MCC 76 Posted February 24, 2019 Share Posted February 24, 2019 I have a Super C I have been using plowing snow this winter. Twice I have dropped the front wheels over the edge and had to spin the tires for five minutes or so until I finally dug through the ice and got unstuck. During this time I would apply the brakes as needed to alternate wheel spin or to attempt to spin both. Didn't think anything of it until I read a 1456 Differential thread a couple of days ago where it was suggested spinning the diff. like this could tear things up inside the differential. Curious if this is really bad for them or not so much. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bitty 5,294 Posted February 24, 2019 Share Posted February 24, 2019 Is your oil in good condition? That would be my first concern . Otherwise I would think that it would be ok. Unless you spend 20+ percent of the time spinning just one tire. Have you thought about putting chains on the tires ? Simple ladder chains would do wonders 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Chuck 2 Posted February 24, 2019 Share Posted February 24, 2019 Nothing too unusual about that. That is and was a fairly common and often necessary way to use a tractor under those type situations. In all honesty, if doing that breaks a diff then I'd be seriously questioning the design of it. Mind you some operators will break anything. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
IHC_1470 107 Posted February 24, 2019 Share Posted February 24, 2019 Probably the biggest issue is if the spinning tire suddenly grabs. The shock load is what is hard on the side gears. Once watched one of my bus drivers spinning on ice and suddenly the wheels grabbed. About three days later I was looking for a pot to drop in as the side gears gave up the ghost. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
560Dennis 1,396 Posted February 24, 2019 Share Posted February 24, 2019 If you think about it , it’s a seventy year old tractor. The differential is cast iron it’s cold and oil probably has never been changed , that a lot of pressure hard braking. It a testimony to the engineering. A machine that old taking that kind of stress. 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
MCC 76 Posted February 24, 2019 Author Share Posted February 24, 2019 I changed the gear lube when I got this a couple years ago. The blade I bought came with chains, but I need to add some more cross sections on them because they mostly ride down in between the lugs. The tractor has nearly new Firestones on it and the lugs sit higher than the chains. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Gleaner k2 34 Posted February 24, 2019 Share Posted February 24, 2019 If thier was damage done it will show just run it cause if thier is damage its already been done! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
806frank 15 Posted February 24, 2019 Share Posted February 24, 2019 If you stop and think about a tractor plowing with one wheel in the furrow the differential is constantly working. Last a long time. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
R Pope 276 Posted February 24, 2019 Share Posted February 24, 2019 If they broke that easy they'd all be in the junk by now! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
rustred 302 Posted February 25, 2019 Share Posted February 25, 2019 ok, so you don't have an actual correct answer yet.that is the whole idea of a differential. plowing don't hurt them. different size tires don't hurt them. its when you get stuck and have one wheel spinning at a high speed is when things can happen. more so in automotive diff's. what happens is the spider gears get spinning so fast on the pin that the lube is lost and it galls the pin and cause wear on the pin and gear. any short amount of one wheel spinning within reason will not hurt a thing. that's the whole idea of the diff, to let one wheel spin faster than the other. that's what happens when you go around a corner. other wise you would have hopping. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.