Did you know that that most incidents involving harvesting tyres occur at the very beginning of the season and that the issues arising are generally the consequences of a problem encountered during the previous season?
A minor impact to the sidewall, improper storage during the winter, driving with an excess load during the preceding harvest often lead to weak points which could result in the immobilisation of your equipment just when you really need it.
In the same way as your combine harvester needs servicing at the beginning of a harvesting campaign, a tyre check-up is relatively simple and can save you from a critical problem at the worst possible time.
Before the harvest, a mechanical check-up of the harvester is obviously necessary to prevent engine failure at the worst possible time. Checking the state of your tyres may seem secondary, but tyre damage could be as much of a nuisance as a mechanical problem and would force you to stop operations at the most inopportune moment.
Increasing the load and preserving your soil are two opposing requirements. To save time, we tend to increase the load and therefore work at a very high inflation pressure (3.5 to 4 bar). But for soil preservation purposes pressure must be reduced, forcing you to limit the load in the hopper and empty it more frequently. It’s difficult to choose between the two options, and unfortunately opting for a compromise with an average pressure of around 3 bar is good for neither situation.
If you wish to work with a maximum load and your tyres are underinflated, they will flatten out excessively and have great difficulty resisting the load. This may result in the tyre coming off the rim or bursting. On the other hand, if you limit the load and empty the hopper regularly, with a pressure of 3 bar you will compact the soil more than necessary whereas you could have inflated your tyres to around 2.4 bar to preserve your soil.
Whatever the scenario, the inflation pressure must be calculated meticulously, knowing the difference in load between the empty harvester and the loaded harvester. The load effectively has a major impact on your tyres, which have to compensate for the extra kilos of a full hopper thanks to their deflection capacity.
Whether it be on the road or in the fields, what farmers fear most is having to stop in the middle of their operations to deal with a breakdown, whether mechanical or due to a puncture.
A tyre that has not been prepared, whose pressure has not been checked, with a used tread or whose lugs or sidewalls are showing signs of weakness, may puncture where a tyre in good condition will pass without any problem. A puncture leads to the immobilisation of your machine, making you lose precious time and leading to on-site repair costs, which are never welcome.
Repairing a tyre in the fields is not an easy task. The time required depends on the type of damage and the technician in charge of carrying out the repair work. If you have a puncture, and you are on good terms with your agricultural tyre dealer who has a team of efficient, professional technicians, with the emergency response vehicles and equipment necessary, the problem will no doubt be dealt with rapidly.
Unfortunately with a combine harvester it can be more tricky than for a tractor. If the technician has the right size of tyre available, it will take at least 4 hours to reach you and replace your tyre following a puncture, but the job could take several days if the right tyre is not in stock.
Your harvesting tyres must be inspected and maintained regularly, especially before the beginning of the new harvesting campaign. This check-up procedure only requires about ten minutes and can help you anticipate potential problems.
The first inspection of your harvesting tyres has to be carried out while the machine is stationary, paying careful attention to the following points:
The second inspection takes place while driving. Repair work is necessary in the following cases:
If you identify any of the anomalies listed above during your inspection, it would be preferable to consult your tyre dealer straight away, to look further into the causes and consequences of the problem and avoid a potential breakdown during the harvesting campaign.
If you discover a major problem and you take the decision to replace a set of tyres on your harvester, it is best to opt for a specific model which will help you improve your machine’s efficiency, save time, boost productivity and preserve your soil.
There are currently highly efficient harvesting tyres on the market, such as IF CFO or VF CFO (Cyclic Field Operations) tyres. These have a robust casing, which is more solid and reliable, enabling them to bear more weight than standard agricultural tyres. Their structure has been reinforced so that they can bear up to 55% more load than a standard agricultural tyre. This means that you can travel greater distances without stopping and cover several hectares more each day.
These new generation tyres have an innovative lug design which optimises tractive force.
In addition to choosing a quality tyre that is adapted to harvesting, you can adopt a few simple habits to reduce the impact on your soil:
Limiting soil restoration efforts (less decompaction work required, time and fuel savings) easily makes up for the time devoted to these operations.
Transporting heavier loads accentuates soil compaction, especially with unsuitable tyres or inflation pressure. It is therefore best to use tyres which spread the load better for improved soil preservation purposes.
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.
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