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john deere 970 tires and rims

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ken dyck
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Posts: 20 domain, manitoba
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2000-09-04          19458

i have been trying different tire and rim combinations partially out of curiousity partially due to boredom. the 970 jd really is a desent tractor that requires little work. i installed a pair of 19.5L x 24 Firestone Turf and Fields on titan 15 x 24 rims on the rear. these replaced the 13.6 x 24 R1's that were a bit agressive for my mowing chores (4 + acres of lawn). this combined with a pair of 10.5 x 31 x15 LT BF Goodrich all terrain TA on 15 x 7 JD rims on front work well (no turf damage, good steering, good floatation, excellent load capacity) but with the following limitations: the BFG tires pick up little stones and will not release them and for loader work in muck the BFG's are not agressive enough at slow speed (i am sure that above 40 mph they will clean themselves but the become slicks at tractor speeds). while looking for a source of front rims ( i wanted to try a set of 9.5 x 16 Firestone Turf and Fields) i came to realize that the JD 970 uses a metric bolt pattern ( 6 holes on a 150 mm bolt circle with a 90 mm center hole). while this may be common on japanese tractors it is not a common size for impliment rims. i purchased a pair of 16 by 8 rims with a 6 on 6 inch BC and a 4.62 center. i welded in an adapter ring to reduce the center to 90 mm and offset drilled the bolt holes to 5/8 inch for a 151 mm(close enough)bolt circle. just for the heck of it i remounted my 8 x 16 Firestone R1 bars on these rims and did a bit of loader work. i was impressed for 2 reasons, the offset was such that it widened the stance a bit and with the wider rim (jd uses a 5 in rim) the traction and floatation were improved. i am looking forward to winter in order to try the 19.5L T & F with the 8 x 16 R1 combo in snow. i don't mind changing front wheels as this is easy but the rears are a different story. i thought i would pass this info on just incase someone else wants to improve traction handling. less offset and wider rims help the front.ken

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steve arnold
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2001-02-09          24061

ken, wondering how your front tires have worked out so far. I have
gone into the archives here to find info on the same topic. my 1993 970
came with 13.6-24 rears and 7-16 fronts. the fronts are worn and dry rotting
and i was thinking it was time to investigate alternatives. I'd like the same good traction but more flotation. Have you found any more tire/rim
combos that fit. thanks ....

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ken dyck
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2001-02-09          24063

i am satisfied with the present combo. also firestone makes a 8 x 16 turf and field for the front. watch the front to rear ratio though, this tire is 14.3 static loaded so the rears would have to change also. the rear turf and fields that i have on mine do work in snow. lots of flotation, good traction and only slightly less able to go through deep drifts. i am pleased. good luck
ken ....

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george, keoke
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2001-02-10          24074

Hi, I too have a jd970 with 7X16 field tires in the front and would like to go with a wider tire on the same rim. Of course I would also need to keep the front to back tire ratio in line while making the change to the wider track.
Bottom line is, what front field tire, if any, would give a wider tread while holding to the exact or close circumfence of the OEM 7X16????

thanks,
george ....

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keoke
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2001-11-26          33445

Ken, do you or anybody else out there know if the front wheels from a JD 990 tractor will bolt on to a 970 MFWD front axle? The OEM wheel size on the JD990 is 8x16 in front and 14.9X24 in the rear. I understand that this tractor is made by Yanmar for JD in Japan. So I am wondering if these are Japanese sized wheels and if they will bolt on to the older 70 series tractors. The pics of the 990 on the JD factory site show a lot of offset to the outside with the OEM 990 front wheels.

thanks for the help,
george ....

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steve arnold
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2001-11-27          33462

Keoke, the 990 has the same engine as the old 1070, the standard r-1
on the 1070 was 8-16, 14.9-28 or 24 and that tire size was optional
on my 970. Your 970 front axle has a "1070" cast into it and I'll bet
the 990 front axle does also. The wheels that come with 8-16 R-1s
are stamped differently than the wheels that come with 7-16 R-1s BUT,
they still interchange.

call around looking for take-offs or trade-ins from people that
wanted r-4's on their tractors.
....

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keoke
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2001-11-27          33463

Steve, thanks for the info. If I read you right, the 1070 came stock with 8X16 wheels in front and these are the same wheels that are used on the 990 as well. Are the same 8x16 wheels used for all tire types on both of these tractors? Assuming all of the above is correct, then what I need to do is find a set of front wheels from a 1070 or a 990 tractor to put on my 970.
I am running the OEM 13.6X24 wheels with the stock Firestone Ag tires in the rear.
Do you know of an AG or R4 tire size and brand that will fit on the 8X16 wheels while still keeping the front to back gear ratios in line?
The stock 7x16 tires are fine for traction but to narrow for soft ground, this is especially true with a full bucket.
I have added a 4/1 bucket and a Bradco hoe to my 970 and just love the tractor. The onlly negative for me on the 970 is the width of the front tires.

thanks again,
Keoke ....

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steve arnold
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2001-11-27          33465

To achieve the floatation that we are looking for a wider rim is
required. There are wide aggressive tires that come close enough in
diameter but are recommended for 8 inch wide rims in 16, 16.5 or 15 inch dia
wheels.

Just for Ss and Gs take off one of your front tires and bolt
to the other side so steel is against steel. dont torque down bolts
as their might not be enough engaging threads, just snug them.
This is something I have been meaning to try myself. Tell me what you think.

Cruise the websites for firestone, goodyear, michelin, titan, trelleborg.

-Steve ....

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keoke
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2001-11-27          33472

Steve, Gooyear makes a DT810, 240/70R16 tire that very close to the Firestone OEM 7X16 in overall dia.
The OEM dia. is 29.3" and the 240 Goodyear dia. is 29.2". The width of the 240 tire is 10.2" compared to the OEM's 7". Goodyear also makes a 260 sizel that has dia. of 9.6" and an overall dia. of 30.5". Problem is these tires list for about $400 each. Need to check other brands of the same sizes for price.
As for the rims, the answer seems to be 1070 of 990 rims used or new. Also, there may be an after market manufacture of a rim this size.

keoke ....

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keoke
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2001-11-27          33473

Steve, forgot to ask you if you know the gear ratio difference between front and rear axles???

later,
keoke ....

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steve arnold
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2001-11-28          33494

No, I dont but one of those tire websites has instructions
for figuring out lead and lag of front tire compared to back
tire. I looked at my front tire last night and the fronts
cant be mounted in a dually setup with out a spacer, in case
you were wondering. ....

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keoke
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2001-11-28          33504

Steve, found the info on calculating front tire lead on the Goodyear Ag tire site. However, you still need to know the front to back gear ratio spread to use the formula.

keoke ....

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steve arnold
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2001-11-29          33530

OK....The method I was thinking of is here....



....


Link:   here

 
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ken dyck
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2001-11-30          33567

970 has front to rear ratio of 1.691

also bf goodrich has a mud ta that looks good, in 225x75x16 it is close to the right size ....

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keoke
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2001-11-30          33568

Ken and Steve, checked of JD parts and the MWFD axle hub axle part number M804197 is used on the
870,970,1070 and the 990 as well.
For the 990 they show the following front MWFD rims/tire combinations:
R-1 tire wheel as #LVA10550 (6X16),
R-3 tire wheelas #LVA10551 (15X8)
R-4 as LVA10552 (16.5X8.25).
None of the above numbers show up on the 870, 970 and 1070 front wheel parts list.
Did not know that they had a 15X8 wheel for 990 tractor. When I get some time I will check 15" tires to find a match for the rear 13.6X24 rears.

take care,
george
....

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ken dyck
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2001-12-02          33618

pays to stay up with the new parts, those all are good news as the old R1 was a 16 x 5 and that is a bit narrow ....

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keoke
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2001-12-11          33759

Ken, could you check out this math calc that I did on the OEM 7.00/16 and 13.6/24 R1 tires that came with the 970.
Using the SLR spec of 13.6" on the 7.00/16 fronts and the SLR spec of 21.5" on the 13.6/24 rears together with the front to back gear ratio of 1.691 I come out with a slip rate of 6%. My math looks like this, front SLR 13.6X1.691=22.998 divided by rear SLR 21.5= 1.06 minus 1.00 = 6%. Did I go wrong here?
All the stuff I read say an ideal ratio is 1 to 3% and it is acceptable up to 5%. How is that the OEM tires start out with a 6% slip rate?? This, of course, leads me to question my math calcs.
Using the Goodyear formula (rolling circumfence) instead of static load radius, math goes like this.
Front 7.00/16= 87"X1.691=147.12 divided by 13.2/24 rear of 136" gives 1.058 minus 1.00=5.8%.
If the above math is correct (no guarantees here) then it looks like JD started out with tire diameters to large in the front or to small in the rear. This makes it tough to widen the front tire foot print without kicking up the rears as well.

thanks again,
george ....

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ken dyck
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2001-12-14          33813

Just to add to the snow capabilities of the 19.5L x 24 Firestone Turf and Fields, although they work this year I changed over to the 13.6 x 28 ( in my original post I mistakenly listed them as 13.6 x 24, they are 28's, sorry). In snow a R1 is superior, why handycap yourself.

ken,

PS: I also replied by Email to george, reply was as follows:

I like to look at it from a different slant, your math is ok, I just like to view it the other way around. The important thing to determine is if the front SLR is within spec. I will use your SLR of 21.5 (my JD literature lists the SLR on this one at 22.67) for the rear 13.6 x 24 and divide that by 1.691 = 12.71 inches. if you use the recommended guidelines of up to + 5%
(12.71 x 1.05 = 13.35) your front tires should have a SLR of 12.75 > 13.35. Just as your math points out your fronts are a bit big for your rears. The 970 usually came stock with a 12.4 x 28 in the rear and the 7 x 16 up front. If you had a 12.4 x 28 in the rear with a rated SLR of 23.6 your front tires would have to be between 13.95 and 14.65 inches, incidentally on the stock rims my John Deere specs rate the 7 x 16 as having a SLR of 14.25. My factory specs list the 13.6 x 24 as an option and they list this combo as being 5.9 % overdriven in the front. If it were my tractor I would do either one of the following:

1: use the combo, it is very close to being within spec, don't rely on the rated SLR, measure it and play around with tire pressure. the main thing is that the front turns faster than the rear but not so fast as to cause the MFWD to engage and disengage with allot of effort.

or

2: change the rear tires to 14.9 x 24, cheap and available size and it brings the ratio into the ideal range and gives you a wider tire. I actually tried this combo and the traction was improved over the stock 12.4 x 28, they have the same SLR.

By the way I really prefer #2 and 14.9 x 24 are a take offs on the rear of big JD combines and should be cheap.

I contacted my dealer and JD online and they supplied me with 7 pages of figures and explanations on this very subject, some of it was straight from Yanmar (dimensions in metric)

ken

....

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Abathar
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2013-11-30          188401

Ken, I just wanted to thank you for this post you made a long, long time ago. I needed to replace my turf rims on my 970 and JD doesn't stock any of them anymore. Your information proved extremely helpful as I just ordered a new set of R1's and took your advice on the tire size. My MFWD disengages and engages effortlessly compared to my old turf tires, and aside from having to make my own rims for the front bolt pattern on the 7x16 the 14.9x24 advice along with the 1.691 ratio post worked beautifuly for me, thank you for this info!! ....

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DennisCTB
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2013-12-04          188404

Abathar,

Thanks for the feed back, great to hear that the info on Tractorpoint continues to help tractor owners.

Dennis ....

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