Where do you buy tires? What brands to avoid.

[snowninja]

Just bought a set of camso sks 532's for my L3400. Local tire shop has a commercial/ag department.

 

[DaveDaw]

Not all Goodyear tires made in USA. The company also has plants in Canada, Germany, France, England, Poland, Luxembourg, Turkey, Brazil, Venezuela, Peru, Chile, Colombia, Thailand, Taiwan, China, Indonesia, India, Malaysia, South Africa, etc.

 

[charlessenf]

The fronts on my Kubota L4400 are worn out. Low hours on them but 20 years. They are R-1s. 8.00x16. Goodyear. I want to replace them.

Any ideas/advice much appreciated.

I bought my Kubota USED maybe 16 years ago. Four years or more back, I had to replace them (I don't think they 'failed' but one was cut and would require a tube - something like that). What drove me crazy was that the front tires that came with the (4wd) B7800 were heavy lugged and I could not find comparable replacements at any price.

The tires I settled on have done all right - the installation was less than perfect - don't think they cleaned the rims properly and one tire would lose air requiring three return visits. However, they look significantly less substantial than the tires they replaced.
I sold the old tires - fully disclosing the issue with a need for tubes) - and made someone happy.

Hate to admit it, I have no idea of the brand I bought or the place of manufacture.

 

[charlessenf]

Just bought a set of camso sks 532's for my L3400. Local tire shop has a commercial/ag department.

These:

Camso SKS 532 31/15.5--15​

Extreme Wheels
$9,999.00
⁦Camso SKS 532 31/15.5--15⁩
In stock online

Free delivery Jul 18 – 20

5-day returns

 

[sixdogs]

If one is only an occasional tire buyer, a search of the internet with the tire name and looking for complaints is worth it. You pretty much get what you pay for with ag tires. Be careful of some of the lesser known brands. There really are no "deals" when everything is considered.

 

[bequette1]

$394 is all I paid Les Schwab today for two front tires for my Kubota 3400. These 15" tires are a bit smaller than the 16" that you need. Don't know about the quality. They were identified as "Camso SKS", so probably Chinese, right? I was dreading taking off the original tires that had been on they tractor for 17 years, but an air wrench had the wheels off in a minute, then Les Schwab did the heavy lifting of getting the tires on the rims. This was a very rare experience when something was easier and cheaper than expected.

Edit: The tires were made in Sri Lanka.

 

[ttour]

The fronts on my Kubota L4400 are worn out. Low hours on them but 20 years. They are R-1s. 8.00x16. Goodyear. I want to replace them.

But where do you buy tractor tires? I have a dealership nearby who could do everything but I'm assuming that would be very expensive. Online it looks like shipping would be expensive.

On line, Goodyear R-1s in my size seem to run over $300 each. That's more than I'd prefer to spend.

I would assume I could do this work myself? I have easy access to tire pry bars etc. I use tubes on the front so setting the bead is no problem.

I've got amazon Prime and can get free shipping on what they offer but most of it is names I don't recognize and presumably from China.

A local auto tire place has replaced tubes for me in the past but I'm not sure they can get new tires for me. I can check of course.

Also, what brands to avoid. Carlisle which is now Carlstar or something like that pops up a lot. Not sure if they are Chinese or not. I see quite a few tires made in Mexico.

Any ideas/advice much appreciated.

I did a lot of research on tires for my motor home. I do expect someone to look for themselves but I found out ALL the major brands of truck( motorhom) tires are made in China. Brands like Goodyear, Michelin,Bridgestone,etc. are all made in China. You can make your own decision but you may already run Chinese tires. By the way I went with a Chinese brand saved $1200 and got a really smooth ride 4 years ago and they still look like new.

 

[DarkBlack]

I don't see how an out-of-spec front to rear ratio would have an effect when in two wheel drive. On my tractor the front is mechanically and completely uncoupled from the rear when in 2wd. Yes, everything forward of that spins but there is no tension from the rears to push or pull on the front system and the front diff is open as well.

Correct

 

[N80]

You’re willing to pay for the other junk you mentioned, but not spring a few dollars for tires?

I have no idea what you're talking about. I was trying to find a decent set of tires at a decent price. Is there something wrong with that?

 

[N80]

Go to your Kubota dealer. They had or have a tire replacement policy in place for my BX25 (16 years old). All 4 tires on rims cost me $500 Canadian +taxes. You got 20 years out of the old set why source elsewhere with little to no guarantee as to quality or longevity.

The place I bought my tractor from went out of business years ago.

 

[N80]

Anyway, the BKT tires look fine. Only time will tell how they will hold up. The local tire place only charged me $40 (total) to mount the new tires and tubes plus disposal of the old tires. So my total for the two tires is about $350 and they were not made in China.

My only regret is that I should have purchased the tires from this local tire shop. I just had no idea they did tractor tire work.

 

[N80]

About Amazon. People tend to think, for some reason, they are getting "great deals" there.

Reality is Amazon prices are very often no savings over local purchase. Sometimes quite a bit more.

It almost HAS to be that way. Look at what it costs to sell on Amazon. I found the cost to the seller runs about 10-15% of each sale. There was no way I could list products I once resold (from distributors) and make a profit. For most items, it was a net loss to me.

Another thing on Amazon is to dig a bit deeper as, often, their search engine seems to not show the best deals but present you with their choices. Varying the search terms a bit can be quite illuminating.

Amazon is getting REALLY bad about that and I hate them as a company. I do tend to research purchases and that is good advice. In this case this was the best deal I could find anywhere without doing physical leg work. Local tractor place would not return my calls.

 

[Flogger]

Good on your dealer, for helping out, and good on you for acknowledging them here.

As to antifreeze vs. propylene glycol, they may have just been responding to the fact that most antifreeze is ethylene glycol, not propylene glycol. Both are used, but PG is more often found in industrial applications, whereas I think EG is more often found in automotive applications.

Propylene glycol won't kill your dog.

 

[Flogger]

I buy local and online. I have a personal rule that if online is 20% less I start to shop there. I put a set of 38" Firestone R-1's on my 730 JD at a crusty old local dealer for a $700 bill. I pay him cash and he rewards me nicely. Not to many left like him.

 

[LoudonNH]

My tire man encouraged me to try CEAT tires, when I replaced the original Good Year radials on my 2016 5100M. The sidewalls on the Good Years were breaking down. It’s been a year and the CEATs are holding-up so far.

 

[319Quahog]

I've tried to find out where Carlisle tires are made. They have facilities in the US and China. One source said their Ag tires were made in the U.S. and most of the tires from their China facility were trailer tires. But that's all the info I could find.

Anecdotal and mostly for reference, the Carlisle All Trail tires I just put on my mower are USA made.

 

[Flogger]

Anecdotal and mostly for reference, the Carlisle All Trail tires I just put on my mower are USA made.

Same with the carlisle tires I just put on my drill.

 

[MF1045]

Not crazy about my last carlisle purchase. They changed their tires but call them the same thing. And many sellers are using the old product image so you don't get what you see. Here are my old vs new tires.
Both Carlisle farm specialist r1s. Both 8-16s. Both fully inflated. What gives?

 

[sixdogs]

Not crazy about my last carlisle purchase. They changed their tires but call them the same thing. And many sellers are using the old product image so you don't get what you see. Here are my old vs new tires.
Both Carlisle farm specialist r1s. Both 8-16s. Both fully inflated. What gives?
View attachment 1156088

That doesn't seem right to me and I've never seen that kind of difference. Something is not right. I would probably say something to the dealer.

 

[N80]

That's crazy. If you wanted a skinnier tire for some reason, fine. For all most all purposes I'd certainly prefer the original.