March 28, 2024

Optitorque features wider, shorter lugs

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Too much of a good thing is never good.

Your lug, the block of rubber within the tread, can be too big and, in turn, too easily damaged, if you are using that tire for scraper or sprayer applications, cautioned Scott Sloan, ag product manager for Titan and Goodyear Farm Tires, at the National Farm Machinery Show.

“The problem is in some applications when you have too much lug, like a scraper application or a sprayer application, you don’t need that big, deep lug,” Sloan said.

“In a scraper application on a 4-wheel-drive tractor, you’re in this high-draft load and you’re literally on a hardpan, you’re scraping. If you’ve got a 20% more tread, all it’s doing is damaging that lug. That’s kind of notorious in scraper applications — damaged tires because of the fact the lugs are just too deep,” he said.

“So, what we did is we came out with the Optitorque. The lugs are a little bit wider and it’s shorter. It’s an R-1, so it really stabilizes that lug. It gets a lot of traction.”

Likewise, in a sprayer application, you’re trying to be as soft as you can.

“You don’t need that deep lug because all it does is rut,” Sloan said. “With a shallower tread, we make a lot less disturbance on the residue.”

With a lot of contact area on the road, the Optitorque tire also wears and rides a lot better as, for example, the self-propelled sprayer is driven to the field.

“This nose is a little bit larger,” Sloan said. “We rounded the shoulders on the tire, so again when you’re making turns, it doesn’t rip up the residue near as much.”

The 710 section width was available last year. The offering has been expanded to the 800 section width this year.

“We’re literally the first ones in the field and leading the way in these wide metric-sized tires above a 650 section width to have an R-1,” Sloan said.

“That 650 and those wider metrics came from Europe. On all their tractors, everything was an R-1. So, when they got over here, the manufacturers didn’t have any other choices, so they just started putting R-1Ws on the tractors. Well, there are applications where a shallower tread actually is better.”

That means farmers can get more life from the Optitorque tire.

“You see a lot of times on the deeper treads — again because there was nothing else to put on there, except for the R-1Ws — you see a lot of cracking at the base lug, or compression marks there because you’re carrying this really heavy load on a really tall lug and it just compresses the thing,” Sloan said.

“Well, this is a shorter, wider lug, so we don’t get that in the tire.”

Best Of Both Worlds

Sloan added the versatile Goodyear R14 tire is growing quickly in popularity.

“In this market, when you buy a tractor, you have to make a decision at the point of sale. Do you want an ag tread, an industrial tread or do you want a turf tread? The buyer has to make that decision depending on what his conditions are. Maybe he thinks he’s going to be out in the dirt more than he’s going to be on hard surfaces, so he goes with the ag tread and then four months later he realizes that it’s just not working because he’s not getting traction or maybe his tires are wearing out, so then he needs to make a switch to industrial treads,” he said.

“The problem is when you do that you have to change wheels and tires. So, it’s like a $4,000 conversion. Usually, that’s the end of the story. And that’s probably 95% of the calls that I get on compact utility tractors, is ‘How do I go from one tire to the other?’”

The Goodyear R14 tire provides the best of both worlds.

It combines the traction and cleaning features of an R-1 agriculture tire with the wear and ride features of an R-4 industrial tire, eliminating the need to choose between one tread style or the other and giving the R14 its name.

“So, what you get is you get a very high lug to void ratio in the center of the tire when you’re on hard surfaces, making turns — most of these tractors have loaders on them — so you’re getting a lot of contact area in the center of the tire. But then when you get out in the looser soils, then the R-1 side of it takes off and it actually cleans,” Sloan said.

“There’s other tires out there, but most of them have more elements out on the shoulder, so when you get out into wetter conditions or softer conditions, it pretty much just fills up and becomes a bit slick. So, this has more cleaning power.”

That is especially beneficial if you’re using the tractor for snow removal, or working on a dairy farm, where you’re on concrete, but then get in wetter conditions.

“It’s a good tire between the two,” Sloan said. “It was designed to basically just take care of an issue and that’s what it’s done and that’s what people really like about it.”