Four wheel drive 24.5 x32 20 ply, on the back axle a tire with 50% tread and the other pretty bald will that break axle shafts or give me any problems ?
Depends. Do you have open differential or a locking diff. With lockers, it will be a problem, with open, not so much. If four wheel drive, it will bind the transfer box gears till something breaks if you are on hard ground. What is a 24.5 x 32 on anyway?
It's on a 87 Treefarmer Grapple Skidder Iam guessing it is a open differential whats your two cents now ?
Most skidder work I have seen is rarely on hard footing. I know the proper way would be to match up closer, but to get by when it is what you have, watch out for binding. If it is not binding up I would say it would be OK. Traveling long distances in one direction with no slippage will likely cause problems, buy if there is some tire slip in soft ground you will probably be OK. I am assuming it is 4 wheel drive. If you have a temp gun you can shoot the output shaft bearing areas in the t-case. If it is binding, it will be hotter than normal. If not, no problem. Remember if you go to hard ground it will be a bigger problem. Hope this helps. Any picture of the machine?
Most of the loggers I work with only put on a new tire when absolutely neccessary. It is very common to see them running with a new tire beside a slick one.
I'm with Mitch504 on this one. There is so little profit margin in logging these days no one can afford to replace two tires at a time unless they absolutely have to. Run it, the worst it will do is spin the bald one at times.
The first one I changed took me 12 hours so today I changed the other side and it took me 6 hours. I hope they last as long as I want to log yet.