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Old 09-15-2021, 03:02 PM   #13
NH.Solar
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Location: Jackson Pond, New Hampton
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Garcia,
The R4s on my L5240 are getting fairly worn and without the chains are fairly useless traction-wise. I can't complain, the tractor already has about 2,000 hours on the tach, but I usually only need to run it at about 1500 rpm so that is likely closer to 3,000 hours of operating time. The rears still have plenty of wear for the summer, and with the chains on the back work fine in the snow. My fronts however are very worn, there are chunks of the tread blocks missing, and a lot of cracking in the sidewall. I don't want to run chains on the front for fear of hooking the loader subframe so replacing the tires with something that would offer a lot better steering in snow has been on my mind. I had been considering adapting some 8 ply studded truck snow tires of the right diameter, but after what I have learned through your thread I think I'm going to try the R14s. The outside diameter and rolling circumference are close enough to be a match to the old R4s on the rear, and both have the same 6 ply sidewall rating. I've had two front tire failures in rough work, but both were due to ripping off the valve stems rather than puncturing the sidewall. On a previous L5030 I did puncture a sidewall, but that tractor had turfs. The only place I can see a problem is that the load rating drops from 3500# per tire to 2340, so I guess when I am moving havy material I'll need to increase my front pressure from the present 30 pounds to closer to 40 (45 is the max). I'll also need to be sure when working heavy loads to run my 900# counterweight all the time. Counter weighting a tractor is even more effective the loading tires because it shifts some of the load back off the pivoting front axle onto the solid rear axle. Without the counterweight my loader feels quite tippy even though the rear tires are loaded. A good rule of thumb for sizing the counterweight is to make it about half of what the loader is capable of lifting to full height and in your case that is about 550 pounds or so. I made mine up out of an old juice barrel, a couple of angle irons for the uprights, and 7/8 rod for the lower links. The PVC tubes were used to space the angle irons while the concrete set up and now usually have a shovel and rake stuffed in them and the old firehose protects my chainsaw
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