Dumper flotation tyres

[Arduainefs]

Anyone used flotation tyres on a 3 or 6 tonne dumper?

We’ve got a few drainage jobs coming up where the ground is very wet and I’m thinking the best way to get stone in is either a 3 or 6 tonne dumper on wide tyres. We have an old Barford 6 tonne swivel skip which would do the job but will soon be purchasing a 3 tonne swivel skip so we can move it about on the Ifor Williams.
We have a quad with a “clic dual wheel “setup which works great and had thought of contacting D&S factors who are the agents for them as they will do most sizes however this may be an expensive option.
Plenty of second hand flotation tyres available on eBay but wondered if anyone else had done something similar?

thanks

Mike

 

[doobin]

If it's really wet then the best option by far is a tracked dumper IMHO. Otherwise I'd go 3t, as the wide tyres won't be much smaller than the 6t wide tyres.

Got to be worth a go.

 

[JD450A]

Rotating tracked dumper provided there are no rocks to knacker the tracks.

 

[Arduainefs]

Yeah thought a bout a tracked dumper a while back but we need a 3 tonne dumper at some point soon and don’t want to go to the expense of a tracked dumper as well, they also seem very pricey!!

 

[diggerjones]

Hasn't shovelhands got a 6t dumper with flotation tyres on

 

[Smiffy]

I occasionally drive either a 7 or 9 tonne on floatations and mostly it makes bigger ruts and the floatations struggle to climb out the ruts
Obviously though they are proportionally smaller to keep the dumper road transportable

LgpEddie had a flotation trailer setup for sale on Facebook or insta the other day although probably more suited to wood chip than stone

Could it be a good opportunity to hire a track machine and see how you get on with it you can get 3 tonne swivel skips and its not just wet conditions they are useful in they are narrower than a similar sized conventional dumper and the 3 way tip ones are far better at transporting materials than a normal dumper as they have a flat bottom and the sides can be removed also greedy boards can be added if moving wood chip or mulch

Obviously there are downsides to them they make a mess turning more expensive to run and so on but may be worth looking at

 

[V8Druid]

Hasn't shovelhands got a 6t dumper with flotation tyres on

yes James ( @Shovelhands ) has one he made the wheels for .... rates it too

 

[craig]

I think they where 3 tonners with floatation's on, while they didn't `sink` they same as normal one, they just slithered around on the top, saying that they didn't have tractor type treads, but similar to

 

[Arduainefs]

Spose it depends on how full you load it as well.

The track to the site is good its just the last 20 or so yards to the ditch sections that are the soft areas, tractor treads would be a must really.

There is a fairly local hire firm that hires tracked dumpers so I'll enquire on prices....

 

[V8Druid]

I was driving a 9t wacker for Alex for several weeks in '07 ...... it got about very well in some seriously poor conditions ... only thing slowed it down was when the diffs started getting hung up ...... never got it stuck ... we had a three tonne swivel later in the job (JCB) ... was dire ... got it bogged first time into where the Wacker'd been flying through ... filled to the brim ...

was some seriously soft tish ... but it never failed to get through a very limited haul way - no option but to run in virtually the same ruts 95% of the time

awful thing for visiblity ... zero going forward and with such a tight run, next to a deep lake, I went most places backwards

 

[doobin]

Spose it depends on how full you load it as well.

The track to the site is good its just the last 20 or so yards to the ditch sections that are the soft areas, tractor treads would be a must really.

There is a fairly local hire firm that hires tracked dumpers so I'll enquire on prices....

They are expensive to hire, but weigh up the extra hire cost vs potential reinstatement costs.

 

[Gunners]

The big tyres work wonders if you're tramping across dry grass, hardly leave a mark and that's why all the sports guys have them on. But when its wet, the wider the tyre, the less grip it has and they can end up just spinning. Really in mud you want a thin, tall tyre that cuts down to the good stuff and gains grip. There's no good solution to working on wet ground, sometimes its just cheaper to make a mess in a limited area and reinstate it using the kit you have.

I hear you on wanting to adapt the 3t rather than hire a tracked machine, might not be 100% the right tool for this job but would help you out going forwards. Shovelhands has done a lot of work on pretty crap ground and having modified his own kit, is the right person to send a PM to.
Personally I've looked at the 3 and 6t dumper I have side by side and wondered if the wheels could be modified to bolt on the 3t. There certainly looks like room to fit them under the skip and arches and it wouldn't be impossible to come up with some kind of flange converter that works a bit like a wheel spacer but allows the fitting of the bigger wheel. That way you can go back to standard 3t tyres for towing and utilise what you already own. A tape measure would soon tell you if I'm crazy or if it might just work.

 

[V8Druid]

The big tyres work wonders if you're tramping across dry grass, hardly leave a mark and that's why all the sports guys have them on. But when its wet, the wider the tyre, the less grip it has and they can end up just spinning. Really in mud you want a thin, tall tyre that cuts down to the good stuff and gains grip.

that Wacker above never span a wheel .... just plowed through ... the 3t on std. conventional herring bone tyres just got stuck ... full stop . the grass tyres are just that ... wide profile turf tyres, designed not to mark

this is what was on the wacker

 

[Shovelhands]

Yes, as some of you have mentioned, I’ve done just this.
I have to say it’s incredible where it will run and not leave a mark. It’s worked in some real shite and kept going, but has it’s limits when it gets wet and slippery. Once the treads fill with muck then your left spinning on top. Having said that, on a recent job, the treads were full for days! But I never had to pull it out once, and saw it drive over stuff that you’d not easily walk on.
It makes an amazingly good job of reinstating grass on banks and such like, where I’ve stripped the turf of prior to cutting or filling, put the turf back and roll it in with the dumper! That was an unintended advantage.

But, the grip in the wet is a problem, that dumper was almost unstoppable on standard tyres, that’s not the case now. But it’s a compromise I’ve lived with. I have the standard wheels for whenever i need them, but that job has not come up yet.....

I made a bit of a compromise when I did it, which was mainly due to cost. Those tyres are a little big, diameter wise, only just clearing the skip. But the lower profile where a lot more money, and I had set myself a bit of a budget!
The other compromise was the tread pattern, brilliant as they are for not leaving a mark, I realise that a conventional tread pattern on a similar size tyre would yield a much better result. They are available, but at a cost! Which at the time I wasn’t prepared to pay for.
I do know of someone who did one after he’d seen mine, on a swivel skip 6t thwaites, but he used a lower profile tyre, more in line with the rolling radius of the standard tyres, and they were a standard type tread pattern. But I believe they we’re considerably more money then mine.
Having proved the concept, would I spend more on different, more appropriate tyres?.....yes I think I would. Although it might not be so good on rolling duties

 

[Furniss]

Anyone used flotation tyres on a 3 or 6 tonne dumper?

We’ve got a few drainage jobs coming up where the ground is very wet and I’m thinking the best way to get stone in is either a 3 or 6 tonne dumper on wide tyres. We have an old Barford 6 tonne swivel skip which would do the job but will soon be purchasing a 3 tonne swivel skip so we can move it about on the Ifor Williams.
We have a quad with a “clic dual wheel “setup which works great and had thought of contacting D&S factors who are the agents for them as they will do most sizes however this may be an expensive option.
Plenty of second hand flotation tyres available on eBay but wondered if anyone else had done something similar?

thanks

Mike

Dont think you will get a 3T with floatation tyres on an Ifor

 

[Arduainefs]

Dont intend to do that......

 

[T whiting]

I'd use a 9t dumper they get places you would never expect and definitely fly through where a 3t would get stuck

 

[Quattromike]

I'd use a 9t dumper they get places you would never expect and definitely fly through where a 3t would get stuck

I would tend to agree with you on this, we recently was shifting approx 1k ton of clay/ peat slop and the 9ton dumper was the only one that would climb over the heap. Both the 6 tonners and the 5 tonner wouldn't look near it. Left some deep ruts though .

 

[T whiting]

Yes no one says you have to fill it and there's only about a ton between the empty weight of a 6 and a 9

 

[Furniss]

4 new wheels and these tyres for my 3t swivel @ £850

Quite tempting for reducing damage
What's people think re grip and less damage ?