Anyone remember?

[Kevtherev]

Today it was raining v heavy and for some reason I happened to think about flotation tyres for spring work.
Does any of us on here remember an article about flotation tyres in the FW or even Big Farm weekly about a chap that fitted very large flotation tyres to a ford 46?
From memory they were aircraft type tyres and he Knick named it the rubber duckling?
Just interested to know what happened to the concept?
@Bury the Trash @yellowbelly might remember?

 

[grainboy]

These available

 

[yellowbelly]

Today it was raining v heavy and for some reason I happened to think about flotation tyres for spring work.
Does any of us on here remember an article about flotation tyres in the FW or even Big Farm weekly about a chap that fitted very large flotation tyres to a ford 46?
From memory they were aircraft type tyres and he Knick named it the rubber duckling?
Just interested to know what happened to the concept?
@Bury the Trash @yellowbelly might remember?

Seems to ring a bell. I do miss Big Farm Management and it's offshoot Big Farm Weekly.

It was all the rage to put big tyres on little tractors back then. There were a few little 4WD Holder tractors round here on Trelleborgs or Terra Tyres. Just Googled this....

We mainly used 67x38-25's as opposed to the 43's in @grainboy's post above, as they were slightly handier for all the road work we did - although this 7700 was on 43's in this pic...

We got a lot of jobs where ordinary tyres and duals could not go...

.....that rape was seriously wet - you couldn't walk 10 yards into the field before your boots were so blathered up with muck stuck to them that they were three times the size.
The customer was so impressed, he bought his own set of Terras

Here's the difference....

....the original wheeling was made by the 7700 (the one in the pic with the sprayer, above) It had just top dressed that field of wheat with a one ton mounted spreader. For a comparison, we tried to drive up a tramline with a similar tractor, on (what was in those days laughingly called) 'flotation tyres'. That's as far as we dare go - we backed out.

Most tractors were 2WD back then (early 80's).
When 4WD became the norm, we had to get 'really serious'

All our Terra Tyres came from B.A.Bush of Horncastle in the days when they only had one (maybe two?) depots (they have about 25 or 30 now).

If anybody remembers the World Ploughing Match being at Whispington in Lincolnshire - that was a really wet back end, we bought another set off Bush's that weekend 'cos we'd everybody and his brother wanting jobs doing on Terras as nothing else could travel.

Ah, the 'good old days' - no fannying about with direct drills back then, just plough up some dry and force it in with big tyres and plenty of power
Drill up to furrow every night in case it rained before morning and plough and drill the headlands last

Thanks Kev - I've enjoyed a trip down memory lane

 

[JWL]

We bought a set of Terra Tyres for the TF44 I used to drive one really wet summer, after I had combined/salvaged what I could of the close on 2000 acres of our own the boss contracted me out to Facenda's that were next door to us just outside Stratford on Avon. There were 6 combines all in a field that was near enough 100acres and wet. We were in there for weeks just jumping on and giving it a go whenever you could get it to go through the combine, the straw was totally written off.
The set of tyres fitted my drilling tractor and that poor old thing saw some action with drilling, spraying and fert spreading shod like that.

 

[nick...]

Today it was raining v heavy and for some reason I happened to think about flotation tyres for spring work.
Does any of us on here remember an article about flotation tyres in the FW or even Big Farm weekly about a chap that fitted very large flotation tyres to a ford 46?
From memory they were aircraft type tyres and he Knick named it the rubber duckling?
Just interested to know what happened to the concept?
@Bury the Trash @yellowbelly might remember?

I can remember the article and the tractor was running on what was effectively heavy duty inner tubes with no tread whatso ever.obviously never caught on unlike the craze fir the Russian flotation tyres
nick...

 

[jonnieboy]

Wasn’t very nice crawling into the middle with the 1” drive windy gun

 

[yellowbelly]

Wasn’t very nice crawling into the middle with the 1” drive windy gun

 

[JWL]

We bought a set of Terra Tyres for the TF44 I used to drive one really wet summer, after I had combined/salvaged what I could of the close on 2000 acres of our own the boss contracted me out to Facenda's that were next door to us just outside Stratford on Avon. There were 6 combines all in a field that was near enough 100acres and wet. We were in there for weeks just jumping on and giving it a go whenever you could get it to go through the combine, the straw was totally written off.
The set of tyres fitted my drilling tractor and that poor old thing saw some action with drilling, spraying and fert spreading shod like that.View attachment 1099647

Just looking again at that photo thinking now that was min till over 30 years ago

 

[steveR]

Today it was raining v heavy and for some reason I happened to think about flotation tyres for spring work.
Does any of us on here remember an article about flotation tyres in the FW or even Big Farm weekly about a chap that fitted very large flotation tyres to a ford 46?
From memory they were aircraft type tyres and he Knick named it the rubber duckling?
Just interested to know what happened to the concept?
@Bury the Trash @yellowbelly might remember?

I am told that a modern 350hp tractor shod on fancy radials, is so light on the ground, they don't need duals or flotations tyres these days.... I suspect it is more that these big contract type outfits are on the road so much, they can't get around on big tyres.

LGP is so passe these days, you know!

Those Terra tyres were bloody amazing though, albeit, they possibly allowed access onto land that should not have been travelled on really.

 

[Exfarmer]

Frank Cundell at Ace Plant at Stoney Stratford was a big proponent and sold a lot of sets. I know he had early success at an autumn cultivations demo where most of the 4WDs were struggling you move on top and a little Ford was running rings around on a set of terra tyres or similar

 

[Flat 10]

Today it was raining v heavy and for some reason I happened to think about flotation tyres for spring work.
Does any of us on here remember an article about flotation tyres in the FW or even Big Farm weekly about a chap that fitted very large flotation tyres to a ford 46?
From memory they were aircraft type tyres and he Knick named it the rubber duckling?
Just interested to know what happened to the concept?
@Bury the Trash @yellowbelly might remember?

There was an article in classic tractor with that ford in @rorsday

 

[Flat 10]

These available View attachment 1099629View attachment 1099630View attachment 1099631View attachment 1099632

Are they equivalent to 18.4r 38s in diameter?

 

[Renaultman]

Just looking again at that photo thinking now that was min till over 30 years ago

That's what my dad said, everything drilled with 2 passes, pair of Deutz tractors one on a 5 furrow plough the other on a 4m combi drill with front press, perfect in very wet or very dry conditions, an expensive but effective way of getting corn in the ground.
I still have a pair of Terra tyres, last used on my old TX 34 for LGP combining.

 

[steveR]

I think a few of these ended up in hill country like Wales, being used as fencing tractors. Seen a couple in the past in mid Wales.

 

[Lowland1]

I think they were rubber duk or something like that they looked like slick Tyres and were dualed in the original article the Ford 4600 ( safety cab) had small terra Tyres on the front. However in a later report the front axle looked to have been turned upside down and the tractor had a single set of Tyres similar to the rear duals. I have difficulty remembering my own name but anything in Power farming 1970- 1991 I remember .

 

[Flat 10]

I think they were rubber duk or something like that they looked like slick Tyres and were dualed in the original article the Ford 4600 ( safety cab) had small terra Tyres on the front. However in a later report the front axle looked to have been turned upside down and the tractor had a single set of Tyres similar to the rear duals. I have difficulty remembering my own name but anything in Power farming 1970- 1991 I remember .

You are right re front axle. I thought it was a 4610 AP there was definitely an article in classic tractor on it

 

[2wheels]

View attachment 1099664

son's bosses have bought a 1"? battery milwaukee impact gun. should be fun.

 

[yellowbelly]

Are they equivalent to 18.4r 38s in diameter?

No they were more of a 16.9 R 38 replacement.
You're wandering into my 'Mastermind Specialist Subject' now....

18.4 R 38 O/D = 1748mm (70")

66x43.00'25 O/D = 1662.5mm (66")

It depends if you don't mind lowering your tractor/ altering forward speeds in all gears.

If it's 4WD, it opens up a whole new can of worms. You get onto matching rolling circumferences so you don't 'wind up' the transmission.

Been there and done all that.

There's pages and pages of calculations in that file

 

[Lowland1]

You are right re front axle. I thought it was a 4610 AP there was definitely an article in classic tractor on it

Maybe later but the original was a 4600 I remember the sidelights being the longer versions we had on our 4000s not the shorter ones like on our 6600 safety cab.

 

[Bruce Almighty]

I remember it in Power Farming, racing slicks looking like heavy duty inner tubes as mentioned above. They would've been useless on a slope.