To win more customers you have to offer more than what a farmer can do alone, provide better quality, quick service, in short, a highly professional service. You know that the difference can easily be made by the quality of your equipment; with machines that are more recent and more powerful than average you will be able to draw wider implements and complete more operations in less time.
Tyres are not an exception, because with more technical tyres your soil will be better preserved, there will be less compaction, better traction, less slip…. and in addition to these sales arguments which count for your customers, you will be able to reduce fuel costs while working more quickly.
If your agricultural contracting company has neglected its tyres to make savings, you may find yourself in a difficult situation in terms of quality of service.
By continuing to use standard tyres which are cheaper to buy, you risk compacting your customers’ soil and facing difficulties during operations in wet conditions.
The tyre is the only element in direct contact with the ground to transmit your machine’s tractive force and enable your combination vehicle to move forward.
Yet this traction capacity is only possible if your tyre lugs have a proper hold on the ground and slippage is under control with the right slip ratio.
In wet conditions, the slip ratio must be between 8 and 15% to obtain optimal traction, without ever exceeding 30%, in which case you might sink into the ground and get stuck with your trailer.
If your tyres are unsuitable, with too high an inflation pressure to compensate for the weight of the implements, there is a genuine risk of excessive slip and soil sealing. This will have a negative impact on your land and slow down your work rate considerably, and as such your productivity.
Soil compaction is a widespread phenomenon linked to the increasing weight of the equipment used. It occurs essentially when you work with standard or poor-quality tyres, in wet conditions.
To compensate for the weight of the machines or implements you effectively need to increase inflation pressure to avoid the tyre crushing into itself. This pressure makes the tyre more rigid and reduces its soil footprint, so that it has to dig deeper into the ground to meet resistance and find the soil bearing capacity necessary to move forward.
Low-quality tyres or the wrong pressure settings linked to the limits of a standard tyre will lead to two types of soil compaction:
Working with standard agricultural tyres or lower quality tyres extends your working time.
Bad lug design can effectively reduce the wheels’ self-cleaning capacity and as such the traction capacity of your vehicle. This will limit the load that your tyres can bear, involving a high inflation pressure and generating slip.
You will therefore have to change pressure every time you go from one type of ground to another, in particular from field to road.
In the end, all these aspects lead to a massive loss of time and a higher fuel bill for each campaign.
For an agricultural contracting company which sells services linked essentially to field crops, using VF (Very High Flexion) technology tyres such as Bridgestone’s VT-Tractor tyre provides a real advantage.
This type of tyre has many benefits:
When an agricultural contracting company takes on a harvest operation, it can hail the benefits of working with low-pressure tyres for soil preservation, while obtaining a greater load capacity.
Tyres such as Bridgestone’s VT-Combine CFO are designed to offer a very high level of traction thanks to a contact patch with the ground that is around 22% bigger than that of a standard agricultural tyre.
These tyres have reinforced yet supple casing, making it possible to work with your harvester at an inflation pressure of 2.4 bar when loaded, which is a major advantage in addition to the fact that you can maintain a speed of 15 km/h.
The advantages of these technological tyres include:
Although agricultural contractor contracts tend to be for transport or the management of livestock farming, the use of tyres like the VX-Tractor allow you to reduce operating costs, because they are more resistant to wear and more efficient for traction compared to standard tyres.
This more solid type agricultural tyre can bear heavier loads with a low slip ratio due to its longer lugs.
There are also many other benefits:
Agricultural contracting companies that chose better tyre technology obtain an advantage for all their customers: high-tech equipment ensures better quality of service.
The Bridgestone-agriculture.eu blog is written and administered by tractor tyre experts who are available to provide you with the advice you need on the subject of your agricultural tyres. They allow you to maximise your productivity with information on all subjects linked to tyres: Cheap tractor tyres — Technical data for agricultural tyres — Air pressure advice — Solutions to avoid soil compaction — Sprayer tyre pressure — Why and how to ballast your tractor tyres — When to use dual wheels — The mechanical causes of abnormal wear — Cheap agricultural tyres – etc.
To learn more and boost your farm's profits, Bridgestone-Agriculture is offering you a free, detailed white paper that explains the essential role your agricultural tyres play in your productivity.
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