Help me decide on R1 vs R4 tires for my first tractor

[friendlywithbears]

Hi there folks,

I'm in the process of purchasing my very first tractor and the only decision left to make is which tires will best fit my needs. I've read about a million threads on R1 vs R4 and it's obviously very situation-dependent, so I'm hoping you can help give me some insight for mine.

I'm on about 150 acres of adolescent forest land (cleared about 10 years ago, young trees, lots of old stumps, berms, and brush to cut trails in), and my location is the east side of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington. It's mostly level land with some gentle hilling throughout and some rough terrain from the previous logging.

My expectation is that work with the tractor will be a lot of general utility support for land clearing (moving me from A to B with saws/equipment), brush hogging, grapple work for moving slash and debris, gravel road maintenance, and FEL work like leveling areas of ground, moving/spreading/leveling gravel, and the odd stump or small boulder. Probably also some light digging and roughing in trails until I can purchase a mini-excavator as well.

The tires will be filled whichever I go with.

Please fill me with your infinite wisdom!

Thanks,
B.

 

[oosik]

My Kubota M6040 has R-1 tires. The rears are filled with 1550# of RimGuard. I need the added traction of R-1. I don't need the added strength of the R-4. My first tractor lasted 27 years with R-1's and they still had over 50% of the tread when I traded it in.

I do maintenance & plow snow on my mile long driveway. Use the grapple to move large rocks and chunks of pine logs - etc, etc.

My OEM R-1's are six ply. The only concern - my basaltic lava rocks DO take small chunks out of the chevrons on the tires. This would be no different or, perhaps, even worse if I had R-4's. This "chunking action" happens when I let the tires spin.

I'm 25 miles due SW of Spokane. Very near the old town of Amber.

By the way - welcome to TBN and the forum.

 

[k0ua]

It is an age old question, and you are not the first to ask it. Like every thing else it life it is a trade off. There is no question that R1 tires give more traction in almost all situations with the possible exception of operation on concrete or asphalt. R4's offer a bit more puncture resistance and overall ply strength and tear up ground a bit less than R1's.

I have run R4's on all of my tractors except the first one. HOWEVER there is now a new kid in town, that attempts to capitalize on the strengths of both types of tires. This is the R14 tire. You should check them out, perhaps they would be a good fit for you.

Titan International - R14T™ Crossover Tire for Compact Tractors

www.titan-intl.com

 

[jeff9366]

Here is the case for R1/ag tires:

1) Bar tires are designed for grip in mud. Grip well on wet flatland. Grip marginally better than R4s on side slopes. Standard R1 ag tires are 4-ply. R1/ag tires on a Grand L may be 6-ply ~~ I do not know, but Kubota does not skimp on Grand L components.

Here is the case for R4/industrial tires:

R4s are at least 6-ply. The front R4s on my L3560 came standard with 10-ply tires.

Six-ply tires are 50% stronger than 4-ply tires. R4s squat very little under heavy Loader loads, a time when R1/ag tire bulging sidewalls are vulnerable.

Tougher construction is good working around burn piles.

Both R1 and R4 rear wheels provided on Grand Ls have two part rimes, so both R1 and R4 rear wheels can be adjusted for rear wheel spread.

R4s are much smoother cruising at 12 - 18 mph on hard surface roads, relative to ag tires, which vibrate. R4s are much more wear resistant on hard surface roads, relative to ag tires. ( I wore out my original R4 front tires at 1,800 engine hours. Fronts, of course, revolve much faster than larger rear tires. At 1,800 engine hours R4 rear tires were 70%.)

 

[oosik]

The R-14's are so new - I didn't even think of them. If you are the "normal" homeowner you will, most likely, average around 100 hours of tractor use per year. I seriously doubt that in this use - you will ever wear out a set of tires - no matter which type you choose.

I seldom run my tractor on my lawns. It WILL leave chevron marks. So would R-4's. The way my tractor is set up in the picture above is it's normal operating configuration. It weighs - 10,100#.

 

[friendlywithbears]

My Kubota M6040 has R-1 tires. The rears are filled with 1550# of RimGuard. I need the added traction of R-1. I don't need the added strength of the R-4. My first tractor lasted 27 years with R-1's and they still had over 50% of the tread when I traded it in.

I do maintenance & plow snow on my mile long driveway. Use the grapple to move large rocks and chunks of pine logs - etc, etc.

My OEM R-1's are six ply. The only concern - my basaltic lava rocks DO take small chunks out of the chevrons on the tires. This would be no different or, perhaps, even worse if I had R-4's. This "chunking action" happens when I let the tires spin.

I'm 25 miles due SW of Spokane. Very near the old town of Amber.

By the way - welcome to TBN and the forum.

View attachment 702793

Thanks so much for the info. Beautiful set you have there, that looks like about exactly what I am planning to run on my tractor majority of the time. I like the looks of your grill guard especially.

My original thoughts were to lean toward the R1 like you, but of course the dealer questioned my decision very hard so I'm forced to dig into it more. They sell pretty much all their tractors with R4.

 

[jeff9366]

Messick's tractor, a firm with five stores in Pennsylvania, sells 90% of new tractors with R4/industrial tires. The remaining 10% is split between R1 and turf tires.

Where I live in north Florida the soil is sandy loam. We never have mud. Two hours after heavy rain there is no standing water. My local Kubota dealer sells at least 90% of new tractors with R4/industrial tires.

 

[friendlywithbears]

Here is the case for R1/ag tires:

1) Bar tires are designed for grip in mud. Grip well on wet flatland. Grip marginally better than R4s on side slopes. Standard R1 ag tires are 4-ply. R1/ag tires on a Grand L may be 6-ply ~~ I do not know, but Kubota does not skimp on Grand L components.

Here is the case for R4/industrial tires:

R4s are at least 6-ply. The front R4s on my L3560 came standard with 10-ply tires.

Six-ply tires are 50% stronger than 4-ply tires. R4s squat very little under heavy Loader loads, a time when R1/ag tire bulging sidewalls are vulnerable.

Tougher construction is good working around burn piles.

Both R1 and R4 rear wheels provided on Grand Ls have two part rimes, so both R1 and R4 rear wheels can be adjusted for rear wheel spread.

R4s are much smoother cruising at 12 - 18 mph on hard surface roads, relative to ag tires, which vibrate. R4s are much more wear resistant on hard surface roads, relative to ag tires. ( I wore out my original R4 front tires at 1,800 engine hours. Fronts, of course, revolve much faster than larger rear tires. At 1,800 engine hours R4 rear tires were 70%.)

Very good info, thanks so much. It looks like both R1 and R4 for the Grand L are 6 ply. I did have concerns that an R1 would limit FEL capacity but it sounds like with the higher ply this may not be the case?

I am expecting that I'll be splitting time pretty evenly between forest trail and gravel pack roads. Unfortunately I haven't spent time on the land during our rainy winters yet so it's hard to say how it drains and whether there's a lot of mud to deal with.

If I went by a lot of what I've read regarding R4 traction, it sounds like it's the end of the world as soon as you're in wet terrain of any kind.

 

[jeff9366]

If I went by a lot of what I've read regarding R4 traction, it sounds like it's the end of the world as soon as you're in wet terrain of any kind.

The tread on R4/industrial tires is about as aggressive as tread on heavy pickup truck road tires. Pretty grippy but not the paddle-wheel steamer penetration of R1/ag tires.

In my Florida conditions, different from your Olympic Penninsula conditions, I have never lacked tire traction due to moisture. We receive 45" of rain per year, mostly in concentrated periods.


It looks like both R1 and R4 for the Grand L are 6 ply. I did have concerns that an R1 would limit FEL capacity but it sounds like with the higher ply this may not be the case?

With supply chains as messed up as they are I expect you will not know for sure what is supplied with your tractor until the tractor arrives. Six ply fronts should be approximately the same in Loader support.

 

[friendlywithbears]

With supply chains as messed up as they are I expect you will not know for sure what is supplied with your tractor until the tractor arrives. Six ply fronts should be approximately the same in Loader support.

Don't I know it. I have about half a dozen pieces of equipment or tools on order, nobody is quite sure when if ever anything will become available. I'm just going ahead with a custom order for the tractor since they don't have anything coming in that's not already sold, so I can choose which tires it'll come with.

I do have a decent bit of marshland on the property with patches of standing water, at least this time of year.