Buying Tires.

I am going to end up buying tires for my old backhoe in the near future, and I was wondering where is a good place to look? And also what brands do you prefer, what holds up the longest? The backhoe I am working on has 14.9-24 back tires and I know the rear tires aren't cheap..

My backhoes sit more than they run. We only have 5. I've been happy with BKT tires on them.

5 outta 10 OEM supplied Goodyears failed the inner sidewall, an inch from the bead, before the tread was 50% gone. And these machines are '98s and '05s.

heymccall said:

My backhoes sit more than they run. We only have 5. I've been happy with BKT tires on them.

5 outta 10 OEM supplied Goodyears failed the inner sidewall, an inch from the bead, before the tread was 50% gone. And these machines are '98s and '05s.

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The backhoe has Summit(?) tires on it right now that are at least 10 years old. They are cracked up, but they still have decent tread. I'm really not to brand specific, I'll look into the BKT's. Thanks!

What is the machine used for and how often is it used? If you've got good tread and the cracks aren't too bad, run 'em, especially if they're tubed....drives aren't cheap and I've seen "cracked" tires last a long time on lots of old machines, including mine..Of course if you run the beast down the road frequently and are concerned with a blowout and you have the extra loot, buy 'em.. they'll make your old hoe look cooler too...

heymccall said:

5 outta 10 OEM supplied Goodyears failed the inner sidewall, an inch from the bead, before the tread was 50% gone. And these machines are '98s and '05s.

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So to be fair, those are 16 and 23 year old backhoe tires! That's deterioration due to age, not faulty tires.

No...I wasn't clear. 3 failed within 2.5 years on my 3 416C/426C machines bought new in 1998.
And 2 failed within 3 years on my 2 new 420E machines purchased in 2005.

All failures at 3 years or under on 5 outta 10 tires, 7 production years apart.

heymccall said:

All failures at 3 years or under on 5 outta 10 tires, 7 production years apart.

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Ouch, that ain't cool! Should have lasted longer than that for sure.

That's pretty bad. I've been lucky. My Goodyear IT525s on my 310 are 17 years old and bald. I've been eyeing tires too. I'll probably check out Titans, Galaxy and BKT. Probably won't get anything less than a 12 ply.

What were the failures ?
Ply separations ? Blow outs ?

1 inch from rim edge, inboard side, full blowouts, all 5 failures. We maintain 35 psi in them.

too much air pressure 25psi is high

My old hoe had Firestones all the way around. Both of the right side tires had good tread and both of the left side not so much. Early on I learned two lessons. I drove it into an area I hadn't raked clean of small stumps and I had the pressure set to 32 PSI per the manual. I poked a hole in the left rear sidewall. Fortunately it was one of the worn tires.

I called a roadside repair shop about 7 miles from me and the lady asked if I had a brand preference. I told her any brand they felt would give good service, not cost more than my house, and could be had that day. The guy came out a couple hours later with a 16.9-28 R4 Special in an Otani brand and put it on for $650. It still looks pretty much like it did the day it was installed 5 years ago.

I run my tires at 20 PSI now and I don't ever drive into an area that might have any small stumps. I use the hoe bucket teeth to rake through or I have the loader bucket flat and bulldoze my way in to make sure all the stumps are gone. If I hit one I dig it out and rake all the ground around it before I proceed.

My LF is still semi bald and has several cuts but it still holds air. One of these days?

jimg984 said:

too much air pressure 25psi is high

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That's relative to the weight of the machine my 416c runs great at 30 psi at 25 they squat to much my newer 310 sl hl run about 35 but they are heavy machines for 19.5 24s

Titans are kinda spendy we been buying dirty dawg thru are local tire house but that's a generic tire with the house name

If you want cheap, check ebay.
Though I'd probably keep running your tires, unless the cracks are that bad.

I'm probably gonna keep running the ones I have for a few more months, they have good tread. I think the guy I bought the backhoe from just parked it in a field and the sun just ate the tires. I just figured I'd ask around here to see what the best options might be, I had been looking at some Galaxy tires, they are something like the $500-$600 range. I just wasn't sure what would hold up the best.

For what it's worth I have Galaxy brand turfs all the way around on my CUT and they are holding up fine. I think they are going on 4 years old. John Deere describes the Galaxy tires as a longer lasting tire designed for golf courses. Just saying.

The Titan tires it had on it were bald on the front and cracking on the rears. The tractor is a 2004 and had 1250 rode hard and put up wet hours on it.

Galaxy is deeres generic factory backhoe tire I am not a big fan but for the price they do the job be sure to keep them full of air they cut sidewalls fast when low

heymccall said:

My backhoes sit more than they run. We only have 5. I've been happy with BKT tires on them.

5 outta 10 OEM supplied Goodyears failed the inner sidewall, an inch from the bead, before the tread was 50% gone. And these machines are '98s and '05s.

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I'm not a fan of Goodyear off road tires although I put Titan rears on my tractor. Titan bought the rights to Goodyear I believe. They have some minor cracking by the lugs but are are about 20 years old now. When I bought my skid steer it was equipped with Goodyear tires. They started weather cracking in 1.5 years and it got progressively worse. My guess is they sat around outside for a long time before being mounted. After about 4 years I inquired about it and was told I was too late to have them replaced under warranty. Apparently Goodyear has a warranty program I wasn't aware of. Know a guy who bought a brand new JD combine and had the tires replaced on warranty. He used it until the new tires arrived. He wanted the tires right off the assembly line and I can't blame him! I've seen a lot Goodyear farm tires get weather checked rather quickly as well.

AzIron said:

Galaxy is deeres generic factory backhoe tire I am not a big fan but for the price they do the job be sure to keep them full of air they cut sidewalls fast when low

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The opinions I got when I punctured my backhoe tire was the higher pressure would be the cause. The tire guy said they were less likely to puncture with lower pressure so they can flex.

Since I ruined one at 32 psi I believed him and have run lower pressures worry free for over 5 years.

I run 20 psi all the way around on the 15,000 lb backhoe. On my 4,000 lb John Deere I run 20 rear and 25 front.

I've been running all my BKT at 35psi, for years, and no difference in puncture resistance has been noted.