Rear tires with more traction

Long story short, the yard and mower are in WV and I'm currently 120 miles away. We had a lot of rain up here and sometimes I can't mow it when it should be mowed. Then it gets tall and takes a lot of dry sunny days to dry it out of which we don’t have.20250820_111004.jpg
 
hillybilly said:
Long story short, the yard and mower are in WV and I'm currently 120 miles away. We had a lot of rain up here and sometimes I can't mow it when it should be mowed. Then it gets tall and takes a lot of dry sunny days to dry it out of which we don’t have.
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Fair enough.

I am not a big fan of my next suggestion, as it has negative implications;

You could try additional weights/ballast or even water in the tyres (best with tubes). Added weight will increase traction but also increase fuel consumption, wear on transmission and reduce the suspension/shock absorbing effect of tyre wall flex.

Big favourite of mine, is the automatic lawn mower, otherwise known as grazing animals (not the most politically correct suggestion for a Lawn Mower Forum). Your horse loving neighbours may be interested in assisting you with this. Reduced fuel consumption, no traction issues - you would have to put up with a less manicured look and horse tend to brows on some shrubs.

:devilish:
 
I installed some old low pressure 2 ply 12 inch ATV tires on one my spare back-up mowers and another set on a lawn tractor that I use for pulling a yard trailer, tires that I saved when I installed new tires on my ATV and also installed tubes because the tires had small leaks.
Been using them for about 5 years. I get a soft ride keeping them at low pressure and what really surprised me is they really go good in snow when pulling the yard trailer. The front tires are still turf tread so I have to go slow to make a sharp turn in snow.
They are a knobby type but do not rip up the grass when turning because the differential is not a lock up type like is on 4 wheelers. ATV 4 wheelers will dig up grass in sharp turns due to the locking differentials.

Some ATV tires are to hard (not soft and do not bend easily) and aggressive and will rip grass. What is nice is these were free except for the tubes
If I were you I would think about installing the more aggressive tires on extra set of rims.
 
hillybilly said:
Long story short, the yard and mower are in WV and I'm currently 120 miles away. We had a lot of rain up here and sometimes I can't mow it when it should be mowed. Then it gets tall and takes a lot of dry sunny days to dry it out of which we don’t have.
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Tiger Small Engine said:
I run nothing but 87 octane 10% ethanol, and never have fuel related problems. One of the most over hyped controversies is ethanol in fuel for small engines.
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As I understand the problem with ethanol , its not the engine as such , its all the other fuel related bits. Such as non ethanol compatible fuel delivery systems, "O" rings, diaphragms. etc

With no evidence to support my position, I think the use of ethanol, as a method of redusing dependence on fossil fuel, is a con job.
Ethanol is produced from crops. Crops are grown/harvested using diesel fuel, oil derived fertilisers and pesticides, (if rainfall insufficient irrigation required). Up to this point only sunlight has been cheap. The crops are transported by diesel truck to a ethanol plant, that then uses prodigies quantities of electricity to process, brew and refine the resulting ethanol into a fuel - where is the savings to the environment??

Then there is the efficiency of ethanol as fuel, - lower than both petrol & diesel. So you will use more of it to deliver the same performance - where is the savings to the environment??

:devilish:
 
In the past 30 years we have become a nation that overproduces fuel related crops (dry corn and sugar beets) more for ethanol production than regular food for human consumption. Soybean crops have also become popular in recent years to produce bio diesel to mix with regular diesel.

Both of these industries for profit approaches have been destructive to both the environment and the longevity of equipment that relies on these fuels.

Ethanol blend gasoline is hygroscopic, so it collects moisture out of the air and forms water droplets that sits in the bottom of fuel tanks and fuel bowls when left sitting for long periods. In the short term it will stay suspended in gasoline and burn without issue. It is the sitting for long periods that causes it to degrade, especially in hot climates. Moisture and aluminum carburetor housings do not play well together.

The best solution is to drain all the gasoline from your equipment and put it in your vehicles to use instead of letting it go bad from sitting for long periods.

With bio diesel the problem comes with gelling and loss of lubrication properties that are natural in diesel fuel. Older mechanical injection pumps require a heavy dose a lubricity additive to keep it operational. (I know this the hard way after 2 injection pumps locked up within a year on my old backhoe)
 
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