Description

Semi-Pneumatic Wedge Profile Tyre

Width 55mm OD 15

15 inch Semi-Pneumatic Wedge Profile Tyre Width 55mm Outer Diameter 15 inch

Tyre – 55mm wide narrow wedge semi-pneumatic tyre. This tyre is a high pressure tyre suited to wet and sticky conditions. Tyre will give good results across a range of soil and climatic conditions. Tyre is good for moisture seeking behind very narrow points in firm soil structures. Tyre has a tendency to leave paddocks rough, which is a necessity of the moisture channelling. Not recommended in rough or very abrasive soils (see solid variants of this tyre) as this is quite a soft tyre. Not recommended for use in sandy soils as too much soil may come back in over the seed.

This particular tyre is very popular in Northen NSW and Queensland and widely used in applications involving sub-soil moisture on many different machine and assembly types. This tyre shape is designed for a deep press into a narrow furrow.  This tyre will clean well in most soil types, although it mostly used in clay soils and rarely if ever used in sandy soils. This tyre is optimised for 90/10 wet/dry ratio, but for long life avoid dry seeding and dry crusts.  Ultimately it is the dry crusts that this tyre does not like.  It is a nice soft flexible rubber so that it can dive down deep into the seed channel without clogging up with clay and that same soft rubber does not like the hard concrete like edges at the top of the seed trench.

Traditionally this tyre was always widely used on tyne mounted press wheel assemblies where the tyre on the press wheel could run in right behind the tyne and press the soil into the moisture before any dry soil feel back in over the seed.  We even have one customer in NSW with 2 Bourgault precision seed drills that uses the solid version of this tyre rather than the original 120mm rounded tyres.  So you will see this tyre on Manutec, JADAN, Garnelle and Bryemax tyne mounted assemblies.  It was also popular on the Davey AFM press wheels.and occasionally pops up on some other brands of press wheels and parallelograms.

The tyre creates a nice moisture channel and the flat tip gets down deep and pushes the row of seed down into the soil where the sub-soil moisture is.  The tyre also compresses any loose dry soil which also assists in keeping the area around the soil moist.  If you are seeding into existing moisture then the tyre will press the seed down into that moisture.  All of the features are important to getting early germination, getting the crops established early and taking full availability of existing sub-soil moisture.

We make 2 versions of this tyre in the 15″ range;

• Semi-pneumatic
• Solid, a very high durability tyre for hard soils and rocks (limestone).  Has very little flex so won’t work well in sticky soils.

Why 18″ vs 15″ ? The main reason is more historical.  the 18″ tyres are more popular in NSW and Queensland.  Yes they do handle heavy sticky soils better and they are better when you are deep drilling down at 5″.  But I think farmers like to buy what they are used to seeing other farmers use, ie safety in numbers.  Most of the early press wheels used in NSW and Queensland were 17″ to 18″ and so that trend has continued and each time a farmer buys a new set of press wheels based on what they see other farmers using they are adding to the tradition.  There are also some well known brands that also like to use the 18″ wheels.  Knuckeys, Multi-Farm, Gessner, Simplicity and all Manutec standard gang press wheels and gang conversion press wheels use the 18″ wheels.  The 18″ wheels can also be used on all of Manutec’s different types of press wheel assemblies.  One note here is that on our gangs and gang conversions we only recommend the high durability  semi-solid and solid tyres as gangs are much harder on tyres than other assembly types.

There are also other size versions of these tyres, including a larger 18-19″ version that will get in even deeper. Plus we do a variety of other wedge shapes in different widths and sizes as well.  The narrow widths are used for deep drilling in NSW and Queensland mostly and the wider widths are popular in sandy soils to help with furrow sidewall collapse and also for paired and split row seeding.

What many users do not understand is where the humble press wheel tyre sits on the order of importance when it comes to improving crops.  For many years the entire concept of press wheels was not accepted by farmers at all.  Then when it was accepted many systems that were fitted got a bad name and reputation for not working.  Why ?  Mostly because the tyre that was fitted was not suitable for the environment that it was being used in.  If the tyre had been correct, the systems would have worked.  So the message here is that all of the expensive steel work that carries the press wheel is just that.  It is the humble press wheel tyre that is the critical component.  Manutec has taken many unworkable systems from our competitors and turned them into systems that work out in the paddock as they should.  If you have a system that is not working for you, ie you bought a seeder from WA and you are trying to make it work in NSW or a machine built for North American farming conditions, talk to Manutec and we can give you some options for you to use or to trial to get things working properly.

In the more information section below is a Tyre Information and selection pdf.

When measuring tyres we use the outside diameter of the tyre, so when we refer to this as a 18 inch tyre it means that the outside diameter of the tyre is approximately 18-19 inches.

Note semi-pneumatic tyres do not need to have air pumped into them and have no valves.  The semi-pneumatic effect is created by a hollow air cavity inside the tyre.  When the two rim halves are clamped together on to the tyre it seals the air cavity and creates a pneumatic like feel/bounce

Class Name	Value
Diameter	380MM (15″)
Environment 1	CLAY/STICKY SOIL
Purpose	HIGH PRESSURE MOISTURE SEEKING
Type	SEMI-PNEUMATIC
Weight	2.24KG
Environment 3	NON ABRASIVE SOILS/WET SOWING
Environment 2	SAND/LOAM
Shape	SHARP WEDGE
Material	SOFT RUBBER WITH HOLLOW
Width	55MM

PDF Downloads

https://ag.manutec.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Press-wheels-info-sheet.pdf