Would larger tires help?

[newbury]

<snip>
I never intended to do row cropping when I bought this shiny red tractor. It was happily running my new chipper and even pulled the neighbor's broken disc harrow last year when he
came asking for help. The Massey felt like it was in its element pulling that disc, with a fairly loud diesel bark, well, I was in my element too, open cab, nice day.
Hot dry dusty day, use the cab tractor. But nice day, after a light rain, put the top down...an experience I am glad to pay a little to repeat as often as I can.<snip>

Drew, I'm sure many readers are thinking:

It's a beautiful day in this neighborhood,
A beautiful day for a neighbor,
Would you be mine? Could you be mine?

There are several threads on here about filling tires, reads like it's easy to do. Beet juice always sounded like a good filler in the south, but you have to grow and eat a ton of beets

 

[1stDeuce]

There is another factor which significantly affects traction, and may be worth a try, since it is free... Adjust your tire pressure.

Running the tires rock hard will limit their traction in soft surfaces, and cause them to dig more. With the weight you're adding, I really don't think you'll need to load he tires. If you have trouble with traction in the field, try reducing the tire pressure until you can see some deflection in the sidewall when you're pulling.

I have R4 tires on my MF, but the improvement in traction on soft surfaces is quite noticeable when I run lower tire pressure, vs. the the "suggested" pressure in the manual, which basically makes the tires rock hard. Lower pressure allows more lugs to contact the surface, which seems to provide more bite. Same theory as radial tires to some extent, but free...
Good luck!!

 

[daugen]

Harrow delivered this morning and within the hour I was in the dirt.
Traction limited, running in fourth speed low, could not always drop it all the way down.
I have ordered wheel weights for the rear. Wheel weights came in for the front, which were needed, popping wheelies today,
but not right ones.

I looked at the rear tires again. I can't go bigger, there is only one inch of clearance without bending the mud guards.
Time to add weight and try again. But sure had fun today

 

[jeff9366]

RE: Your photo.

The front gangs are the cutting gangs.

The rear gangs are for smoothing the output of the front gangs.

For majority of Disc Harrow tasks most would have rear gangs set two increments less aggressively than the front gangs.

Decreasing gang angles on the rear gangs relative to settings in photo will decrease draft force resisting the tractor about 15% and give you a smoother bed behind the implement.

If you are not cutting ground the way you want, shorten Top Link to shift more implement weight to the cutting gangs.

If you want ground behind implement a little smoother, lengthen top link to shift more implement weight to the rear, smoothing gangs or adjust rear gangs to less aggressive angles, or both.


http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/...ing-three-point-hitch-mounted.html?highlight=

 

[daugen]

thanks Jeff. This was a point of contention with myself and the salesman, first the unit was not easy to adjust, though no more than most, and second
I asked for the front to be most aggressive and the rear one setting less. Close to what you said. Had five feet of tall grass to cut through.
Normally one would either bush hog or plow. Neither was possible.
The thing was not easy to adjust due to paint (needs to be lubed) and frankly I was in a rush to go out and use it.
I think there are four settings for each set of gangs, maybe three. I'll adjust them properly before I go out again.
This would have been a lot easier with the Kubota frankly. All that shifting at end of many rows. No hydraulic top link for easy adjustment.

I may get a drag harrow to use after this disc. Today was severe duty; I did a part the farmer had already done, somewhat, and it performed beautifully
so I know the grass was causing problems in the other areas.

definitely need weight up front, too many wheelies.

 

[jeff9366]

I may get a drag harrow to use after this disc.

If you experiment with decreasing gang angles both front and rear on second pass you may find bed behind implement is ready for seeding. Gangs are easier to adjust one inch off the ground.

I lube frame with dry was lube from a spray container. Sometimes it helps to break dust/paint friction by encouraging first gang movement with a dead blow or rubber face mallet.

Every piece of ground and soil moisture content provides a unique experience.

 

[daugen]

There is another factor which significantly affects traction, and may be worth a try, since it is free... Adjust your tire pressure.

before I go out again, I'm going to check the air pressure and see if I can lower them. Lot of spinning tells me I need more grip and your idea sounds excellent.
And yes, it costs nothing...:thumbsup:

 

[daugen]

If you experiment with decreasing gang angles both front and rear on second pass you may find bed behind implement is ready for seeding. Gangs are easier to adjust one inch off the ground.

once all this grass is knocked down, my hopes were to put the fronts semi aggressive and the rears flat for smoothing.

 

[Gary Fowler]

If you cant do what you want with water and extra ballast, consider putting on dual rear tires. When you want traction and flotation with a 2 WD tractor, duals are the way to go. You wont need any wider tires either, just add another of the same size. It may cost more than just buying extra rim since you will also have to buy the spacer block to mount it.

I see that you said you couldn't go wider rim so duals would work fine for you if you have deep enough pockets to afford the cost of new tire, new rims and spacer block.

 

[jeff9366]

once all this grass is knocked down, my hopes were to put the fronts semi aggressive and the rears flat for smoothing.

If the rear gangs are adjusted flat, they will just roll over the ground without smoothing, in my experience.
You can try......your conditions are different from mine.