For those that bought new Ford tractors

For those that bought new Fords of the day especially the 1970-90 how long did both front and rear OEM tires last? Now I know this could be different but curious as to what is common. I have bought 3 older Fords from the 1980's era all with old cracked up Armstrongs on the front and Goodyear long bar short bar on back. These tractors were from 1985-1990. Am curious to know which typically wear out first and what is the average hours on tractor when fronts and rear come to end of life.

The one tractor that I own and know the hours are 100% correct is my Ford 2810. It has a little over 400 hours and both the front and rear tires are still in really good shape other than having a lot of cracks in the rubber etc.



Thanks
 
I just replaced the original Goodyear rear tires on
my 1989 6610 i have 2600 odd hours. on it. They were
cracked and had some splits. I hit a big rock with
my heavy duty (1800lb)bush hog in the raised position in
road gear and busted one I replaced both with BKT
imported tires. The front tires I replaced about 10
years ago.
 
7000 ('75) came with 7.50x18 Firestone and 18.4x34 Armstrong. Got roughly 4500 hours out of each of the first two sets of rears. Current set is nearing replacement time, and hours are somewhere around 14,000. On either the third or fourth set of fronts. 4600 ('80) came with 7.50x16 Firestone and 16.9x30 Goodyear. Currently at 9100+ hours and on the 2nd set of rears with lots of life left. Thinking the originals were replaced somewhere around 6000 hours. Fronts have taken a lot of abuse (overloading), as this is my loader tractor. Probably on 5th, maybe even 6th set there. 7600 ('77, second owner) had had one or both fronts replaced when I bought it. Rears were still original 18.4x34 Armstrong. They were replaced right about 4500 hours. 2nd set is not great, but still OK, tractor is around 8400 hours.
No, my tractors do not see much pavement. :)
 

Sounds like you maybe running in bigger fields too not turning as often as me. My tractors are used in small .5-2 acre food plots so change gears often forward to reverse and turn a lot. Seems like the small tractors say 2000, 2810, 3910 etc used more like this which makes sense.

By the way the last 1980 4600SU I bought has 1800 hours on the tach and old cracked Armstrongs on the front. Maybe they originals but not sure. The rears are Firestones and have 25-30% tread left. The guy I bought it from owned it for 16 years. He bought it from his neighbor who purchased it new. Both guys own less than 10 acres.
 
Had several of them... The ones with Good Years... on rear applications usually lasted about 2000 hours and were worn smooth. That included the Dyna Torque II and the older straight bar models. On FWA applications... the DT II would do about 1000-1200 hours. Firestone Field and Roads would do about 2k hours in a FWA application.
Armstrongs would last 7-8 years before the sides came out of them. Likewise... Titans might last that long. Some... sides came out in a year. Never wore one out.
One of the GY tri ribs we had on a 4000... wore the wheel out. 25 years or more. Worn smooth and flat like a truck tire. Those were good tires.
All of them here have now been replace with either a Michelin AgriBib, Firestone 23 degree RAT or Mitas radial.

Rod
 

Rod that's a lot of hours. May try those next time if GY still makes them. Being Titan bought them out probably not available any more. The Armstrong's that came on the smaller 2810, 3910 etc didn't last worth a hoot. From what I can tell 1000-2000 hours max.
 
Brother has a '73 5000 with original Firestone Field & Road still on the rear. He replaced the original fronts about 5 years ago, but I don't remember the brand. Tractor has around 5000 hours, but never saw pavement 'til recently!
 
Most of my fields are between 10 and 20 acres, but
range from 3 to 35.
Have had many brands of front tires, but never wore
any of them smooth.
 
They probably spent half that time either stationary or in the air tho... that tractor did a lot of stat PTO work on a knuckle boom loader... and the rest of it... carrying a lot of weight on the back. Also not much road work in those days.

Rod
 

I believe that the biggest factor is road wear. Pavement miles wear ag tires waaaaay faster than dirt miles. Many farms have mostly contiguous ground while many others travel the roads a lot. One farm close to where I grew up crops ground as far as 18 miles away.
 

This is a good point too. When my great granddad bought his 1954 Jubilee there were few roads to travel. Now people ride the roads to get to other pieces of land.
 

We sell tractor parts! We have the parts you need to repair your tractor - the right parts. Our low prices and years of research make us your best choice when you need parts. Shop Online Today.

Back
Top