Authored by: Tractor tyre expert | 16 June 2023
Harvesting is a very specific operation with many different aspects to manage, one of the most important of which is work planning. As it is the outcome of an entire season’s work, it would be a shame not to be able to conduct the operation in the best conditions due to a problem linked to tyres.
Certain agricultural tyres have been designed specifically for this work and it is by using tyre dimensions with the largest volume of air that you benefit most from their advantages which can really help to save time. More load capacity so that you don’t have to stop during operations, better traction to reduce slip and fuel consumption. Harvester 900 mm tyres are perfectly adapted to large farms of a hundred acres or more, which use powerful, heavy machinery. The choice of a wide model will be combined with the quality traits of a good harvesting tyre.
If your harvester is equipped with standard, average dimension tyres, you will rapidly reach their limits in terms of load carrying capacity and maximum pressure.
This may lead to difficulties during your harvest, requiring more frequent emptying of the hopper or even the interruption of operations if inbound and outbound trailers are not well synchronised.
However, there is a simple way of avoiding these difficulties by increasing the dimensions of your harvesting tyres and opting for extra-wide 900 mm tyres which have a greater volume of air and therefore an additional load capacity, allowing you to work longer without having to empty the hopper.
Depending on your harvester model, the load capacity of the hopper may vary from 8,000 to 15,000 litres which corresponds (for a grain density of around 80 kg /100 litres) to a variable load of between 6,400 to 12,000 additional kg.
In view of the considerable weight, it is not necessarily wise to use standard tyres which will be crushed by the effect of the weight.
Harvester tyres have been engineered to resist these regular variations in load.
The quality of the casing of an agricultural tyre is essential in increasing its resistance, its durability and its load bearing capacity. The casing may be compared to the skeleton of a tyre; it is made up of fabric and rubber which give it its resistant characteristics.
Harvester tyres face more difficult working conditions than standard tractor tyres and have to cope with heavy cyclic loads.
A superior quality casing contains more layers of fabric and stabilising ply to reinforce the structure of the tyre.
The tyre sidewalls must also be made of quality rubber to increase their resistance while maintaining their suppleness.
A good harvest tyre must be able to resist higher pressure than a tractor tyre and must have a very solid casing.
Standard tyres and tyres with supple sidewalls are not adapted to these conditions. They are not designed to be able to withstand an inflation pressure of up to 4 bars and cope with major variations in load.
It is advisable to choose wide dimension tyres capable of working at a higher inflation pressure to compensate for the excessive weight when the hopper reaches its maximum load.
This resistance to pressure ensures that you can continue working during harvesting activities, without ever having to interrupt operations.
To ensure good motricity, your tyres must satisfy certain criteria, such as the possibility of working with a larger soil footprint and having a design that is optimised for traction purposes.
If you choose tyres with wide dimensions, the soil footprint will be much bigger and longer and the lug contact area much greater.
This will lead to better adherence, even in difficult conditions such as when working on slopes or in wet conditions.
The design of the harvest tyres must reduce soil disturbance and improve self-cleaning, which will improve the transmission of the horizontal force and reduce slip. Better traction leads to time saved on harvesting campaigns, thus increasing productivity in every field.
In general time is of the essence during the harvest and you can really improve your productivity just by changing the dimension of your tyres and opting for a width of 900 mm.
Not all harvester tyres are multipurpose; they don’t all have the right number of lugs or the lugs may not be placed at the best angle, which makes them unsuitable for autumn work.
This is not the case of the Maxi Traction Harvest tyre which is available in wide format to improve the load carrying capacity and traction for summer harvesting in dry weather conditions, but also with a profile that is perfectly adapted to the wet season for harvesting sunflower or corn.
The design of the dual angle lugs ensures optimal adherence to the ground, thus limiting soil damage. For the 900 mm model, the large contact area with the ground for each lug leads to powerful traction.
Its casing is solid and its sidewalls have been reinforced to resist variations in cyclic loads, making it possible to work at an inflation pressure of between 0.8 and 3.2 bar.
The new anti-wear compound added to the rubber mixture ensures great durability and high resistance to damage.
Maxi Traction Harvest tyres offer a cyclic load bonus with a pressure of up to 4 bar:
This is the difference in load that you can obtain by changing from a 650 to a 900 mm tyre, with different levels of speed and pressure:
| Tyre dimensions | Load capacity at 40 km/h - max. 3.2 bar | Cyclic load capacity at 10 km/h - max. 4 bar |
LOAD BONUS |
|---|---|---|---|
| 650/75 R32 | 6,300 kg | 10,710 kg | +70% |
| 800/65 R32 | 7,500 kg | 12,750 kg | +70% |
| 900/60 R32 | 8,250 kg | 14,025 kg | +70% |
The Maxi Traction Harvest offers optimal driving comfort thanks to its fully revised, last generation 900 mm design: all the elements that play a role in driving comfort such as the form, overlapping and number of lugs as well as the internal structure of the tyre have been revised and optimised.
The new design guarantees optimal driving comfort. The highly balanced pitch variation produces no vibration and offers a safe and pleasant driving experience.
with its 900 mm width, the Maxi Traction Harvest’s bigger footprint improves traction, thus helping to reduce fuel consumption.
Which makes them an ideal choice for harvesting operations.
With Firestone, you have the guarantee of tractor tyres that deliver a real advantage, and that in choosing our brand, you can work worry-free.
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