Dual Wheels

[Gary A]

Last year I was disappointed that I couldn't use my little Yanmar tractor in the flooded rice paddies. Even with four wheel drive It would sink. If I were able to find another set of wheels and use dual wheels front and back, do you suppose I could use the rotary tiller in the mud? I'm tempted to try it but hate to waste the time, money and effort if it won't work.

I have never seen dual wheels on tractors in Thailand.

[lannarebirth]

Last year I was disappointed that I couldn't use my little Yanmar tractor in the flooded rice paddies. Even with four wheel drive It would sink. If I were able to find another set of wheels and use dual wheels front and back, do you suppose I could use the rotary tiller in the mud? I'm tempted to try it but hate to waste the time, money and effort if it won't work.

I have never seen dual wheels on tractors in Thailand.

I haven't seen it on a Yanmar tractor, but on Kubotas I've seen metal "paddy paddle wheels" bolted to the regular rear wheels of the tractor. They look just like the paddy wheels of the iron buffalo, only larger sized to match rear tire and with a bolt on flange to attatch to wheel. I don't know if it is a commercially available product or if the owners have them made up at the welding shop.

Edited March 14, 2008 by lannarebirth

[slapout]

Gary; Dual rear wheels are used on big hp tractors to reduce slippage, while pulling large implements. By big hp I mean 190 hp plus and implements like 28 ft sweep or 10 bottom moleboard plows. If you are working soft ground rear duals may help a little but the front single tires would still sink in. Doubt your small tractor would have the power required if you had duals front and back, but this may not be true. There is a Yanmar dealer in Chiang Mai ( I stop and look at his gagets quite often) I will ask the nest time I go by to see if they know of this being done. there is a ballon type tire for large tractor and combines (we called them airplane tires) no rised thread and about double width of normal tractor tires. They give you the capability of working wet ground, but you do lose some traction. They also make a slightly bigger than normal, flotation tire, for work like your talking about, I have seen these on 45 hp tractors. May take a bit of looking to find in Thailand.

[Pond Life]

On the subject of tires,

Anyone seen lawn tires for small tractors in Thailand.

I hope to hire out my tractor to cut grass, but most of the buisness is likely to be in the rainy season when the ground is soft.

It looks to me like the standard ag tires are a bit narrow & agressive for this.

Im not talking about cutting golf courses, but most people would not want ugly ruts running in & out of their mango tree's.

[Gary A]

Gary; Dual rear wheels are used on big hp tractors to reduce slippage, while pulling large implements. By big hp I mean 190 hp plus and implements like 28 ft sweep or 10 bottom moleboard plows. If you are working soft ground rear duals may help a little but the front single tires would still sink in. Doubt your small tractor would have the power required if you had duals front and back, but this may not be true. There is a Yanmar dealer in Chiang Mai ( I stop and look at his gagets quite often) I will ask the nest time I go by to see if they know of this being done. there is a ballon type tire for large tractor and combines (we called them airplane tires) no rised thread and about double width of normal tractor tires. They give you the capability of working wet ground, but you do lose some traction. They also make a slightly bigger than normal, flotation tire, for work like your talking about, I have seen these on 45 hp tractors. May take a bit of looking to find in Thailand.

The object is to gain enough flotation so the a rotary tiller can be used in flooded paddies. I have seen Kubotas being used in Chiang Rai with the normal tires. These paddies must have been farmed long enough to have formed a hard plow sole that supports the tractors.

Added - I did contact an American company that builds tracks for four wheel drive trucks and small tractors. Unfortunately they are VERY expensive.

Edited March 15, 2008 by Gary A

[slapout]

Gary; with all the wheels and tires they put on the various vehicles in Thailand you may just have to go to a big tire dealer to look for a wide low pressure tire that may even fit your present rims. Using a tiller, it will push you along and tires would fit the floation need. Yes track systems are expensive and limited for their use. I have seen home made track that fit over existing tires, front to back after installed over unpressured tires, tires inflated and viloa tracks are tightened. They used wood slates built into and attached to sprocket type chains, seem like it took 4 chains per side with welded staps of iron holding everthing in place. I never asked why they did not use angle iron, instead of wooden slats, maybe wanted flexability of chains. A good farm welder and a little southern engineering should make something like this very reasonable. Chains would be biggest expense.

[Gary A]

Gary; with all the wheels and tires they put on the various vehicles in Thailand you may just have to go to a big tire dealer to look for a wide low pressure tire that may even fit your present rims. Using a tiller, it will push you along and tires would fit the floation need. Yes track systems are expensive and limited for their use. I have seen home made track that fit over existing tires, front to back after installed over unpressured tires, tires inflated and viloa tracks are tightened. They used wood slates built into and attached to sprocket type chains, seem like it took 4 chains per side with welded staps of iron holding everthing in place. I never asked why they did not use angle iron, instead of wooden slats, maybe wanted flexability of chains. A good farm welder and a little southern engineering should make something like this very reasonable. Chains would be biggest expense.

Steering with only the brakes would be a pain in the butt.

[Maizefarmer]

On the subject of tires,

Anyone seen lawn tires for small tractors in Thailand.

I hope to hire out my tractor to cut grass, but most of the buisness is likely to be in the rainy season when the ground is soft.

It looks to me like the standard ag tires are a bit narrow & agressive for this.

Im not talking about cutting golf courses, but most people would not want ugly ruts running in & out of their mango tree's.

Pond Life - contact Siam-Hitachi Machinery Company - they're at the bottom end of Sukhumvit Road Tel 02-384 2960 - they are franchised dealers for John Deeres small tractor range and range of golf course maintanance equipment - ride-on lawnmowers ect...... and stock lawn tyres.

[slapout]

Gary; I talked to Yanmar dealer about tires and they were not too much help, did get name of tire dealer in Bangkok who handles ag., golf kart etc tires. Siamese Tyre Co fax; 02 5438996 or 8997. They did not have a real catalog but did say this company may be able to help you with a low pressure, floatation type tire to fit on rims of your tractor.

[lannarebirth]

Anyway... Starting on page 14 is the flange mounted "cage wheel" I was posting about earlier.

http://www.nsf.ac.lk/pub/reshigh.pdf

I've seen a few different designs and they all seem to work pretty good.

[Gary A]

Anyway... Starting on page 14 is the flange mounted "cage wheel" I was posting about earlier.

http://www.nsf.ac.lk/pub/reshigh.pdf

I've seen a few different designs and they all seem to work pretty good.

The second wheel which looks like a paddle wheel is quite interesting. Maybe the paddle wheel concept would actually work better than the flotation design that I was considering. I hadn't considered that because I was looking for flotation rather than traction.

[Gary A]

I stopped at the Loei Yanmar dealer today and was asking about dual wheels. They were bound and determined to sell me wheel weights which would make it worse. Finally a guy came and asked my wife what I really wanted. He led me out to the storage area and showed me paddy wheels for my tractor. I was quite surprised they had them in stock. The farang price was 10,420 baht. I don't know what the Thai price would be.

Anyways I'll give them a try. Can't hurt anything. Here's what they look like;

[Maizefarmer]

Baht 8,750 - 9,250 - he must have thought you were well on the way too becoming Thai

[BigSnake]

Go for it dude, however in the mean time look for a more powerful Tractor

[Gary A]

Go for it dude, however in the mean time look for a more powerful Tractor

All the power in the world does you no good if you are buried in the mud.

[Maizefarmer]

Thats a great little tractor - purrfect for paddy work

[DagonKhan]

Apologies for grave digging!

I was wondering how you got on Gary? Did you find a solution to your problem?

[Gary A]

Apologies for grave digging!

I was wondering how you got on Gary? Did you find a solution to your problem?

I did find a solution. It's called an iron buffalo.

[euca]

Apologies for grave digging!

I was wondering how you got on Gary? Did you find a solution to your problem?

I did find a solution. It's called an iron buffalo.

Reads like you abandoned the idea of paddy wheels for the Yanmar, Gary (?) They were available when I bought my tractor about fifteen months ago in Surin. I should have bought the paddy wheels then. Price of steel has gone up since so I shall pay much more but I think they are worth a try. Very pleased with the

Yanmar-35 for many reasons. If you did persevere with paddy wheels for the 35 I shall be most interested. Thanks for raising the point.

regards, Euca.

Edited July 12, 2008 by euca

[ozzydom]

Apologies for grave digging!

I was wondering how you got on Gary? Did you find a solution to your problem?

I did find a solution. It's called an iron buffalo.

Reads like you abandoned the idea of paddy wheels for the Yanmar, Gary (?) They were available when I bought my tractor about fifteen months ago in Surin. I should have bought the paddy wheels then. Price of steel has gone up since so I shall pay much more but I think they are worth a try. Very pleased with the

Yanmar-35 for many reasons. If you did persevere with paddy wheels for the 35 I shall be most interested. Thanks for raising the point.

regards, Euca.

I think they are excellent,!! for digging bloody big holes to get bogged in

[Gary A]

Apologies for grave digging!

I was wondering how you got on Gary? Did you find a solution to your problem?

I did find a solution. It's called an iron buffalo.

Reads like you abandoned the idea of paddy wheels for the Yanmar, Gary (?) They were available when I bought my tractor about fifteen months ago in Surin. I should have bought the paddy wheels then. Price of steel has gone up since so I shall pay much more but I think they are worth a try. Very pleased with the

Yanmar-35 for many reasons. If you did persevere with paddy wheels for the 35 I shall be most interested. Thanks for raising the point.

regards, Euca.

I did shell out 10,000 baht for a set of wheels. With the rotary tiller they actually work pretty well for about 90 percent of flooded paddy. It's that other 10 percent that creates the grief. I think once I create some hard pan from plowing dry, I will be able to use the Yanmar for the flooded paddy. This land has never been made into paddy before.

Edited July 12, 2008 by Gary A

[Saiyan]

I did shell out 10,000 baht for a set of wheels. With the rotary tiller they actually work pretty well for about 90 percent of flooded paddy. It's that other 10 percent that creates the grief. I think once I create some hard pan from plowing dry, I will be able to use the Yanmar for the flooded paddy. This land has never been made into paddy before.

Not trying to be funny Gary, but are you sure that those paddle wheels are on the right way round?

[Issangeorge]

Good point Saiyan, they look like they are on the wrong wheels. Issangeorge.

[rice555]

Hello Saiyan, Issangeorge, next your going to say the tires are on backwards? You turn the paddle's around and they would DIG him in deeper.

rice555

[Saiyan]

Thanks rice555 for the info, you’re probably right, but if I had laid out the cash that Gary has on this setup then it must be made to work. I would try the paddle wheels the other way round as I think that although it might not help the floatation it might give more grip.

I would also take off the scrapper on the front, before going into a rice paddy. Don’t know if Gary did this.

In our area I have watch a Kubotar with those paddlewheels work the very wet rice fields. The driver didn’t hang around, once he was in the paddy he kept going and only stopped once he was out again. Seems there is a knack to this.

Gary, don’t give up too quickly unless you’ve bought the iron buffalo already.

[Maizefarmer]

Gary

Your problem is establishing a balance between "flotation" and traction.

As nature would have it they oppose each other!

Duals are out as far as small tractors go - their weight (small tractors) in relation to the volume the average sized small tractor tyre displaces doesn't work as it does with meduim/large tractors - Ford 6610 being about the lightest tractor frame size youre going to be able to get the 2 to work together.

..... and then of course irrespective of tractor size, the issue really is one of water depth in the paddy (and the density of the saturated mud lying at the bottom of the paddy) - which is why the best way to overcome the problem with steel wheels.

The cheapest way to get a pair of steel wheels is get hold of a pair of used rims - use the rims as a central hub around/to which you can weld a circular steel framework to provide the diameter (height) you need. Re-bar with steel plates added is just fine.

If the tractor is 4 wheel drive make sure you keep in ratio the increase in diameter you add to your home-made rear and front wheel - else you will load up the transfer box and strip the teeth. If its 2 wheel drive then its a non-issue. Else, as in the photo posted earlier by someone else, if youre going to keep the same height, just add a pair of steel-wheels the same diameter exactly as in the photo - they work fine.

Remember to extend your rear hitch links and pto shaft - else youre going to have the tiller blades right up against the back wheels when you drop it down into the mud - not to mention the front wheels in the air every time you have to use a bit of power!