Tire Replacement

[Steve Frazier]

I'm in need of replacing the tires on my Cat 248. I've spoken with some tire reps, many recommend a radial tire with something similar to an all-terrain tread. The ones I've seen are Michelins, I've been told the tread life will be better.

I spend my time about 50/50 on /off road, unloading/loading trucks and doing excavation work. Does anyone have any experience with this type of tire and can you recommend it over the standard industrial lug design?

Thanks!

[paulsoccodato]

steve,

i have always run the same tires on my ls-170, hd-2000's.

i dont think their the best, (from what i have read), but they do everything pretty good, and have a decent wear rate.

the biggest problem is the on/off road usage. you dont want a good pavement tire, thats going to get you stuck in the dirt.

unless you were going to use them in a strict enviorment, such as demolition, or waste handling, on a single surface.

if you have gotton good results, and good wear with your o.e. tires, then its probably best to stick with them.

how many hours did you get out of your last set?

[cat320]

Steve check oyt the hulk or king kong in the Galaxy tire.
http://www.galaxytire.com/earth_skidst.shtml
The hulk has a real deep tread and will take forever to wear out.

[Steve Frazier]

My machine came with the Galaxy Beefy Babys, The Michelin tire that's been recommended to me has a tread similar to their Hulk" L-5 . I got about 850 hours from the original tires, but their pretty well worn.

[cat320]

Steve when i went to get my backhoe tire repaired the dealer was showing my those hulk tires .He said that he has had hardly anybody come back with a flat or anything else.But they are relativly new from what he was telling me.Maybe when my front tire wear down I will get those I tink the price was close to $500 for the 2 tires mounted on my rims and having slime put in .But for now I still have tread left on them.

[Stonehenge]

850 hours? That's impressive!

We've got a Gehl 6635 SXT that came with Beefy Babies, too. They lasted about as long as any other tire we've run. About 250-300 hours. So I run the cheapies now, whatever Asia or the Pacific Rim can kick out for cheap is what goes on our skidder.

I have heard about those Michelins, I heard they run about $1300 a set. I can usually get a set of imports for about $450-500.

[Steve Frazier]

Stonehenge, were you able to mount those tires yourself or did they require a machine?

[cat320]

Steve when i had to have my front tire fixed about the same size as the skid steeres they used just a bar to take it on and off.I bet you could do your own .The only thing is getting the tire to seat with that fast blast of air or tie a rope in the middle to push tire to bead then use a regular compresor. But that's all he used was a metal bar and a block of wood.

[Stonehenge]

Y'know, I tried one time to replace them myself, but I either did not have the right tools or the right knowledge to do the job. Got a tire off, could not get another tire on.

So after that experience, I just bring our stuff to our tire people and let them do it.

[mert0714]

On our machine we run the "Bulky Hulks" 33 X 15.5 x 16.5 from Galaxy and are in the 1300- 1500 hr range with 1/4 of the tread left to go. Our application is mostly concrete removal and grading for replacement. We do a lot of turning on concrete to load trucks and driving over pieces to get out. We have never had a flat and have been very satisfied with the performance. I think the lugs clean out better but the tread pattern of the hulks/bulky hulks are more favorable for concrete spinning and less disturbing of the grade. The only time they are not that good is in the greasy mud when the lugs get filled and don't clean out. Our next machine will have them with out a doubt. We decided to try the floaters to be more stable, disturb the grade less and sort of simulate the performace of tracks with out scratching surfaces (driveways).

Hope this helps.

[Steve Frazier]

mert, Welcome to HeavyEquipmentForums!

Did you find any improvement in the flotation capability of the "Bulky Hulk"? About 50% of my work is on customers' lawns, and if I could leave fewer ruts, cleanups would go faster.

[mert0714]

It is noticably better as far as leaving ruts. When I do it, I like to vary my path a little bit and it seems to help even more. The psi is less and the ruts seem to blend out easier. It also seems that you can make quit a few more trips through the same spot with out disturbing the grass (tearing it up). They (tires) are more expensive for sure but then you get what you pay for also. If you don't spin on hard rough surfaces all the time to grind off the rubber. Then they will last even longer. Check out galaxytire.com (I think)

[Bob Horrell]

Sams Club has a good deal skid steer tires. You have to order them on line for delivery to your local store. If you don't like them when you arrive, they will return them no charge. They have most of the ones mentioned here for prices I don't think you can match anywhere. At least I couldn't find them any cheaper.

[cat320]

I was looking at these in the equipment trader Nu-air tyre

http://www.mclarenindustries.com/

[Bob Horrell]

cat320,
Get the video from them and you will be impressed. Quite pricey though. I currently have grouser tracks for my bobcat S250 and have been thinking about swithing to their tracks for better traction in sand.

[Steve Frazier]

Bob, I looked at the tires at Sam's web page a while ago, but can't find my way back to them. Do you have a link that I can get to them through?

I've found a tire by Solideal (http://www.solideal.com) I want to compare Sam's prices too and can't access their list.
Thanks!

[Bob Horrell]

Steve, I tried to access it and ran into the same problem. It looks like they changed that portion of their site and the commercial stuff got omitted. I will ask about it the next time I am at my local Sams Club and let you know what I find out.
Bob

[riggler]

I vote for the beefy babies......while i never get more than 500 hrs out of any tires, the beefy babies seem to ba a lot more puncture and tear resistant than anything we have tried. While i dont think they last more than 25 % longer than the others, they never give a problem till they are shot, while we put tons of patches and plugs in other tires to get the same amount of hours on them.
We also run logering tracks, and the beefy babies with those big shoulders seem to give us a lot less headaches when running with the tracks..... just my .50, steve

[mert0714]

Steve, have you decided on anything for your machine? Our new machine is due in anytime, after we get it set up, I will be posting. We are doing the "Bulky Hulks" again. $1450 for tires and rims (dealer priced). First set was much more for just the tires, they must have gone down since or we got good trade in for stock tires and rims.

[Steve Frazier]

The tires are on hold for now, I found a used truck that was too good to pass up. I'm trying to find out how to get on to Sam's Club page where the skid steer tires are with little success. I e-mailed the webmaster, but have had no response.

I'll probably do either the bulky hulk or the tire by Solideal, depending on price. The Solideal's are $190 a piece, I can't find Sam's price on the Bulky Hulks.

[GeoffD]

What did you end up buying? I know you started looking during the summer if i remember right.

Geoff

[Steve Frazier]

Nothing yet Geoff, I just got my truck yesterday and I've got some upfitting to do on that first. If the snow cooperates, I'll be in better shape for tires next month.

[GeoffD]

Sorry, Steve I was asking about the truck.

Geoff

[Steve Frazier]

:o

I found a '95 F-SuperDuty from Texas with a PowerStroke and 5 speed, just what I was looking for. The truck is extremely clean, but currently has a flatbed. I'm pulling that off to put an aluminum dump body on. This truckwiull replace the '92 Chevy 3500 I've got, and will be used for the landscaping crew.

[River Hill]

There is a pretty good article on skid steer tires in the February 2004 issue of Equipment World.

[Steve Frazier]

I was reading that at the supper table! I'm torn between the radials and bias ply, I wish I knew someone who had run the radials.

[lawngodfather]

I need new tires and rims, I have ot get the 10.5, otherwise they will be to wide for my machine.

Anybody got some links with prices?

http://www.gregabbottequipment.com/skid-steer_loader/wheels_and_tires/default.asp

[Steve Frazier]

I realized the other day I never did a follow up to this thread. I ended up buying tires made by Solideal. The treads resemble a Bandag retread I often see on heavy trucks for winter use. I bought these along with six tires for my F-550 at the same time and the dealer cut me what I thought was a pretty good deal.

The tires as pictured now have about 200 hours on them. So far they're working out pretty well. They don't skuff up the turf as bad as the original tires (construction tractor tread) and don't hop on pavement as bad either. The down side is they don't have quite the traction that the originals did in mud. I can't push into a pile as before with these tires after a rain. I haven't been stuck yet, but there's no traction for pushing.

Another problem is the tires load up with mud easily, which then gets tracked onto pavement. The picture on the bottom shows one pass over pavement after crossing a construction area during rain. We had to spend about 10 minutes cleaning up from this.

All in all, I think these tires will work well for me, they worked fine in our snow operation and the benefits outweigh the downsides so far. I'll keep you posted on the way thery are wearing as time goes on.