Zero Turn Tires. Do They Make Much Difference? It Might Surprise You!
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- Опубликовано: 24 июл 2024
- Does your zero turn loose traction on hills? In this video I change out the standard turf saver tires for some much more aggressive tires to see if it'll help with this situation.
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the machine is not heavy enough to hold, great video showing how a zero turn does with both tires. Never point zero turns straight down hill
You're right.. a steep hill and it could do wheelies... my hill isn't steep enough for that to happen... Thanks for the comment.. :-)
Carlisle Turf Mate stick well. Had those on a zero turn once and was the best for doing hills side to side.
Good info! Thanks.. :-)
i have a ferris 2100 with turf tires and i use tire chains when i’m mowing steep slopes. they do help a lot and still haven’t been able to get it stuck. if your nice with turning it does not rip up the grass and does not slide at all when on slopes you have to me more smoother with your inputs because the chain’s allow no slipping. and when your mowing in wet conditions the tires do not spin out (damaging grass when spinning tires) . i think your mower is to light and narrow causing slipping. i find that leaning towards the top of the slope helps a lot for adding weight on your tire that wants to spin.
Yes absolutely. Leaning on the uphill tire helps a lot. Just about to the point where I'd want to disconnect the seat safety switch so I can get off the seat! I never did that, but was tempted a few times.. You're right about the mower being a little light and narrow too.. Thanks for the comment and tips about the chains.. 😊
Adding some weight to the rear could help but I’d add weight in increments so you are not doing wheelies going back up the hill.
Years ago I mowed with a Toro 117 Groundsmaster and I didn’t like the lack of traction the 18x6.5-8 turf tires had so I bought a pair of 18x8.5-8 ag/lug tires which made a huge difference. But when the ground was wet they very easily left tracks. One day I had to back up a hill and one tire dug a hole in the lawn really quickly.
Oh wow. Yes the wheel weights would help I believe. Im only guessing, but I don't think they'll cause wheelies no matter how much weight you put there since the weight is on the wheels themselves. Extra weight to the rear of the axles would cause the wheelies, but I'm only guessing.
When I said that I meant basically the rear tube or bumper.
I had a landscape company for about 12 years and we had a few very dangerous slopes that we mowed 1 of which was above a creek with a 6 foot almost vertical drop. I got a water ballast kit from Tractor Supply basically just a attachment for your hose it goes into the Schrader valve on a tire. It made a big difference and if you want maximum weight you get a bag of calcium chloride sidewalk ice melter and dissolve as much of it into a 5 gallon bucket of water as the water can hold. You can probably increase the weight of the water by 50% or more. because it's a liquid it's not hard on the Hydraulics like if you did the heavy foam filled tires or added weight to the rim
That does sound like a good idea. Wouldn't that rust the rims out in a short time?
You'll need to put a tube in if you use calcium chloride. You could also use rv antifreeze. It's not as heavy but it won't rot your wheels and it's pretty cheap at Walmart.
@@Mike_Neukam Good idea! Thank you..
@@JLPicard440 My BX Kubota has loaded tires using washer fluid and has been fine. On my Hustler Super Z it's heavy enough that I don't have to load the tires as it hugs hills like a sucker fish. I've also seen people use RV antifreeze or beet juice.
When approaching your cut when you are going down hill it's best to go backwards down the hill to turn into your mow.
Yes.. thanks for the tip!
I’ve ran all kinds of zero turn mowers, by far the best for inclines is a raptor sd with the wide rear tires, I’ve had it on damn near 45 degree slopes with only minor slippage, the above yard would be like mowing flat as far as I’m concerned, the mower itself makes a big difference, it’s got a lot to do with weight distribution
Absolutely true!
I did the same with my toro. Came to the same conclusion as well. Wish I had watched this first and saved my money.
Sorry to hear that. Yea they made a little bit of difference, but not enough to make the trouble worth it..
My Poulan PX46Z is identical to your Husqvarna only in black. Like yours, its turning and slope authority is awful. I think the small wheel size reduces its grip. Im wondering if increasing its footprint with slightly wider tires will help.
You probably couldn’t get wide enough tires on those rims to be much help.. I thought about stud extensions with a spacer like they do with cars, but not sure anyone makes such a thing for a lawnmower.. but it’d probably make a difference
I recently got a set MaxAuto 20x10.00-8 for an Ariens and absolutely turned it into a MONSTER and I estimate this upgrade halved my mowing time in an area which is a little over 2 acres with various hills and obstacles.
>>Just curious, how much air are you putting in those?
Before getting these I experimented with airing down the turf tires for more traction. This definitely helped but I had to get the pressure so low that they would leak around the beads and be flat after a couple of days. I'm currently running 10PSI in mine (rated for 22PSI) and I know tire shops usually go for that max pressure which is great for gas mileage on the highway but not so much for off-road traction. Let me know if this helps!
Thanks for the info... I think I would run them around 15 PSI... 10 is probably even better, but like you said, you can't go but so low.
The ag lug pattern is directional! They do help going forward, but they have less traction in reverse. If your uphill tire has to turn backwards to make the turn up the hill, there is a double problem. First, the uphill tire has less weight on it due to the lean of the mower, and then turning backwards is less effective. The theory is that the lugs will dig in to find harder ground by pushing the soft stuff out the sides if the ground is mushy. However, running backwards simply piles loose grass in the center of the tread and fills the lugs with slippery stuff. So uphill lugs running backwards is a recipe for slipping. AG lugs are designed to dig deeper to find traction going forward. That can sometimes bury the tires until the mower high centers and needs winching out of the hole.Clients are unhappy if you remove grass by digging a hole.
Thanks for the info!
yeh at the beginning of the first run with the atv tyres you can see the right hand tyre immediately pulls all the mud to the middle of the tyre and it sticks there
@@zacjohnson8404 Yep.. :-)
Question?? When my stock toro titan tires wore out I replaced then with aftermarket tires because they weren’t $200 plus. I noticed that my cutting height was not as high with the aftermarket tires, I have some customers that insist on tall grass. Has anyone else found this happening? I added my own deck holes in the adjustment handle but never got the same height as stock again.
That's interesting. I haven't had that same situation. Did you compare the old tires with the new ones to see if they were the same size?
Tire pressure make a massive difference on tires traction expecially with tractor tires
Yes, I agree..
Your results are strange. When I changed my zero turn tires to tractor lugs like yours, my traction literally doubled. I can now go places I would have never dreamed of before.
Interesting... could be your mower has a wider stance...
Tweels have more surface area and are said to hold hills better, so maybe the cheapest solution is to lower air pressure. I just dropped my rear tires down from 20 to 10 psi and felt it was a little better, but it will take a week to notice if it's worked. I saw a video once where a guy had a way of adding weight to the top of the hill side of the mower. I'm sure it wouldn't cost much to engineer an adjustable counter weight you could remove once you finished mowing the hill. Off the top of my head I'm envisioning U bolts that would hold a 6 foot metal pipe with bar bell weights on the pipe and a way to keep them from sliding, maybe angled towards the rear of the mower. I suppose you could also add water inside the wheels for added weight and some snow plow weights to the wheel. Or maybe have a special wheel with a bar welded onto it to apply the bar bell weights. If it was on the side discharge side, you could leave the wheel on all the time, or play NASCAR and swap the wheel out once you've mowed the hill.
Yes lowering the air pressure might help. But I'd say a removable weight might help too, but for the lazy person like me, I can see it would be to much trouble! I even thought of extending the wheel studs to make the stance of the mower a bit wider.. They do it on those little Honda cars, so could probably be done for a mower easy enough too..
@@JLPicard440 I'm just as lazy or I would have suggested a self-propelled push mower after as you did, trying the same tire fix. I'm thankful you saved me a few hundred dollars. I'd love to see you use science and math to overcome this problem, something the manufactures don't seem interested in dealing with, the same way they don't deal with a chute blocker on stamped decks other than the mulch on demand I have on my Z335e.
Here's the title of a video where a guy rigged up a center of gravity system. "My 10 Lawn Tractor Modifications, including a Center of Gravity Re-Locator." It starts at the 1:14 mark. The reason he can get by with not very much weight is on a riding mower is you can shift your body weight to one side as done in this video. "Cutting Grass with Riding Mower on a VERY Steep Hill"
Good Luck
Ok cool, I'll check it out!
Take a Bath Productions yes, that’s is one of the cheaper ways to do it just look up 4 by 4 wheel spacers I’m pretty sure all zero turns and golf carts have the 4 lug on 4 inch pattern I put some on my mower along with some 21-11-8’s that are an inch taller and wider to help with traction and it holds a hill much better although I may change the front tires as well to hold a straight line. I would get at least 2 in per side if you can find a set of 3 inch spacers for less than $80 it’s worth the money
@@atvabuse5738 I was wondering if anybody sold those. That's a great idea. Do they sell the longer studs too? Obviously with a 3" spacer the studs will be to short.
Good video. But you need to edit and express your test is on a very much smaller much lighter residential unit. I honestly mean zero disrespect at all, but that machine has almost no similarities to a real full sized unit by John Deere, Scag, gravely....the added weight, power, foot print and capabilities make adding the tractor tires a much bigger difference adding safety, control and capabilities. Much bigger improvement than the smaller, yet still dam fine unit you have especially for what you're doing.
I'm surprised they even made that big of a difference on that smaller machine.
Good job overall man really. Not easy pulling off a complete good job as you did
Thank you! Unfortunately I didn't have a smaller unit available to me to do a test like that. I didn't think the tires made a very big difference on the hill. I was surprised since there was a pretty good difference in the pulling value on the scale, but for real life experience, it was not a drastic difference. Probably wheel weights would have helped.
@@JLPicard440 yeah as with many things it is endlessly variable. The soil, machine size weight power, short steep hills or longer rolling hills. As you said wheel weights would help for sure, but worth while? I'm sure idk for sure lol
Pair those better AG style tires with the front fork suspension system called z glide. Costs 500 dollars for the big full sized Deere units (or did at least) the combination of proper tires like you added with the additional flex to keep the weight on the rear drive/steer wheels makes for a very impressive side hill machine, for a zero turn I mean of course. My parents have a lot of land to finish mow and that was the answer, wasn't sure at first if worth while but these machines are so costly in the first place that an extra 650-700 bucks is pennies on the dollar for such a huge improvement of safety, function and how much comfort and confidence gained
Man that would be and excellent video for you, already have your tires grab a set of z glide front fork-spindle suspension units and then test it out, I bet it'll genuinely impress you aswell as a large audience
@@johnserrano9689 Thanks for the tip! I appreciate it. I think a zero turn with the ability to lock the front wheels and steer them on a grade would be the ultimate. Seems like I saw one like that, but I don't remember what model it was or who made it..
How does a regular riding mower perform on your yard?
One with a steering wheel? Perfectly!
I'm having the same problem with my ZT1 54 and I just bought the same tires going to get them installed tomorrow lol.
It should help some.. If you can get those on by hand you're doing better than me! I tried and finally gave up and took them to a shop after slightly damaging one of the beads trying to get it on there..
Yeah, I'm taking them to a tire shop today. Hoping they're open this holiday weekend.
@@nitropanda5620 Good chance.. :-)
So how did they work for both of you on the flat when making turns? I have an older mower with worn tires and I find I am constantly tearing up the grass because a wheel spins on even fairly broad turns, on flat ground. Doing a 180 is impossible, it just spins the outside wheel. I have to do 3 point turns every time.
@@court2379 Yes they are a little rough on the grass. I found that gradual turns was the key. I know that defeats the purpose of a zero turn! I guess if you have a yard with a steep incline there had to be a sacrifice in one area...
Those bar tires are designed for traction straight but not for side to side traction.
The side to side movement that you get on the front end due to a sideways incline actually puts straight traction on the rear wheels... one tries to pull forward and one backwards..
Let me say this, Zero turns aren't made for sharp, steep areas. I did the same thing as you and later found out changing those tires will void any warranty you may have on your mower. The reason being is the transmissions are tailored to those tires. Don't shoot the messenger but, if anyone knows for sure please post. Thanks
HI, The commercial type mowers, Toro, Gravely, etc have a bit of a wider stance and will put up with more of a slope. This style here is a residential grade and doesn't do very well sideways... It's better to go up and down the hill rather than side to side.. With that being said, this mower was well out of the warranty so there was no concerns about that... 😊. To me I wanted to try the more aggressive tires to see if it would help.
did you try lowering the tire pressure?
No, but I doubt it'll help much. Maybe a little..
@@JLPicard440 would help a lot, otherwise, why would offroaders drop their tyre pressure to increase traction. it's still just a tyre, the same rules of physics should apply
@@zacjohnson8404 What i've found helps a lot is sitting on the up hill tire. There's a balance of shifting your weight to the upper tire and still leaving enough pressure on the seat to not kill the engine..
These are made to have traction in the forward rotation... look at the lugs...
I was testing it in the forward direction.. 😊
Duals help but zero turn is a little small for duals
I've not seen a lawnmower with dual wheels on each side! Be pretty cool..🙂
Fluid in the rear tires make a world of difference.
Yes thank you for the tip.. 😀
I am not an expert by any means, but I think the “chevron pattern” is supposed to be facing the other direction. I think you have the tires mounted in the wrong direction.
No, the V pattern goes to the front... :-)
Completely the wrong tire to fix the problem you were having. AG tires have zero sideways grip. They are for pulling straight in mud. The big scoops in the AG tire act like a sled when going sideways and will slide very easy. You want an ATV tire that has both forward and sideways grip and you will have no more problems.
Thanks for the info!
My old JD 400 with a 5 foot cut would have done that slope no problem!
Hello...! Oh yea... some of them will. The wider the stance the better it'll do... 😀
I think it’s your white crew socks with flip flops smh
LOL.. im setting a new trend.. 😀
A steering wheel type zero turn is supposedly better for hills like that.
For sure! I agree.... 😀
You need weight. Fluid filled tires might help.
Maybe, probably wouldn't add more than about 50 lbs.. probably 200-300 lbs be better..
@@JLPicard440 I agree, needs weight for sure.
I had exactly the same problem and got rid of the zero turn.
Then after my knees started going bad, I began researching riding mowers.
Every mower dealership I have visited with to date says, that it's all about the weight, the width of the mower from tire to tire and tread pattern.
Several have made reference to the hydraulic pumps in commercial vs residential grade mowers; the box store models not being stout enough to "hold the hill".
My property is extremely hilly so I am going to have dealers bring mowers out and prove them before I make my next purchase.
@@elricofarmer1561 Yes, I think you're right. My neighbor has a Toro commercial grade and has a bank steeper than mine and he claims it'll do his bank with no problem. He has yet to bring it over here to prove that it will do my bank with no problems!
@@JLPicard440 I just bought a Hustler Commercial Zero turn, and the very reason I am replying is that I am researching to see if there are better tires. My zero gets stuck if the wind off a birds wings blows across it. I am quiet unhappy with it and really considering selling it and getting a another tractor with finish mower. I had this set up before with a 72" deck and 32hp JD and loved it, but let a few of my guys talk me into this damn zero turn. Big mistake I'm starting to believe.
Water fill them
Yes that would add some weight for sure.. I wonder if that'll rust out the rim and ruin the tires over time...
Don't mow in the wet.
Thanks!
Your lawn mower also doesn’t weigh very much that’s another problem your having
True. More weight in the back would help too..
Your not heavy enough to make a difference
I'm sure not!.. 😂