Larger tires on Craftsman GT5000

[John_Mc]

I just bought a 5 year old Craftsman garden tractor, a GT5000 (25 HP Kohler motor). The tires are significantly smaller on it than on my old Craftsman tractor. I'd like to bump up the tire size a bit to get more ground clearance.

What is on there now is 23 x 10.5-12 tires on the rear, and 16 x 6.50-8 on the front. It appears I have room to go up a size, though if I go up too much on the rear, I may have issues when I go to put the chains on in the winter.

Can anyone tell me what the next size up in tires are for both front and rear? Also, how much bigger are they in diameter?

Any downsides to this? I'm aware it will effect torque and speeds, but I don't think torque will be an issue. It seems to have plenty of power, and I've got 33 HP diesel CUT for the tougher jobs.

The other thing I'm wrestling with is tread style. I switched my old tractor to Ag style treads. This gave me just what I needed in the spring/summer/fall going up and down hills. In the winter, I still need chains. With the ag tires, the chains help, but don't work as well as they did on the turf tires (most of the chain falls down between the bars). I don't want to have to switch tires each season (if I had a spare set of rims, I'd consider it, but Sears pricing on the rims is a rip-off). Does anyone have good suggestions for good warm-weather traction, but still works well with chains in the winter? I'm not picky about how my lawn looks.

John Mc

 

[The Toolman]

I believe the next size up for them are 26's. That might be to tall to let the mower down as far as you might want it also.

 

[IH3444]

24x12x12 may work.

 

[The Toolman]

By the way, be sure an see if ya got enough clearance for bigger tires when the mower deck is in the lifted position. Mine only has about 1/4-3/8" clearance when it is up, so I can't go with bigger skins

 

[John_Mc]

In checking around on this, I saw that tire chains.com sells chains to fit a 24x10.50-12, so I guess someone makes that size tire. I'd be curious if they actually were 1" bigger diameter.

When I changed my old tractor from 24" turfs up to 26" ag-style, they were no where near 2" bigger. I did have to adjust the screws up front to get a bit more tire clearance (the screws that change the front-to-back mower deck leveling also have the effect of pulling the mower deck forward)

My mower deck is off now, so I can't check for mower deck clearance... too bad I didn't think to look at it to see before removing it a week or two ago. If anyone else has the same set-up, can you take a look for me? I have a GT5000 with a 54" mower deck (It's a 2004 model year, if that makes any difference)