Skid steer and 2 new tires?

I recently bought a 23 horse Deere skid steer. The front tires have about 10% of their tread left. The back tires have about 50%. I"m going to get 2 new tires. Should I put the new tires on the front, or should I move the back tires to the front and put the new tires on the back?

I would put the new on the front. Thats where most of your weight will be when lifting. Thats where you will need your traction.

Put the 2 new tires on one side and the better of the used ones on the other side.
Running a new one with a used one on the same side puts extra strain on the drive chains due to the difference in circumference.

I would put the new ones on the front unless you are running on cement more than 80% of the time. Then I'd put like tires on the same side.

(quoted from post at 09:28:18 02/04/12) Put the 2 new tires on one side and the better of the used ones on the other side.
Running a new one with a used one on the same side puts extra strain on the drive chains due to the difference in circumference.

Click to expand...

....and since most skidloaders like to drift in one direction, but the new tires on the side it likes to drift toward....

Put them on the front! If you put them on one side or the other the bucket WILL NOT SIT FLAT ON THE GROUND and you will wear one side of the bucket. Plus if your trying to make a grade level it would be next to impossible.

I would have said put the new tires on the back. Often times when your digging and have the cutting edge pointed down the front tires are slightly off the ground.

Hello! MSM has it right!!!!!!!!! Bobmn

Depends on what your goal is I guess...
If you want traction, put the two new ones on the two rear wheels. Move the better of the used to the front wheels.
If you want to scuff the new ones off and get no use from them, put them on the front. The only exception I might make to that would be if you were doing a lot of work where you were backing out of a hole with a full bucket and the weight balance was on the front wheels... then you could make use of the tires on the front. Otherwise, most skids balance about their rear wheels and scuff the fronts around.

You don't want a good pair on one side and the poor ones on the other side either... if you do that you have one side that wants to move and the other side that wants to spin... and spin in a circle is all you'll do until you spin the new tires down and they're just as poor as the other pair...
It's not really great for the drive chains having mismatched sizes on one side... but I haven't found it to be particularly detrimental either. This is one of those cases where you pick the lesser of two evils unless you want to buy 4 tires... so I'd just put the new pair on the rear wheels.

Rod

Mentioned this question to my son today- he"s a JD tech. He says MSM is right. Matching tires on the same side, because of the extra tension on the drive train if they are mismatched. He"s seen enough damage from that.

I'd say break down and buy 4 new, and save the good two. When you burn off the front ones again and have 50% left on the "new" rears, put your 2 used ones back on the front.

AG

Did he ever operate one with grips on one side and baldies on the other?