cd1

Bobby Henard Tire

Trelleborg-Bobby-Henard-Tire-1024
Date:
A lot has changed in the fifty plus years that I have been involved in farm tires. One of the most recent changes is the creation of an all-purpose or "hybrid” tire by Trelleborg. The principle function of this new tire is to allow farmers the freedom of using the same tire in both wet and dry conditions.

Daily challenges exist in all aspects of farming, and often a farmer has to make decisions concerning the type of tires on his machinery. One issue a farmer faces is deciding between a tire that has a long tread life, and good roading characteristics verses a tire that is capable of performing in wet, muddy conditions. Now, the Trelleborg TM600 All Purpose tire has the capability of doing both. This new tire incorporates the wet traction characteristics of an R2 but also has the ride and wear characteristic of an R1W. 

The TM600 All Purpose tire took more than two years from concept, to testing, and has finally been realized into a finished product. After completion of this tire, there was only 1 test that really mattered; the farmer test. Four days were spent observing a tractor equipped with this tire all the while pulling a 1000 plus bushel grain cart through rice fields. The results were extrordinary as the farmer was very impressed with the wet traction and ride of this new tire. Now, this farmer is in the process of equipping other tractors with this all-purpose tire. His experience was summed up in five words, "You have a real winner.” 

Dave Petter (Owner of Petter Farms 12,000 acres - Stuttgart, AR)

"When this project was first presented to me I was extremely skeptical. As much as I wanted to believe it I didn’t really "get it” that I could use the same tire in my rice fields (wet or dry), cotton fields, and my bean fields. For 25 years my family has been running R2’s and then when the R1W radial became more common we were constantly changing tires depending on the environment we were in - whether planting, spraying or harvesting. Since our land is over a 3 county area we consistently do a lot of roading, and prematurly wearing out the R2 was just a way of life for us.

Then Trelleborg came out with what I’m calling a “Miracle Tire”. I first put these tires on the rear of my JD 8345R tractor dueled up (just to get rid of the salesman) and then my field manager called me who operates that particular tractor and said he wants this tire on every tractor we had. I asked him why, and he proceeded to tell me what it was doing. Even though I didn’t have the time I drove that tractor for 3 1/2 hours personally harvesting rice. To be honest I did everything I could to disprove what I was being told by my operator. I went through levy’s, mud and anything I could find that I thought would hamper the tire performance. Keep in mind all this time I am loading and unloading 11,000 lbs of rice in my cart. I couldn’t believe it, this tire outperformed any expectations I had. It rode great, stayed clean, didn’t leave ruts in my fields, and the traction was good. I am very happy that now I have an alternative tire to use on my farm. “You have a real winner"