I need to replace the front tires on my 2WD 580K backhoe. A friend recommended used airplane tires. Anyone have good/bad experience with using them? I realize that there's basically no tread, but not sure how that could affect traction on 2WD machine. Any input appreciated.
I would suggest that you buy a tire with the best tread you can find. My hoe has some fairly good tread on the front but the back is at about 70% worn. I got into mud and it was like driving on grease. We built a barn for our equipment and our last day in NC it rained. Look at the video, I could not drive the machine into the barn, I had to claw my way in. I was actually sliding sideways with both front and back wheels just like being on ice. Now look at the slope, it is not very steep at all. I found any place I scraped the soil bare and when it got wet it was hard to move on. This spring I'm putting down 100 tons of gravel to fix that problem. Here is the video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koyF_MpqPzU&list=UUSCicCU-PqrdjZDRDxRn83g&index=4
I tried used truck tyres with very little tread.They work ok on the flat but if you are working across a slope your front end will slide downhill, very annoying.
I've got a good friend that uses them on his farming implements in an application where no other tire holds up - marking potato rows/fumigation implements pulled by 560hp/9630T John Deere tractors. They do work well for that, but it is not a steering application either. I know some sizes of the tires require a split rim for installation because simply put, the sidewall/bead will not flex enough to get them on fixed wheels, so possibly purchasing split rims would be a consideration for you too. Here is their source for them (and some side info too): http://www.noflats.com/ If it were me (and it was a year or 2 ago), I'd just replace them with the mfr spec 10/12/14 ply construction tire for $150 ish each. Edit, after looking at my link, it seems they have some tri rib tires, they show a store in Texas (maybe close to you?), and their prices are not too bad. Second thought, I'd probably check them out.
There was several in the area at one time that ran airplane tires, seen a lot on farm equipment with bolted rims like batwing mowers, ours had eight across the back, light footprint but would slide easy on a slope if wet and mud. Most used the tri rib ag tires, over sized on 2wd backhoe's with custom rims that will give some bite and clean the rib a little better, 2wd and slick ground is always a hard issue to deal with. I would pic a tire that fitts what you do the most along with sidewall strength and ply's. A heavy duty set of front tire chains while working in the mud could help if your not on the pavement, some mud will build up but the clay soils are a real pain. I would not do the airplane tires.
I ran them on my 2wd Ford 4500 backhoe and Ford 3400 loader tractor. I loved them. I had no flats, you couldn't overload them and for turning traction I didn't see them as any worse than the tri-rib ag tires I replaced. They had very shallow straight tread. One factor is that the Fords were very nose heavy, where Case hoes are real light in the nose. This made 2wd Fords turn better in the slick than Cases but the Cases would keep moving where the Fords would just spin or bury their front ends. All in all now that I've moved on to 4wd Cases I'm not going back. Back on track, I did really like the airplane tires. I got them from those same people above and found the service to be good too. They used to have some that they had "recapped" w/ a traction tread maybe they still do?