like this that I bought and quickly sold. Maybe this is too drastic for your issues but if at night when you are alone and thinking deep, if that machine is not what you want or want it to be, just replace it. The money spent in difference is soon forgotten. Just my personal opinion here.

 

[zzvyb6]

Your tires are too wide for your application. When you twist one on grass, sand or the driveway, you will see the torquing effect. Look for a narrower tire or even try a very HIGHER pressure which will push out the center of the tire and increase the peak contact patch force. This will reduce the lawn tearup while turning because the contact patch width is smaller.

A great experiment would be to try to swap your neighbor's tires and wheels on your machine and see if the improvement is tires or weight distribution. My JD has a traction assist involving the deck lift to put almost all the weight on the drive wheels. This works very well. It also has an electric pedal operated diff lock that I use all the time on my hills.

Ultimately its a tire size and tread pattern problem if the weight distribution is favorable. Try moving the seat all the way back onto the drive wheels, too. I bought a set of killer snow type tires for mine that I thought would help me with hill climbing but they were actually worse. Now I run a set of used turf treads that I got from a dealer's take-off supply. Lots of tiny little 'z' knobs closely spaced. No more problems, except that the high pressure makes the ride pretty lousy.

 

[brown1]

i may try and play with tire pressure, i am running very low pressure now thinking more surface area better traction but it makes sense that im actually decreasing PSI to the ground.