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| When we were looking to buy last year I wanted duals but my son preferred the floaters., obviously he won :~)). Off hand I can't remember the size but I believe they are 77x44, maybe 73x44. The combine is in a shed on another farm or I would check to be sure of the size. They are not the small tread like what you see on most Big As & such but a deep tread, more than a standard tractor tire tread but less than a rice tire.
After running the combine for awhile I really like them, much more than what I think I would like duals. They donot cut down very much even when the ground is wet and when you do get into mud they don't fill up with mud like duals do. I have heard that mud can be a problem with the smaller treaded floaters as they tend to slick over & then you lose "bite" where as the deep treads clean themselves out. They also smooth out the side to side lurging of the combine but duals do this as well. Currently we are running a 30' 1020 without Field Tracker and get along fine. Our soils vary from flat praire to rolly clay ground. The 2388 & 30'1020 do a better job of staying on the ground than did the 2366 & 25' 1020 we had before it. I feel most of this can be contributed to the wider tires but again duals would give you that as well.
Cost is the biggest drawback that I see. According to our tire dealer they run about $4,000 ea (2005 price) . We looked at a 2388 that had duals & the standard 14.9 rear tires, our has the h.d. rear end & 18.4x26 rear tires, and the dealer wanted another $8,000 to switch that combine over to the floaters & it still would have had the std rear tires & axle. I fell that over a period of time the tires will be worth the investment. Our intentions are that the next time we trade we will keep the floaters we have unless for some reason they show abnormal wear.
One other problem with the wide tires is that the combine tends to bounce a little more when roading, especially with the head off. I'm not sure how duals ride on the hwy but IMO that is a minor drawback & can be compensated for by slowing down a little. | |
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Stubble Stompers
