Wide tyres Vs narrow tyres for forestry work

[drinksloe]

Alright

 

 

Just wondering wot everyone's opinions are on wether wide tyres are better than narrower tyres?

Althou I do imagine a lot might depend on the ground conditions u normally work in.

 

The wee skidder is only about 1 1/2 to 2T ( basically compact tractor size) and running on 20"X 6 inch wide tyres, it seems to grip the ground really well. Esp  when turf/ground not ripped up, it did struggle in places where forwarder had exposed greasy clay soil

But I know I'm at a job next week and think it might struggle to get throu some of the wet sphagnum mossy bits. And it might of been handy.

 

But worried if I go for the wider wheels it might just sit and spin and lose traction a bit as not enough wieght to really grip?

Have any of u had similar issues after putting wider tyres on compact tractors?

 

Ideally I would set it up with twins but so far struggling to find suitable rims, 

But I old easily adapt 6T dumper wheels and I think some telehandler wheels too. But they'd be too wide for twins

 

Bear in mind I'm in s wet Scotland and also do odd bits of peat work jobs so extra footprint is always good.

Edited October 14, 2019 by drinksloe

[dumper]

Run it on narrow tyres the put wide duals on when needed 

[drinksloe]

But I think I might struggle to find wheels/rims in the approx size narrow enough.

I'm probably going to have to cut/bodge the middle off the rims as an odd stud pattern.

 

Just wondered if I could just stick some wide 1s on which I can source easier, but at same time don't want to waste money if they won't be right.

Cheers

[Stere]

Depends on the tread pattern & weight I suppose

 

I used to race an unofficial cyclocross league and had different tyres for different course conditions. Narrow tyres with wide spaced knobbles & deep tread were better in mud for traction than wider mtb tyres that got clogged up with mud and spread weight to much to dig in to the harder mud under the sloppy surface mud

 

 

[Charlieh]

Wider every time on sphagnum and peat. As wide as you can. If your on the clay then it's grip you need. I run a couple of sets on my alpine depending on the ground. Best compromise is a wider tyre with lots of grip (new basically)

 

if the rims are 20" duals are available 2nd hand as a fairly common size for telehandlers and the like back in the day. I picked 2 sets up reasonably cheaply and these can run old tyres as they are just for flotation.  Size is 16.0 r20 or 405/70 r20 in modern terms