Hey there, Its been awhile since I've had to buy tires and I'm wondering what actual brands and patterns of radial tires guys are running these days. I've got a Volvo G726 that I picked up about 6 months ago that has some cheap Bias Plys on it, they do the job but I'm getting sick of the time it takes them to true up in the morning. One of my other machines has some good year radials with a snow tread. That machine gets a lot of road time and the tires have held up great, but the pattern tends to gum up in clay soils pretty easily. I see some BKT Earthmax SR22's and a "Triangle" brand radial for under $1300/tire, never heard of either and I'm assuming you get what you pay for, but the $2k/tire for the good years is a little less appealing. The last good tire guy we had in the area retired so I'm starting from scratch. Whatcha running, what works, and what would you stay away from?
If your mainly in dirt and don’t do much snow removal I’d go with Bridgestone VKT tires I had them on my last machine and they worked great for summer grading and doing dirt work and they were ok in snow but I got Michelin snow plus tires on my new grader hard to beat for snow removal good luck. If you zoom in you can see the tires I had on my old grader.
Look and for barkley is a little more expensive from triangle and is better. Also it have the pattern of good year
Bridgestone VKT every time in dirt. The equivalent Michelin (whatever that is, XLGA maybe.?) provided your wallet can stand it....
same tires that came on our Volvo when it was new
I machine I have had for 12 months came with 2 x very well used triangle TB516's on one side and 2x very well used model of Bridgestones on the other tandems. I was literally looking at them this morning (as I topped up the air pressure in one of the Bridgestones) and thinking how impressed I am with the Triangles! They barely have a few mm of tread left, are full of screws nails and wire etc. They have cuts and gouges. But they stand up straight and square to the ground. The sidewalls/casings are the most impressive feature to me as that is where I most likely to receive tyre damage. I'm not saying they are suited to your application. And I'm not saying there's not better. But its just my opinion on what I've experienced.
The Bridgestones are really popular. I have some Goodyear SG-2B radials but they are foam filled. The SG-2B are specifically designed for graders working in a variety of conditions. They seem to have good traction and are non directional.