I called a few places that fix agricultural equipment until I found one that sold Rim Guard. If you don’t already know what it is, it’s a safe liquid that won’t freeze. If I’m not mistaken, you can drink the junk, and it won’t harm you. At any rate, it weighs nearly 11 lbs per gallon. I put nearly 7 gallons in each tire. On the scale, the tire, wheel, and rim guard tip the scales at 105 lbs. I have Goodyear 4 play 23 x 10.5 x 12 tires lug and bar agricultural tires. I got them for free. If I’ve measured them right, they’re 22.7 inches tall and about 9.5 inches wide at the sidewalls, so it’s slightly smaller than advertised, but bigger than the 23 x 10.5 x 12 turf tire it replaced. It’s costly to have the shop put the Rim Guard in the tires. I think it was 3 dollars a gallon x 14, and more than that to pump it in the tire. All told, I think it cost me 75 – 85 dollars. My dad told me that they'd laugh at me for taking in garden tractor tires, but the guy that was putting it in for me instantly asked me if I garden with the tractor. When I said yes, he told me, "Well, this will help your tractor immensly." He understood why I wanted it.
I mow one acre. It varies from 15 degree slopes that require me to make 270 degree turns, which changes from cutting sideways on the slope going downhill to reversing the direction 270 degrees and cutting uphill. With turf savers and no ballast in the tires, the tractor always spun the tires. I’m 6’3” tall and I weigh 240lbs with clothing and boots. I would sit on the fender and lean way off the tractor to try to shift as much weight as possible to the tire that needed the traction before it began to spin, and while this helped, it still broke traction and spun. With the ballast in the agricultural tires, I never break traction. When I do break traction pulling something heavy like a trying to skid a huge log that’s 20 feet or more long, both tires seem to always spin. I know for a fact that my tractor has an open differential.
I’ve fabricated brackets that bolt to the rim. The bracket has a 2” solid steel shaft, which permits me to put Olympic weights on the wheels. I can put up to 275lbs on each wheel, so with the ballasted tires, I have nearly 350lbs of weight on each tire in addition to whatever the tractor normally has. With that much weight, the tractor’s grossly over ballasted, and it will pull ridiculous loads around. I already had the weights, so the price of fabricating the brackets was about 50 dollars. I already have a welder.
Since you didn’t mention anything other than cutting grass, you probably don’t need to worry about putting weights on the tractor. If you’re not interested in purchasing a set of agricultural tires and ballasting them, you may look into the 55lb vinyl covered weights. It will help you immensely over your current set up.
Agricultural tires versus turf tires. We have a 1989 GT 18 Craftsman garden tractor 18 hp and a 3 speed high and low range transmission that many just call a 6 speed. The GT18 had the agricultural tires and ballast in them. The other tractor is a 2011 GT6000 with turf tires. The agricultural tires only leave tread prints in the yard when the grounds soft and wet. Here in Central Pennsylvania, 25 miles northeast of Harrisburg, that only happens in April and May. By June, the ground’s hard enough that no tracks are left. It never spins its tires, so it never tears up the yard. The GT6000 with turf savers and no ballast always tears up the yard when cutting on the hills and making turns. It breaks traction a lot and any tire that spins is going to tear the yard up.
Since ballasting the old tractor and switching to turf tires, it’s like a completely different tractor. I’m not easily impressed and this set up really left an impression on me. The tractor’s now useful and can actually do some work. Without this, it was a useless piece of equipment that could barely cut the grass just like the 2011 GT6000. I’ve gone out on romps with 8 inches of fresh snow, stopped on a hill, turned the wheel, and when I popped the clutch, the tractor instantly moved and there was very little wheel slippage. With turf tires and no ballast, 1 inch of snow was too much for the tractor. One thing that I didn’t expect when ballasting the tires was that the tractor rides a bit nicer now. I guess the added weight absorbs or prevents the bouncing around. It really does ride nicer. It doesn’t jar me around like it used to.
Like others have pointed out, locking differentials on a garden tractor is pretty much overrated. Proper agriculture tread and ballasted tires will do more to improve a small garden tractor’s ability to work than a locking differential will. Garden tractors have more weight on the front of the tractor than the rear. Ideal extreme ballasting of a 2 wheel drive tractor should have a 75% rear and 25% front weight distribution, but in stock condition, it’s probably the opposite, and that’s why people think that they’re so useless.
I know that I’m verbose, but I hope that this helped you.
