Trying to figure out what the best tire in bias is out there for my 16 still, the made in china tires are cheap but i worry about warranty for sure, i have been thinking about 20 plys 20,5x25 since this cat 16 is so heavy, the 18x25 32 plys are too much as i am not working over 200 hours a year with th emachine, been trying to figure out who has the best deal, some of the websites dont tell much in the way of tire weight and carrying capacity, others are hard to navaigte, i want to try to drive up to Galaxy tire on leland drive in Houston and try to look around in the warehouse, anybody ever been there???
I'd stay away, a long ways away from Chinese manufactured tires. All the ones I've experienced have been soft and tend not to tolerate heat very well. The soft rubber tends to wear rapidly and does not handle rock cuts or gouges much. They also tend to separate when left out in the weather, particularly in hot climates. I've no experience with Indian tires at all. Have never seen any in the American market. For your usage, bias-plys ought to do well, and they are cheaper than the radials. Good Luck!
Thanks for the heads up, this tire thing is so screwy that I bet Cat ends up buying a tire company to keep tires on american tractors, the china stuff is pure junk no matter what people say, I am scared of the china tires going to burst with the high weight of the 16g on them sitting around in the sun, is that crazy or what?? I am driving on a set mixed Firestones and Goodyears about 30 years old i am guessing, this blade came out of mine in Green Bay Wisc so they had these crummy mine tires on it, still searching and searching for options, I am thinking Galaxy tires in Houston is where i will find my price competive bias ply tire, i am just worried if the 18x25 wheel will seat the 20,5x25 and have the same 2 inch bead on them as these tires do, this 42 year old machine really needs wider tires for my ranch work, what i am working on now is trying to figure out if a 16m has a 10 bolt hole wheel and if its offset wil clear my chain boxes, I will leave the best 18x25s on the front even though they are taller than the newer wider bias ply tires are 3 to 5 inches shorter, i just need traction on the pulling rears, but somebody has a pair of new recaps 18x25 spose to go look at monday, its crazy trying to figure this out for sure, what drives me nuts is wondering if lowering this blade with shorter tires even with grader lug tires will make it get stuck more, hard to say, but in th eparts book it shows the 16 having 16x24 inch tires on the front fro the factory and 18x25 on the rear, now i see 16ms with the 23,5x25 that are 8 inches shorter than my 18x25s at 63 incheslol crazy for sure but i will not give up, does anybody know who can look up a cat wheel part number ad figure out what machines share the same wheel??? Looks like a lot of loaders and graders share the 10 bolt whole pattern and width in 20,5x25 and in 23,5x25 as well, seems like a logging equiptment company would have somebosy who could widen rims change out centers to get the right bolt hole pattern and offset to work on my blade!!
I am not sure what brands of Chinese tyres you can get in the US, but we have been using Chinese tyres on our loaders, grader and trucks for quite a few years and for the money, they are as good or better than the other brands. We use 20.5 x 25 Advance bias ply tyres on our loaders, they wear well and have given us no problems at all. We fitted a set of Double Coin radial tyres to our grader and they handling the job better than a set of Michelins that we had on another grader. We grade a lot of rocks and the Michelin tread was chipping worse than I expected, considering what they cost, whereas at this point in time, the Double Coins are not chipping at all. We will be changing to Double Coin radial ply tyres on the loaders when the others need replacing, only because the radial ply tyres give us more traction than the L3 rock lugs. I would also go as far to say that a big percentage of the Australian Trucking industry would be running on Chinese tyres. RnR.
Any idea who makes advance or who is a dealer in the US Anybody??