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Mismatched Tires

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Nathan in Texas

09-09-2005 06:31:18

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How big of a deal are mismatched rear tires?

I see some tractors that are in decent shape with mismatched tires and not sure if that is a big deal or not. By mismatched I mean they are the same size but different brands and tread patterns.

I realize that it meant that someone didn't take the time to do it right, but not sure how much emphasis to place on it.

Just curious.

Thanks, Nathan

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THEkyroastnear

09-09-2005 20:57:00

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Re: Mismatched Tires in reply to Nathan in Texas, 09-09-2005 06:31:18

i have 5 old tractors & only one has amatched set of tires as most of you know this hobby is expensive or if youre trying to make a living its the same expense mine are works in progress i will match a set when they are prettied up

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john d

09-09-2005 16:26:50

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Re: Mismatched Tires in reply to Nathan in Texas, 09-09-2005 06:31:18

As long as they are the same size, it hurts nothing but the looks. And it only hurts the looks if that sort of things matters to you. The typical farmer considers the tractor to be a tool. They don't have the reverence for them that many on these boards seem to cultivate.
If a rear tire gets ruined when the other is nearly new, few would replace both just to keep them "matched." If the good tire is half-worn, then the solution was/is often either 1 new tire or 1 used tire. Whether the tread pattern matches is of secondary importance.
There are better ways to determine the level of maintenance a tractor has received than looking at mis-matched tires. Check the condition (and level) of oil, coolant, and rear-end lube. Look for wear on the clutch pedal bushings, steering linkeage and universals, and how much oil is seeping from it.
As far as it being hard on the rear end of the tractor, there won't even be much additional wear and tear if they AREN'T the same size! Think of the hours many of the old tractors spent plowing with one rear wheel getting far less traction than the other. Consider the punishment the differential was designed to endure when one brake was locked and the steering wheel spun to make a U-turn at the end of corn rows when cultivating.
If I was buying a tractor that was "restored" and had mis-matched tires, I'd wonder how much "restoration" was actually done. If I was buying a working tractor, I'd rather know if the oil had been changed once in awhile.

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kyhayman

09-09-2005 14:53:07

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Re: Mismatched Tires in reply to Nathan in Texas, 09-09-2005 06:31:18

Been lucky so far with the tractors I've got, only have 1 that the tires dont match tread patterns. Two that I traded off in the past couple of years both had mismatched rears, ruined a tire (sidewall breaks are my bane) and had him put on what he had of the same size. What does it mean, that I needed a tire. Had nothing to do with service intervals, repairs, etc. I use my stuff, hard, expect everything I own to turn a profit or I dont need it. Somebody buys a used tractor from me, thats what they get fluids changed by the book, parts replaced when they broke, no frills but functional. Only time I swapped out a pair that didnt need it was on a tractor I bought with radials, split a sidewall on one of them and didnt want to mismatch radial and bias.

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Redmud

09-09-2005 12:38:07

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Re: Mismatched Tires in reply to Nathan in Texas, 09-09-2005 06:31:18

I would bet, that about half or better of the hard workin tractors across this country have mismatched tires. Not mismatched in size, but brand. I don't know to many Farmers that would spend the time to match a tire.

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09-09-2005 12:04:48

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Re: Mismatched Tires in reply to Nathan in Texas, 09-09-2005 06:31:18

i bought a 5600 ford in fall of '78. dealer had used it that year hisself and put 270 hrs on it. got a good discount and bought it. all tires were different. rear tread was close but different/ front was the same way. asked him why and he said "well, after i ran it a couple days ran over a steel fence post and ruined the rear tire and that was as close a match as i could get. about a week later i hit a bottle and cut the front tire on the side. same as rear., that was as close as i could get". 21 years later when i traded it off it still had the tires and there was no problem. as long as they are the same size there should be no trouble. would not want to run a radial/bias set, that would cause a problem i would think.

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old

09-09-2005 11:43:08

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Re: Mismatched Tires in reply to Nathan in Texas, 09-09-2005 06:31:18

Its no big deal as long as they are the same size. I've done it a lot of time because of things like that big stick ir piece of iron going in a tire and haveing it blow out and then you need a tire and in my case found one cheaper then the one that would match. And when one is almost new and you blow it out it does hurt the back pocket to buy 2 at one time

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RustyFarmall

09-09-2005 10:46:22

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Re: Mismatched Tires in reply to Nathan in Texas, 09-09-2005 06:31:18

Mis-matched tires tell me without a doubt that the owner did only what he absolutely had to do to keep the tractor useable, which means that maintenance for the entire tractor has been sorely neglected. Some guys will try to increase the asking price of their tractor by installing one new tire which, in my opinion, doesn't increase the value one bit. I would rather buy the tractor with both tires bad, and then install a matched set of new tires

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Leland

09-09-2005 21:47:12

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Re: Mismatched Tires in reply to RustyFarmall, 09-09-2005 10:46:22

Rusty what have you been smoking 90% of the tractors I have driven had mismatched tires ,as posted during the busy season you take what you can get to get the machine back up and running . You must have never farmed a day in your life or else you would have not posted something that DUMB !!

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TomTX

09-09-2005 13:05:47

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Re: Mismatched Tires in reply to RustyFarmall, 09-09-2005 10:46:22

Right on Rusty. Mismatched tires shows just what you stated - poor maintenance. If the previous owner penny pinched the tires, then he probably used Wally World oil, cheap filters, and let maintenance schedules slide.

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Sid

09-09-2005 11:37:12

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Re: Mismatched Tires in reply to RustyFarmall, 09-09-2005 10:46:22

"Mis-matched tires tell me without a doubt that the owner did only what he absolutely had to do to keep the tractor useable, which means that maintenance for the entire tractor has been sorely neglected." I gotta disagree with this statement, Rusty. In the real world you gotta do what you gotta do to keep going. It is not always a sign of neglect.

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dhermesc

09-09-2005 13:23:31

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Re: Mismatched Tires in reply to Sid, 09-09-2005 11:37:12

Yeah that's the first concern of a real farmer with a down tractor, "I ruined one tire on adeer antler and gotta have a matching tire to go with my good tire. Not in stock? Well I'll let the tractor sit on the turn row while you get a matching tire ordered. I guess we'll wait a week to finish mowing and baling the hay."

Wornout tires are much more indictive of poor maintenance then a mismatched pair.

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RustyFarmall

09-09-2005 12:30:48

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Re: Mismatched Tires in reply to Sid, 09-09-2005 11:37:12

To each his own. I will stick with my opinion. I have seen way too many tractors with mismatched tires that had also quite evidently been mis-maintained. A tractor with mismatched tires will always be appraised at a much lower value, makes no difference if the tires are good.

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Dick L

09-09-2005 13:54:51

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Re: Mismatched Tires in reply to RustyFarmall, 09-09-2005 12:30:48

I don"t know how it worked where you are from, but in my area when we were farming the tractor could not afford to have the engine fail because of lack of proper attention. Things happen but for the most part lack of proper care was not the problem. We traded work with neighboring farmers and not one of them, which was the same at home, started a tractor in the morning without checking the oil, and water first. The same happened at dinner time. We and they parked the tractor at the fuel tank at dinner time(close to noon) and the oil and water was looked at before fueling. Same happened after supper if we went back out to the field, and we did a lot in the spring. I can"t remember dad ever running mismatched tires on the rear but some of our neighbors did. Dad always called and had a tire with a hole punched vulcanized.
Back then what you would call a credit card now would ether squeal or moo. The machinery dealer of tire repair man would expect payment when you sold hogs or out of your milk check. They didn"t want to wait until a crop was harvested to be paid. Thus when you busted a tire that was half gone and was beyond repair you would buy what ever used tire you could find to get back to work. This has nothing to do with how you cared for the upkeep of you tractor. If you were to buy a brand new tire of the same brand and size as one half gone it would be mismatched as to height

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Bob M

09-09-2005 09:46:08

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Re: Mismatched Tires in reply to Nathan in Texas, 09-09-2005 06:31:18

I gotta agree with the others who say it doesn't matter much. So long as the tire size is the same, tread patterns are approximately similar and the tires are worn about the same amount, mismatched tires work fine and can save the owner a bundle. We've successfully run (and continue to run...) mismatched tires for many years

Only exceptions I can justify are show tractors (for aesthetic reasons only) and for competitive pulling.

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Delbert from Lincoln

09-09-2005 08:15:37

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Re: Mismatched Tires in reply to Nathan in Texas, 09-09-2005 06:31:18

In my opinion, if putting a used mismatched tire on a tractor will get it up and running, where otherwise it will be setting on a blowed out flat tire, why go for it. Its no big deal as long as they are close to the same diameter.

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evilboweviel

09-09-2005 07:54:13

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Re: Mismatched Tires in reply to Nathan in Texas, 09-09-2005 06:31:18

I just orderded new tires for my Oliver 66, best price 267.81 plus 44 tube each side. I am mounting the tires myself or the cost would be worse. I had to sell some equipment to cover this, something I could not do if I was farming instead of keeping grandpa's tractor around to play with. Ron

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buckva

09-09-2005 07:49:42

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Re: Mismatched Tires in reply to Nathan in Texas, 09-09-2005 06:31:18

I know a man who at one time had a tractor with different size tires. One was about 6" taller than the other. I ask if there was a reason for that and he said he did a lot of plowin and got tired of sittin sideways.

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Dick2

09-09-2005 07:20:21

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Re: Mismatched Tires in reply to Nathan in Texas, 09-09-2005 06:31:18

Personally, I wouldn't do it because mis-matched tires will put extra strain on drive line components. You might get by with doing just light work, but forces would be great in heavy pull situations. Nearly bald tires that could slip would reduce driveline stress.

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RodinNS

09-09-2005 07:10:29

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Re: Mismatched Tires in reply to Nathan in Texas, 09-09-2005 06:31:18

There's lots of tractors out there with mis-matched tires. I've got one too. It probably isn't going to do a lot of harm, but it isn't really a good thing either. I remember having another tractor like this a few years ago, and it always had a pretty good whine from the differential. Lo and behold, when I put 2 new rears on, the noise went away. The diff is working overtime when you have 2 tires of a differing circumference. It's something I avoid on my main tractors. The only one I have like that now is my old 4000, and it doesn't do any amount of work anymore, let alone heavy drawbar work. For me, like most others, it didn't justify installing 2 new rears when one was still 50%. FWIW,

Rod

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Dick L

09-09-2005 07:19:21

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Re: Mismatched Tires in reply to RodinNS, 09-09-2005 07:10:29

The mismatch I was meaning was mismatched as to brand and tread design, not of different highths. Different highth tires would make the transmission thing it was in a slight turn all the time and would cause unnessary wear inn the transmission.

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RodinNS

09-09-2005 10:30:37

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Re: Mismatched Tires in reply to Dick L, 09-09-2005 07:19:21

That's what I meant too. Take two 18.4x34 tires, one Goodyear Dyna Torque II, and one Firestone Field & Road, and put them side by side. I'd bet there's close to 2-3" difference in the infltated diameter, so that's going to make the tractor lower by 1-1.5" on the Dyna Torque. I don't think there's two tire companies out there that make a tire of the same aspect ratio for a given size. They all seem to have a different rolling radius.
I know we all change tires like this due to circumstances, but we really shouldn't. It's harder on the differential, just as you said, because it's trying to keep you straight when the tires want to take you in a circle.

Rod

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Dick L

09-09-2005 07:00:21

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Re: Mismatched Tires in reply to Nathan in Texas, 09-09-2005 06:31:18

Not a problem at all. Years ago you saw a lot of mismatched tires where a farmer broke open a tire and would have to buy a used tire of any brand to keep the tractor in the field. To match the tires would mean you would have to buy new in a lot of cases and with the expense of planting crops there just was not money to buy two new tires. If you plan to show, or even use the tractor for pulling contests it would be best to have matched tires.

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Don-Wi

09-09-2005 15:29:05

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Re: Mismatched Tires in reply to Dick L, 09-09-2005 07:00:21

We have done the same thing. The Ollie 1600 I'm restoring now came w/ firestones fomrt he factory. Somewhere along the line my grandpa had Good years installed but then when they were about 50%, one blew out. Still had the old Firestones around so one of those went on. Well, about 7-8 years ago the original Firestone blew out, tractor wasn't doing any hard work just hauling maure in the winter, wasn't worth new tires either. The tire company came and put on a coop that was 50%, much more than the remaining Goodyear that was on it. Just this spring I got my dad to put new rears on. Unfortunately he let them take the Coop which was still in good shape and they gave us $20 back for it. I would rather have held on to it and sold it to some one needing a Coop for 1/2 of what the tire company wanted. Now we gotta keep an eye on our Massey 285,. the side wall has had a tear for a few years now but no tube yet. Our Ollie 1855 needs new ones worse, as we bought it with about 25% tread and it's our plowing tractor. Put new ones on our 165 a couple years back when the sideall finally let go on the Firestone F&R's on one side. Couldn't find a match and needed it now so we bit the bullet and put new Titan's on. Sits quite a bit higher now(about 3-4")
Donovan from Wisconsin

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farmermatt

09-09-2005 07:46:56

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Re: Mismatched Tires in reply to Dick L, 09-09-2005 07:00:21

Years ago???? Unfortunately some of us are still doing it. LOL
Matt

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Dick L

09-09-2005 10:47:34

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Your Correct in reply to farmermatt, 09-09-2005 07:46:56

And it really is not funny to the farmer that knows what he needs to do and does have the money to do that.

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Dan

09-09-2005 06:54:01

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Re: Mismatched Tires in reply to Nathan in Texas, 09-09-2005 06:31:18

I have heard this as well - I have used tractors with mis-matched tires for years and have seen no difference in operation to the ones I have that are matched. To me, it doesn't make a lick of difference.

Just my $.02 worth,
Dan

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dhermesc

09-09-2005 13:27:37

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Re: Mismatched Tires in reply to Dan, 09-09-2005 06:54:01

As for the added strain on the powertrain, if it's that delicate of a flower it probably shouldn't be in the field. If that small amount of traction differance mattered, plowing would have destroyed the rear ends in all the tractors produced before 1985.

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