Description

Hi-Flex Flat Profile Tyre –

Width 100mm OD 18 – Soft Duro

18 inch Hi-Flex Flat Profile Tyre – Width 100mm Outer Diameter 18 inches – Soft Duro

Tyre – 100mm wide flat Hi-Flex tyre. This tyre is a low pressure tyre suited to very wet and sticky conditions. Tyre will give an even pressure footprint over the 100mm of tyre face. Tyre has a tendency to bring soil back over the seed (desireable in most areas). This tyre is well suited to split or spread row seeding. Do not use in rough or very abrasive soils (see solid variant of this tyre)

This particular tyre is very popular on parallelogram type seeders in and around the Clermont region in Queensland.  It was originally known by many of our customers as the Clermont Special.  One of the reasons for its popularity is that it cleans nicely in clay soils and absorbs a lot of down pressure so as to not over compact the soils.  The 2 most common machines that use this tyre are Multi-Farm and Toowoomba Engineering.  Some may have also been fitted to Gessner machines.

Originally two farmers from Clermont who were using a standard 100mm flat semi-pneumatic tyre asked if we could do anything softer.  From experience we have always been very wary of going softer on tyre compounds as soft and farming do not go together.  They explained the particular issue they were having when the there was a lot of moisture in their clay soils.  Any excess pressure on the clay compacts it to the point where the seeds cannot grow up through the clay, the only way up is to go around.  Add to this that you need the press wheel because without it the parallelogram wont work.  So the theory was that if we made the tyre soft enough it would absorb the pressure and additionally it would not pick up the clay as it rotated through the soil.  Hence was born the Clermont Special and this also became the beginning of what we now refer to as our Hi-Flex range of tyres.

The tyre creates a nice 4″ wide gentle press pushes the row of seed down into the soil and into the moisture with out over compaction.

We make 4 versions of this tyre;

• Hi-Flex – very soft for use in heavy soils. wet seeding only
• Semi-pneumatic – for use in combo wet/dry seeding but mostly wet
• Semi-Solid, a high durability soft rubber tyre, designed for higher levels of dry seeding and abrasive soils.  The soft rubber still gives the tyre some flex.
• 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 is also a smaller 15″ version of this tyre. Plus we do a variety of other flat  shapes in different widths (55mm, 80mm, 100mm and 120mm) and sizes as well.  The narrow widths are used in NSW and Queensland mostly and the wider widths are popular in sandy soils in the Southern Wheatbelt and on very heavy compactible clays around Clermont in Queensland.

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	450MM (18″)
Environment 1	WET SOWING
Purpose	EVEN PRESSURE
Type	HI-FLEX
Weight	5.00KG
Environment 3	EXCELLENT SHEEDING TYRE
Environment 2	VERY STICKY SOIL
Shape	FLAT
Material	SOFT RUBBER
Width	100MM

PDF Downloads

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