Hi, I recently bought a mustang 960 skid steer for personal use around my property. I have flattened 4 tires in two weeks! After the first two flat I replaced the two tires and now I have two more flats, one being the brand new tire! there are some sharp rocks out here but I can't believe that they are that sharp! I'm running 60 psi in Carlisle trac chief tire. I can't afford tracks or solids so are there any tips for minimizing the number of flats I'm getting? Thanks!
Well not sure what your ground conditions are but I would stop turning on a dime with it and make more gradual turns if your on shot rock or stuff like that .
60 psi is too high, run 30 to 35psi in them. The higher pressure doesn't allow any give in the tire and makes it more prone to puncture.
Ditto what Steve said. What kind of punctures/damage to your tires are you getting? Tears, gouges, holes, etc?
I had the same problems with carliles. Even had one blowout just driving down a asphalt road empty. Figured they where just junk tires and switch to Samson's. Much better wear and not more blowouts.
Your first issue is the brand, cheap tires always come back to bite you in the butt. 2nd I would drop the pressure some. 3rd do you not have tubes in them yet? Texas Refinery Corp makes a good tire sealant you leave in the tires.
Go with the highest ply tire you can get. There is a big difference between 6 ply and 10 ply. I usually run about 50-55 psi on my machines. Also I water fill my tires. With employees it seems to cut down on flats. At least with water you can see a leak and plug it before it goes totally flat or off the bead(rim). Also keeps the machine on the ground better. Avoid hard turning as was mentioned. I am not a fan of tubes because you cant plug them , but it may work better in different conditions. Experience will help also, don't just run over material. Lastly you may be one of the guys that just gets' flats all the time. I had a guy working for me I swear would get a flat without starting the machine. My fix for him....Solid tires!
Tire damage is almost like cracking. Big tear in a brand new tire, went flat immediately. Others have had holes or small cuts. No tubes. Can you patch or plug these things? The new tire is a gonner, probably a 4" long tear right through the tread, no sidewall damage.
Cheap? these things were $240 a pop! Anybody know a good place between San Antonio and Austin to buy Samsons?
I'm not usually one to say don't run this brand or that brand... But Carlisle's are junk. I've had a few friends with similar experiences. I run 12 ply Boss Grips that have chunks missing out of them. Last week I was in a bind and ran one front at less than 10 psi to finish a job and didn't slide it off the bead. I typically run 60 psi in them. They have all sorts of cuts and chunks missing and still do fine. John
I am not familiar with the brand you are running but it sounds like a low grade rubber compound in the tire. It seems that all tires have gotten more expensive and the quality has gone down the crapper. You could foam fill them but with crappy rubber on the outside it would just be a waste of money. You might want to try some tire slime to plug the small holes and run the other tires as long as possible. A couple of weeks ago I needed new tires for my S250. Since I was working literally a block away from the BC dealer, I dropped in to check prices, thinking it was a waste of time but not out of my way. To my surprise they had several sets of new tire and wheel take-offs for $1000 a set. Sold! The deal was even sweeter for me because the old tires were foam filled and I would have had the headache of removing the foam.
I refuse to run carlisles at all, never had one that was worth putting on let alone taking home, myself I run strictly caps on skid steers, in the last 15,000 hours of use, they've all been caps, for me they last over twice as long as any new tire I've ever tried, I also only run caps with the bead protector on them, but none are on carlisle casings. As for price at over 200 per tire, buyer beware, just because they cost that doesn't mean they are worth that much, there is a difference.
That is way to low unless its a super float designed to run at. 45 psi is about as low as one should go. At 30 psi, popping the bead is a real possibility. I normally set everything to 50 psi. As to OP's question, I would really have see his land before recommending anything. Dependind on what he is driving one, no tire maybe up to his task. I'd probably say foam fill what he has.
I have a set of L-4 from Sampson on my 465. I ran the airless tires for a while but the very poor performance on any surface that was not asphalt or concrete forced me to go away from them. These have been good tires. I shopped on the internet and found a company out of Colorado that shipped them to me. Very reasonable.
well I never run mine that low and never had that problem
$240 is bottom dollar for any virgin SSL tire.