2022 COMPACT Tractor Buyer’s Guide #5 Stability, Safety, & Traction! Tires & Ballast

Which tires are right for your new tractor? And don't forget about ballast! Tractor Time with Tim goes over all the tire and ballast options you should consider before you buy.

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[samengler]

Lol. My wife told me to get what ever I needed when I ordered my tractor. Hmmm $70k later I got everything. Living in Michigan so told me to get one with a cab. Hmmm I did. I love her ever time I get off my tractor.

[munchveer]

I have r1’s and they were the best for mowing. I had r4 turf tires that scalper my hilly yard everytime I mowed. The r1’s took care of my lawn the best

[jonathankerner]

I am delighted by your basic honesty. Questioning the need for a tractor for full time turf is a great example!

[Bob-vblc]

Tim, I couldn't agree with you more about everything you mentioned. On my 1025R, I have the R4 tires, Rimguard, and while I have a BH, I remove it in the winter and I made a concrete counter balance. You have taught me so much over the years. While I am constantly alert on the tractor, I feel safe because of lessons that you and others presented on YouTube. Thank you very much and I will continue to enjoy your channel. God Bless you all

[carlstrohm]

Lesson from dad-don't use 4wd until you're stuck because if you get stuck when using 4wd, well, you're stuck. My point is that I have the Versaturf tires on my 1025R. Snowblowing up the driveway in 2wd no problem. Northern Minnesota winters can be rough ya know. I've only needed to press the rear diff lock a couple of times and only need 4wd snowblowing uphill in the grass yard to make the sled run start hill bigger! Versaturf has been a great tire for me. There are two ways to tear up the lawn with them. 1-4wd and turning. 2-2wd turns that are tight or maybe a little too fast, or both. Other than that, they are the best tire I've used. Keep up the great work Tim!

[johnmedlin]

Great comparison video Tim. You are absolutely correct, if you are doing just about any type of loader work, have rear ballast. It makes a world of difference on the performance of the tractor. Above all, it provides more stability and safety to the operator in my opinion. I see so many people using tractors with the ROPS folded back or down out of the way, and if you are working on hillsides, it's a disaster waiting to happen. My rear tires are loaded as well, but I still use a box blade or land plane as ballast. As an experiment, I was on a a flat surface, I recall picking up a 22' oak log (roughly about 1800lbs) one time with my grapple, and even with all the weight on the rear of my tractor, I could still feel the rear end getting light on me. I immediately lowered the log and cut in half. Man...and woman have to know their equipment's limitations.

[RockhillfarmYT]

Great episode. The differences in the tires is not covered that often that I have seen

[agprostephen]

Tim, I normally love your videos. But I found this one to be a bit Tire-ing.. 🤣

[aaronburford]

Amazing info provided! Again never thought about the tires, etc. you are the best and thanks for sharing!

[CW]

Very helpful video. I'm not a novice tractor owner (Kubota L3901 for 7 years & a 1960's Case Comfort King for 15 years) but certainly not in the same class as most any farmer. I found that I made a few less-than-knowledgeable choices when I bought my new Kubota. 1.) I paid $500 extra for the industrial (R4) tires only to find that I use my tractor much more in the dirt - both kinda dry but mostly mud or soft - and therefore need to sometimes use my bucket to help get unstuck. My R4's instantly become "bald" because they don't self clean like an R1 would. I never find a need to work on my grass unless I'm rototilling to put in a new lawn so ruining my lawn is nary a problem. I live in Minnesota and the R4's leave a LOT to be desired for snow-plowing traction. 2.) I didn't have a 3rd function installed when I bought it new from the dealer. I just installed one because I wanted to use a grapple.
One thing that I did do right was to pay the extra $500 for a skid-steer universal quick-connect loader. I swap my bucket for pallet forks constantly and it takes less than 2 minutes. I am installing Rim Guard in my rear tires this spring which will help out the ballast box that I built for the 3-Pt. hitch. I put from 16-24 40 lb. concrete blocks in it for a total of up to 1100 lbs. incl. the box. It's easily removable so that's a great plus but one time I got both rear tires in mud and the box got hung up so even with the help of the bucket I couldn't get unstuck. I had to bring out my pickup and 200' of rope to get out. That was it's only downfall and the savings over a heavy hitch and many weights has been well worth that one time of getting stuck. I believe the heavy hitch would have been hung up also because my rears were down to the axle!

[danandfaith]

We had turf tires on our BX1860. They did great in snow with a rear blower, even on the steep driveway. On the LX2610 we got when we upgraded, we have R14s, which do equally well on the driveway in winter, with a much larger rear blower, and with the front plow blade. Never used chains on either of them and no issues.

[EMT]

Love the verses at the end!! I use an IBC tote with 100 gallons of water in it in my 58hp tractor for my ballast. Makes a huge difference picking things up!

[PaulLB]

I’ll second what you said, I filled the rear tires with RV/Marine antifreeze, and it transformed my machine- more stable, more power to ground and to the loader.
It was an easy diy project that only took a few hours.

[keithrayeski]

I’m with you that if your running turf, how big a “tractor” do you really need? Another advantage to the turfs for snow is chains. The ag tires and lesser to the industrial, tread will tend to let the chain spans fall between the treads making them less effectual…maybe not totally but, the a large extent. I’m liking the new R14’s.

[sassafrasvalley]

Tim, one thing that I don’t think you mentioned…
On the smaller tractors (compact and especially subcompact) internal wheel ballast lowers the center if gravity. This reduces the tip over sideways tendencies.

Or, did I just make that up?

[dustinslanec]

My last tractor had R4's. In the winter i had to put chains on to snowblow. Without chains it was pretty useless. So my current tractor I went with turf tires. Major difference, no more chains needed! I wanted the R3 but they were not avaliable yet. So being in Northern Mi and getting lots of snow the turf tires have treated me well. I do not miss having to deal with the chains!

[steigerpower]

Hi Tim, about four years ago I had first begun to watch your farm videos and had found them very informative and most of all your dear old dad's words of wisdom and a scripture at the end of each edition, .may I enquire to how is you dad's health and your other siblings Tim? Warm regards, Billy G.

[Kcolby]

Great “ground-engaging” conversation without floating and slipping over the facts with weighted bias or bloated ballast. (Sorry, I just had to do it 😉). Seriously, great addition to this series, and recommended watching for those new and old to the compact tractor community. Blessings to you and Christy.

[aaronthomas]

I like the solution I have come up with for rear ballast. I have a Kioti DK4710se with rim guard in the R4 tires. When I want to pick 2400 lbs with the pallet forks I put on a carry-all bracket from Tractor Supply and then pick up a pallet of big rocks. I have no idea how much it weighs. The carry-all is rated for 1000lbs so it must be under that but my hydraulic relief valve trips before the back end of the tractor comes up. The carry-all wasn’t too expensive and the pallet of rocks was free.

[melissahendricks]

My main source of 3pt ballast for my 3039 is my logging winch. It doesnt stick out far and isnt nearly as wide as the rear wheels. It weights about 1k and i also hang weights from it. The bonus is that if you get stuck, you just use the winch to pull you out. I also have the tires loaded. I can also verify that the R4s have high "toughness". I ran some cable thru one of the lugs, down in between the lugs, and back out. Snipped the ends of the cable, kept right on going.