RF14's: Let's find out.

Bob Thielman · Sep 3, 2020

After years of buying old Farmalls (Most I never paid for a tractor: $2000, for a C with a trip bucket.), I just finalized an order for an L2510. After hemming and hawing for a while, I settled on R14's. Mine will be the first non-B tractor the dealer - quite a large one - has sold with R14's. I've always had R1's, which have done OK getting firewood in the woods, pulling a ground-driven manure spreader, dragging stuff around, loader work, etc., and I was settled on R1's until I reflected on how they tear stuff up and how terrifying they are on anything icy. They're not much for lateral traction either on any surface, and no great shakes on packed snow. I hope to plow my drive with the newbie, so...

I'm having to buy spacers so I can fit whatever kind of chain I want down the line. The tires/wheels/spacers add just under $1000 to the price of the tractor, which doesn't seem too bad until I reflect that I once bought an entire running Farmall M for the same money. And I loved the way that thing lurched and clanked around the place. Oh well, I SUPPOSE I'll cultivate a fondness for HST whine.

I have had little luck finding user reviews/experience on these tires, so I'll post here once I get the machine and share just how they work for me. I'm sure they'll have less traction in the muck than R1's, but if it's not too bad, I'm hoping their other advantages will offset that. We'll see.

Oops: I see I'm shown owning a Kioti CK3510: not so. I had intended to buy one, but they have NO idea when they'll get more tractors, so off I went to the Kubota dealer (a MUCH more posh sort of establishment, by the way: Kioti was in a converted barn, and they do their mechanic work right out back, in the dirt. I kind of liked the Kioti dealership, to be honest. Very homey.).

Is see I added an F in the title to "R14." Well: no way to fix that.

jonsstihl · Sep 3, 2020

welcome to the forum.

I'm sure you will enjoy it.

Thomas · Sep 4, 2020

:welcome: to TBN Bob...enjoy.
Farmall H your going to like the recliner style type tractor of today with all it's goodies. :thumbsup:

nybirdman · Sep 4, 2020

I assume your new ride is 4WD;quite a jump up from the old ones.You may not need chains.

George the Beagle · Sep 4, 2020

I agree with the possibility of not needing chains. You're also going to love the power steering after using the Farmalls. Best of luck!

shovelmike · Sep 4, 2020

Welcome to the forum, Bob and congrats on the new tractor. I too was low budget regarding tractors for many years, bought my Ferguson 35 for $2,000, which sufficed for 40 years until I decided I needed a front end loader...then I dropped almost $16,000 for the Mahindra. I really like the HST for loader work, and the ease of having power steering is an eye opener.

ukwildcat87 · Sep 4, 2020

Good morning from KY, I have the R-14's and so far I like them. I have an RK55 tractor and have used the tractor in varying situations, except hard-core plowing type work. In woods, yard, and field I've been pleased. There are trade-offs, for example sharp turns in wet yard churn up the grass some, but they also offer solid traction in wet, tall, field grass, 4 wheel drive has to be engaged in some swampy areas, but that is not too surprising. Road performance is not too loud, like R1's probably would be. Overall, they were the right choice for me. Long-term tread life, of course remains to be seen.

Good Luck!

Mat4644 · Sep 4, 2020

Big difference between R14s. Look like they would be more prone to thorns and nails. Also looks like bias is more open between tread.

Bob Thielman · Sep 4, 2020

Mat4644 said:
Big difference between R14s. Look like they would be more prone to thorns and nails. Also looks like bias is more open between tread.

View attachment 668602

I wondered about that, though R1's are generally a lighter-built carcass than for example R4's. I'm HOPING the R14's are built on R4 carcasses, which would make sense from a manufacturing efficiency POV, becuase R4's are supposedly more puncture resistant than R1's. The R14's are heavier than R1's - more plies/more rubber, I'm pretty sure. I'll have to compare th weight of 15-19.5 R14's with the equivalent R4's and with the 11.2-24 R1's which were the original option, if the information is available, which I suspect it may not yet be.

I've actually never had a flat in a tractor (My Farmall 340 had some sort of slow leak, but life is too short to fuss with that sort of thing. I just blew a little air in there when I was in a conscientious state of mind, which fortunately I generally am.)

If I get any info on the weight of R4/R14's, I'll post it here. Maybe somebody knows whether they are on the same carcass or not.

Bob Thielman · Sep 4, 2020

nybirdman said:
I assume your new ride is 4WD;quite a jump up from the old ones.You may not need chains.

That would be nice. Even so, I don't mind paying for the spacers: width is stability, and now that I'm an old SOB, I actually think about safety from time to time.

Chains fore and aft would cost maybe $800 (or so: lots of options), and I'd love to save that dough. But I wonder about the ice. I live half way up a mountain (Northern New England), and my drive is often a sheet of ice, so I sort of like the idea of riding around on something spikey. In summer, I'll be using it to get firewood out of the woods, and chains might help there too. I really don't know: I've never had tractor chains before. We'll see.

Yep: it's 4wd. Never had that before on a tractor, or a diff lock either, come to think of it. I used to try braking the spinning wheel to get traction, but since Farmall brakes rarely if ever actually DO anything, that never really accomplished much, except if the brakes "worked" to set the tire which HAD traction spinning while the original spinner now just sat there doing nothing. I've tried deglazing those dinky little disks they have, buying new ones, adjusting everything. I kind of wonder if they EVER worked, even fresh from the factory. Going down something slippery with those brakes was an adventure. I would use engine braking with enough throttle that the rear wouldn't just slide. Stepping on the gas (well, moving the lever) to slow down that way was painfully counterintuitive. I remember once shutting off the motor, putting it in gear and using the clutch as a kind of reverse-action brake. I don't recall doing that a second time, so it probably didn't work very well. But I was younger and stupid enough then to make these workarounds work or to be pretty indifferent if they did not.

Bob Thielman · Sep 4, 2020

Yeah, I wondered about tread life. Those lugs look none too beefy. It's good to hear they do well in the woods: that was one reason I had originally intended to get R1's. The downside was that R1's can make you sit pretty high, so I reckon you lose a little stability that way. Do you use it in winter? How do they do on ice, packed snow - that sort of thing? Gotta be better than R1's on ice, I'm thinking, at least.

Bob Thielman · Sep 4, 2020

Well, 11.2-24 R1's are 100 lbs. 15-19.4 Ri4's are 91 lbs. 15-19.5 R4's are 110 lbs. (These may be loader tires with a higher ply rating.)

Looks like the R14's might be on a lighter carcass that R4's. Not sure what a comparison with R1's would mean, since they are a very different size. Different ply ratings would give different results, I'm sure.

What does it all mean? You tell me! Is "incommensurable" a word?

Aquabird · Sep 7, 2020

I asked my dealer before I bought my tractor if I could get R14s on my tractor and he said no. Not an option.
So, they ordered Turf Tires. So far I am happy with them. I had them on my last tractor and was happy with them.

LouNY · Sep 7, 2020

Bob you mentioned that your driveway gets iced up and has hill in it.
To me that means that chains will be required, nothing else works good on ice.
I would highly recommend the studded Euro style chain they are expensive but they do work better then any other type of chain I have used.

SDT · Sep 8, 2020

LouNY said:
Bob you mentioned that your driveway gets iced up and has hill in it.
To me that means that chains will be required, nothing else works good on ice.
I would highly recommend the studded Euro style chain they are expensive but they do work better then any other type of chain I have used.
View attachment 669012 View attachment 669013 View attachment 669014

The studded Euro style tire chains are, indeed, the cat's meow on ice but they will destroy asphalt and concrete.

SDT

LouNY · Sep 8, 2020

SDT said:
The studded Euro style tire chains are, indeed, the cat's meow on ice but they will destroy asphalt and concrete.

SDT

I have not found that to be the case,
mine and the ones on the farm see quite a bit of road use and we see none to very minimal damage,
the barn feeding tractor (Farmall 656) runs them all winter and goes thru the barn on concrete daily with no discernable damage.
They don't need to be spun if not spun they don't do damage.
The traction and ride behavior is so far past any 2 or 4 link cross chain type it is amazing,
the traction and ride over the dou pattern chains is 10 fold.

ovrszd · Sep 8, 2020

Welcome to TBN.

Looking forward to hearing your report regarding the R14s.

It's my assumption that they are an R1 carcass with tread pattern variation.