Tires Thorn trees and Tires?

[willy1947]

How well do the R4 tires hold up to thorn trees?

A friend on mine has a Ford 3000 (2wd, Gas) and just put new tires on the front of his tractor. Both tires were flat after one day because of thorn trees. He had them filled with foam and they've been fine since.

I'll soon be purchasing my tractor and I am wondering what I should do. It will be a Kubota L3830, w/FEL, R4 tires, and will be 4wd. I plan on having fluid put in the rear tires and don't know what to do about the front ones. Should I have foam put in them, fluid, or nothing? Should I even have some in them with the FEL?

My thorn tree problem is very mild right now, but the potential is there for issues.

Thanks,
Dave

 

[Moon]

I have a Kubota Grand L3010 w/ R4's. I also have the dreaded thorn trees w/ 2 & 3" thorns. I've pushed over a half dozen of em & cleaned up with the FEL & bush hog. I was worried about a flat, but didn't get one. I have nothing but air in my front tires, rears are loaded. Maybe I've been lucky, but so far these R4's have stood up to the thorns and mucho multi florra bushes that I"ve been bush hoggin.

Moon of Ohio

 

[Henro]

I would try them with air-only first and see what happens.

The fronts are small enough that you can handle them by yourself if you want to fill them later, after you get a puncture. In my case I flatted on broken glass within hours of getting my tractor, so I had my front tires foam filled. The foam makes them a lot heavier, but still manageable.

There are different ply ratings on R4 tires. I think mine are only 4 ply on my B2910. I have heard of some other tractors having 8 and maybe even 12 ply R4 tires. More plys probably makes for a more puncture resistant tire.

 

[Bob_Skurka]

I have something close to a natural thorn orchard in my valley. There are literally about a 100 native Hawthorn trees down there and the thorns can easily exceed 1.5" on the mature branches.

My Cub Cadet has foam filled rear tires because they have been popped so many times! The front tires have each been repaired probably only 2 or 3 times in ten years, but the rears seem to attract the thorns and often resemble a porcupine.

My newest additon is a Ventrac with wide garden tractor type tires, as of 4 mowings, they are still air filled. I think the front mounted deck might be cutting up and discharging the thorns to the side? To be honest, I think I have just been lucky so far. My guess is that those tires will end up foam filled sometime in the near future becuase that tractor is used to get up-close-and-personal to the trunks of those thorn trees.

The NH and Kubota both have R-4 tires, both have worked pretty extensively in and around the Hawthorn trees, neither has ever had a problem picking up thorns let alone getting a tire popped by one. I did get a leak in one of the Kubota tires about a month ago, it was due to the fact that I tore the valve stem. From what I can see, the R-4 tires are pretty rugged.

 

[TBAR]

We have Honey Locust and Mesquite Trees that we have to deal with.

I mow them down every 2-3 years then go take the tires to the shop to have 20-30 thorns pulled and new tubes put in.

Foam filling is the way to go but it can be a little pricy.


TBAR

 

[rdbrumfield]

I was doing a mowing contract and it had several acres of hawthorns. The flats were killing me and then cutting them down and sending them through my chipper was getting me into the red with labor. What I came up with is a set of tracks that I put on each tire. They gave me invincibility against flats and the traction in soft areas is incredible. They are easy to build and only takes an hour of so to put on. The tires keep from getting ripped up too. I don't use fluid in my back tires as I have 4wd.

 

[Bob_Skurka]

TBAR . . . foam fill is not cheap to do, but over the long run I think it is cheaper than paying multiple repairs.

By the way, we have honey locust too, but those are all located in our woods in places I don't really take the tractors into. We keep mowing the edge of the woods to prevent them the locust trees from sneaking out into the grass areas. Mowing also seems to keep the raspberry thickets back the woods too.

 

[EastTexFrank]

We have honey locust trees at the farm and in the pasture at the house. Last year at the farm I had over a dozen flats caused by thorns, all except one in the front. I've also had flats on the R4's on the B2400 at the house. The fronts are small enough that you can handle by yourself but you don't want to be getting a puncture in a liquid filled rear tire ... believe me. Changing that will make an old man of you in a hurry. Around here all the ag tire places have stopped coming out to your place to fix flats because of insurance reasons and you have to get the tire to them for fixing.

You really only have 3 choices. Either leave them air filled and live with the flats, fill them with slime (that helps some but is not a cure all) or get them foam filled. I've tried the first two and I'll probably try to have the fronts on the farm tractors foam filled this year. I have seen guys out in New Mexico who run over thorn bushes for a living use 10-ply and 12-ply tires on their trucks and they say they have little problem with flats but they do ride rough.

Has anyone found a good way to get rid of those darn thorn trees? Mowing them doesn't work because the thorns lay in wait for you for years and it just causes them to spread. I've tried spraying to kill them and then cutting/digging them out but that is costly, time consuming, laborious and downright dangerous. There has to be a better way!!!!!

 

[willy1947]

I would love to know how they spread. I don't have many, but I don't want them multiplying /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif I did notice a beaver has taken quite a chunk out of one of the larger ones. Now if I can just train the rest of them to do the same, I'm set /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

I have thought about cutting around the larger ones in the woods and just leave them standing. They won't fall for a few years. Then I can deal with them. The ones in the field I can just dig, spray, and or burn them out.

thanks,
Dave

 

[slowrev]

Not sure about the R4 rear tires, but for my 2WD IH I have a set of steel belted radial truck tires mounted on a spare set for rims for the front that I use when in thorny sutuations. Plugs work fine on them for any holes that might puncture them, but not many do. The 3 rib front tires I refer to as baloons.