r4 vs r14 (versa turf) tires

[walhondingnashua]

I have not been overly thrilled with the r4 tires on my little massey. They have been serviceable in the yard. I've drug some good size logs with it, but the ground was very dry. Is its damp at all, I struggle to get around on my trails pulling nothing. Everything I read says they're not good for much other than durability. Going to need to plow show this this winter also.
Strongly considering the r14s or versa turf tires. Anyone with experience? I'm sure they will be better in the woods and the snow, but I am cocerned they will tear up my yard mowing. Many reviews have been mixed on that.
Thanks in advance.

 

[hedge wood]

We are mostly farmers here so if you want traction R-1's is the way to go. Not good on the yard for mowing. I have had two mid sized tractors with R-4's no problem getting around. I currently have a Kubota MX6000 with R-4's and a buddy has a MX6000 with the R-14's on it and I see no difference in them getting around. They both need a set of chains on the front when its icy pushing snow. I think the Versa turf would be great for mowing the yard but wouldn't hold up to the beating the pasture and timber gives my R-4's.

 

[ericm979]

If you haven't already you can try lower tire pressures. I run about 15 psi in the R4s on my Branson. It could go lower. Adding weight either by filling the tires or with solid weights will help. I have Rimguard in the Branson. This tractor has much better traction than my previous Kubota that had R1s but weighed much less.

 

[Ashful]

I tried R4's... twice. Didn't like either brand I tried, on either machine I had them on. The traction for plowing snow on asphalt was no better than R3's, if anything worse. They're also hell on a nice yard, if that matters to you.

I actually have come back to putting R3's on my Deere 3033R right now, as most of its use is on lawn or asphalt. I keep a set of chains around for when I need to go into serious mud or deep snow without a plow, but really end up needing them less than once per year.

I avoid the trails when it's soupy, not because I'm afraid of getting stuck, but because I want to avoid time repairing them later. I can wait until it's dry (July - September) or frozen (January - March) to do anything required, in the woods.

The only down-side I've found with R3's, for my own use, is the availability of heavy-duty fronts in R3 tread. No running 4-ply rating junk with a heavy front-end loader, and the higher ply counts are less common in R3 front sizes, versus R4.

 

[duramaxman05]

I tried R4's... twice. Didn't like either brand I tried, on either machine I had them on. The traction for plowing snow on asphalt was no better than R3's, if anything worse. They're also hell on a nice yard, if that matters to you.

I actually have come back to putting R3's on my Deere 3033R right now, as most of its use is on lawn or asphalt. I keep a set of chains around for when I need to go into serious mud or deep snow without a plow, but really end up needing them less than once per year.

I avoid the trails when it's soupy, not because I'm afraid of getting stuck, but because I want to avoid time repairing them later. I can wait until it's dry (July - September) or frozen (January - March) to do anything required, in the woods.

The only down-side I've found with R3's, for my own use, is the availability of heavy-duty fronts in R3 tread. No running 4-ply rating junk with a heavy front-end loader, and the higher ply counts are less common in R3 front sizes, versus R4.

View attachment 298709 not to interrupt this thread, how are you getting along with your 3033r?

 

[Ashful]

View attachment 298709 not to interrupt this thread, how are you getting along with your 3033r?

Loving it. You might remember I had one issue with it when it was only a few weeks/months old, a blown seal due to an assembly error in the transmission, but it's been flawless since. Added a hydraulic top link, a 50A electrical connector under the grill to plug the electric start for my log splitter (or a few other accessories I own) into it, and had the rear tires filled with beat juice. Other than that, it's just changing fluids and filters, once per year.

You?

 

[duramaxman05]

Love it. I do have some concerns with it that the dealer is gonna check out. A couple times I was using I couldn't hardly steer it. With and with out a load on the loader. If you have something fairly heavy on the fork and try to curl it back, it wants to tilt foreward, hydraulics seem kind of noisy and it's not the hydrosat. And what's up with the loose loader joystick? Lol. I expected a little better out of deere on that. I absolutely love the tractor. It's smooth and comfortable.

 

[Ashful]

That's weird. Haven't seen that out of mine. Do you mean front or rear forks? Think it's a mechanical linkage problem in your control levers, air in the system, or something interrupting the pump suction?

My joystick has relatively little play, given the crazy long arm they put on the thing, although I actually like the joystick setup on the 2-series better. Then again, I've owned much worse, including my prior Deere. Multi-function joysticks usually end up wobbly, even if they started life tight, and I only have a few hundred hours on this machine so far.

My only real gripe with the machine, other than having the worst loader visibility of any tractor I've ever owned, is that re-installing the loader doesn't go flawlessly every time. There's a little bar that hangs off the kickstand, and is supposed to swing to catch the weight bar on the front of the tractor, and maybe 20% of the time it fails to do that, and properly engage. When I curse at the stupid thing for not working right, I have to remember how much more difficult my past machines were, with respect to loader removal/installation.

 

[walhondingnashua]

Chains have been something I considered but I park the tractor in my garage and drive it over my concrete every time I use it. Chains would be pretty rough on that surface. The rubber strip type chains seem like a good idea but are a little more pricy. If I could get something out of the r4's I have and get a new set of r14's, it would be more worth the money to me to not have to mess with the cahins.

 

[duramaxman05]

That's weird. Haven't seen that out of mine. Do you mean front or rear forks? Think it's a mechanical linkage problem in your control levers, air in the system, or something interrupting the pump suction?

My joystick has relatively little play, given the crazy long arm they put on the thing, although I actually like the joystick setup on the 2-series better. Then again, I've owned much worse, including my prior Deere. Multi-function joysticks usually end up wobbly, even if they started life tight, and I only have a few hundred hours on this machine so far.

My only real gripe with the machine, other than having the worst loader visibility of any tractor I've ever owned, is that re-installing the loader doesn't go flawlessly every time. There's a little bar that hangs off the kickstand, and is supposed to swing to catch the weight bar on the front of the tractor, and maybe 20% of the time it fails to do that, and properly engage. When I curse at the stupid thing for not working right, I have to remember how much more difficult my past machines were, with respect to loader removal/installation.

It's still under warranty so they are going to check it out. Yes the visibility for loader is pretty bad. The hood is wide. I haven't taken the loader off yet. It's the forks on the loader that that tilt foreward when trying to tilt back when something is fairly heavy. One more gripe, lol, a cast aluminum rear end? Come on man.

 

[Ashful]

Inviting @Bad LP to the thread, as he put Nokian R14's on his Deere 4720 last year, and likely has some good feedback on them by now.

But to answer your prior post, the chains won't damage concrete or asphalt, unless you go with aggressive cleat types. But heavy-duty chains for 40 - 50 inch tires are enormously heavy, and totally ruin your day each time you have to get them on and off the machine, especially in the snow. Like I said, with turfs on a 4wd machine of this size and weight, I really almost never need the chains, the exceptions being:

1. If I am going to pull my 5000 lb. wood wagon thru deep snow in the yard, I will chain up. I don't need chains to drive the tractor thru deep snow, only when pulling a trailer.

2. If I am going into known soupy conditions, and I really don't want to have to push myself back out with the loader bucket (or if I'm sans-loader).

For regular snow plowing, I find the turf tires actually have BETTER traction on clean asphalt behind a plow, than R4's.

 

[Ashful]

It's still under warranty so they are going to check it out. Yes the visibility for loader is pretty bad. The hood is wide. I haven't taken the loader off yet. It's the forks on the loader that that tilt foreward when trying to tilt back when something is fairly heavy. One more gripe, lol, a cast aluminum rear end? Come on man.

They'd have done well to use iron, the rear is way too light on this machine. But I'm guessing they had good reason to do it, even if just hitting some competitive marketable weight target.

I run the 62" heavy-duty bucket, which is a beast compared to their standard buckets. But it's so heavy that I can't go up a hill in 2wd without ballast, even with an empty bucket. The standard buckets from Deere are too wimpy for constant use with lifting heavy logs, but this heavy-duty bucket is ridiculously over-built for my needs. The buckets they were using in the 1980's were way better at hitting a happy medium compromise between weight and durability, than anything they have today.

If I can find someone who really needs this HD bucket, I might be convinced to downgrade to a standard bucket, and just do my own fab and welding to beef up the critical areas where they usually bend.