International Tractor 504

[John bates]

I don't know much about tractors. But have 1 1969 504 international and I have chains on it and 1200 pounds of weight and I still spin on 3 inches of snow. My drive way is basically flat and the thing to me is a boat anchor. What am I doing wrong

 

[Jim.ME]

Post pictures. You don't tell us but one has to guess you have a loader with a bucket or blade on it. How wet is the snow? Loose or packed? How much tread on the rear tires? What type of chains? Do the chains to stay on top of the lugs or are they down in between the lugs? Are you "floating the bucket or blade or holding the cutting edge hard to the ground?

 

[John bates]

Sorry yes it has a bucket...packed snow under loose on top. I spin with bucket off ground...there not ice chains but they are on top or tread. Tires are new. I would think if both tires spun at same time it be fine. But the brake system controls what tire spins for what I see

 

[John bates]

Pic

 

[joeysmith]

Pic

How much air pressure in the tires?
They look pretty tight

 

[Jim.ME]

Sorry yes it has a bucket...packed snow under loose on top. I spin with bucket off ground...there not ice chains but they are on top or tread. Tires are new. I would think if both tires spun at same time it be fine. But the brake system controls what tire spins for what I see

more Pictures in day light.

It looks to me like the cross chains may well be dropping in behind tire lugs. Are they just ladder chains (cross chains only tied to the side chains (no chains tying cross chains together down the center of the tire)?

How much air pressure in the front tires? How much in rear tires?

A plain differential is going to let the tire with the presentation spin first, a differential lock is needed to make them spinning the same time a sure thing. Learning to lightly apply some brake to a spinning wheel can transfer power to the wheel with more traction.

 

[Janicholson]

The chains need to be either modified with more cross links, or changed to a ring type. They are basically hiding from contact with the ice. Jim

 

[John bates]

How much air pressure in the tires?
They look pretty tight

Yes. I'll check

 

[John bates]

Thanks guys. I'll weld some rings on and let air out of tires

 

[Hayfarmer]

Thanks guys. I'll weld some rings on and let air out of tires

Adding a weight on 3 point in back definitely helps. On the 3 point there is a leverage advantage over just weight on wheels.

 

[300guy]

That's what I noticed also that the chains were riding in between the lugs and not on top of them. So what traction you had is coming from the lugs on the tires only, not the chains.

 

[John bates]

Ya that side they are. The other side there on top of lugs. Left side just dug a 8 inch hole into the frozen ground. I'm going to take some 6 inch rings cut from.core pipe and weld between chains after I get them.back on lugs to stop them from going in between

 

[used red MN]

This is one instance that tires in good condition with deep lugs doesn’t help you. Your proposed 6” rings from pipe are going to be pretty tough on the tire lugs. Just a 2 or 3 inch ring made or 3/8” dia. material welded between the pairs of cross links to keep at least some of the cross links going over the top of the bars will help. Also you mentioned the brakes, learn how to use them for traction control. When a wheel spins apply some brake to it so the differential transfers the power over to the wheel that is getting better traction. That is one of the reasons farm tractors have individual brakes. It parts of the game, particularly since you don’t have a differential lock.

 

[John bates]

Thanks guys. I'm learning with this. I only bought it to load logs on my sawmill. Cause it came with fork attachment..and plow... your right about tires. There solid.. front and back. Ill.work on the issues I was told here. Of course when it warms up. 17 below this morning lol

 

[jimmyjoe]

Loosen them up so they reposition every revolution . Been there done that.

 

[BarnyardEngineering]

Loosen them up so they reposition every revolution . Been there done that.

I agree. I do not understand the fascination with putting them on so tight that you can play a tune on them. It only leads to "chain wedgies" where all the cross chains are jammed between the lugs. Letting them run a little loose allows them to fall out from between the lugs as they come around. The tractor should be laying the chains on the ground in front of the tires, so to speak.

Reducing the tire pressure to 12PSI will probably be enough to loosen them up. Those tires look like they have about 25PSI in them.

Those are the fancy 2-link chains that have twice as many cross chains as normal.

More weight can't hurt.

Glare ice is glare ice, though. You can only do so much.

 

[caterpillar guy]

That is the reason we have loaded tires and about a total of some where around 1200-1500 per tire on each tire. So we can get around with our loader and the bucket is a big snow bucket not those puny buckets you see on most loaders that are only about knee high and not all that deep front to back. Ours is 7 wide and about waist high and about 2 feet deep front to back inside. Loader is on a 574 tractor. You need your tires loaded .I know obody believes in chloride but it works the best and has the most weight per gallon of solution. About 12 LBS per gallon so if you get 50 gallon in there you would add about 600 Per tire plus your rear weight.

 

[John bates]

I welded more chain in between the factory ones is why it looks like that. But I know nothing about tractors . Just bought for my saw mill. Thanks for the info

 

[used red MN]

Are you carrying heavy logs around when this is happening? Big difference between that and using the loader to just clear 3” of snow.

 

[John bates]

No. I haven't used it yet for logs. I only use my sawmill in summer... I just checked air in tires. One tire had 30 psi the other 9.5 and the front 35 psi