If you want your agricultural operation to run at optimal efficiency, re-evaluating your vehicles is a good place to start. While it’s important that all aspects of your vehicles are properly maintained and accounted for, tractor tyres can really be put through their paces by demanding farm work, so it certainly pays to tune them properly.
In this guide, the Treadfirst team will be taking a look at agricultural tyre pressure and tread patterns, so you can get a better understanding of these features and how they can impact farming work.
Tyre pressure
While we all know that it’s important to ensure that our tyres are at the correct pressure, this is doubly important for agricultural tyres. Failing to do so will lead to a significant drop in performance and will have a profound effect on overall tyre wear and soil compaction. You will even find yourself spending more money on fuel, as an agricultural vehicle with incorrect tyre pressures can waste 20-40% engine power through tyre slip and rolling resistance.
Finding the right pressure for your particular set of tractor tyres is all about trying to maximise the overall tyre footprint, whilst keeping them as strong and secure as possible. Essentially, this means you’re looking to find the lowest possible pressure that won’t end up damaging the construction of the tyres themselves. Given that the load on the tyres could be changing from day to day depending on the work required, the optimal tyre pressure will also take this into account.
To help navigate this problem, agricultural tyre manufacturers create comprehensive resource sheets with data on tyre sizes, maximum load weights and suggested inflation pressures, so if you’re looking to find the right pressure for your tyres in particular, this information is essential.
If you would like more information on working tyre pressures, please contact us at our Bury St Edmunds Agricultural branch.
