16.9 38 on 720 diesel opinions

i missed the set of tires i found on craigslist last week and put out a wanted add to see what else was out there. only had one person respond and i describe what he has down further, be low is what i posted on pulling page but no one has replied so i thought i would ask your opinion here.

i have a john deere 720 diesel with 15.5 38 good year traction torque tires with about 1 1/2" of lug. i pull 8500 9500 and 10500 mostly dirt tracks with an occasional gravel track, pulling a transfer sled. i almost always spin out accept in my heavy class on a tight track i will run out of power in 1st, not enough power to run 2nd in lighter classes on a tight track but on loose track have had decent results in 2nd.

i might have a line on a pair of 16.9 38 Firestone 23 degree all traction tires but the pics i have seen look like they have shorter lugs than what are on mine, best guess based on pics i have now are the lugs look to be around 1" or so, definitely not as tall of lug as what i have now. so would i gain enough with the larger circumference and inch wider tread to be worth the hassle or would it be a wash with the shorter lug? if i do get them i would like to put them on 15 or maybe even 16" rims to try and get as much tread on ground as possible but i would have to find rims before i could do that, i believe i have 14" rims now

Deep treads unless in mud cause you to pile more dirt in front of the sled making it harder to pull.

Where are you located? I have 16.9s on my 1550 and I'm thinking on going to 15.5s. Email is open.

Modern view shows he's in se MN.

No disrespect intended, but didn't we answer this for you last week? Mike

I would think 16.9's with about 1 inch of road sharpened lugs would be "the cat's meow" for your tractor even with the rims you have now with the 15.5's. With the slow 1st gear and 2nd you have I think they would work good on a tight track and very good on a loose one. Experiment with the air pressures in the bigger tires.

yes and no, the first set of tires had about the same lug height as what i have on there now this other set i found looks to have about 1/2 to 3/4 of the lug height that i have now, the guy is suppose to measure them and let me know but haven't heard anything yet. so i was just wondering if i would be gaining anything with the wider taller tire or if i would essentially loose the advantage of the larger tire do to the shorter lug.

yep SE MN south of Rochester, 7 miles north of the Iowa border.

If your main focus is pulling a shorter lug is an advantage. A tall lug will flex under load where a shorter lug will stay stiff and actually bite better on a hard pull. Tall lugs also pile dirt in front of the sled badly. If you look most pullers run 1/2-3/4" lugs with success. Mike

OK, a little far for tires.

so i told the guy i would take the tires so my next question is will the tubes out of my 15.5's work in 16.9's?