Mitas Tires Help Tractor Walk on Water

A Claas Axos 320 tractor which was fitted with Mitas flotation tires successfully “walked” on water despite weighing 4 tons. As the tractor was fitted with these tires, the captain did not even get his feet wet when riding the tractor.

The stunt was carried out on September 14, in Offingawier, Netherlands in collaboration with the tire manufacturer’s partners, BOS mechanisatie, Gruva techniek and B&O Bandenservice. The Claas Axos 320 tractor was fitted with one of the largest agricultural tires in the world, the Mitas1250/50 R 32 SFT tire on the rear axle and Mitas 750/55 R 30 SFT tire on the front axle of the floating Claas tractor.

Speaking about the achievement, Pavel Kott, Product Manager for Mitas agricultural tires, said that  Mitas primarily focuses on what benefits it can provide to farmers through its products. Flotation tires not only can help tractors to float on water but can also help them to increase their yields as they have lower soil compaction. The combined volume of the air in all the four tires fitted on the tractor made it possible for the tractor to float on the water. This is similar to the impact such tires will have when they are used in agricultural machines as they distribute the weight of the machines gently over the soil.

Mitas organized this event in order to showcase the potential of agricultural tires and their clear link to the topic of soil compaction.

Bert Kuiper, Head of Sales Claas at Kamps de Wild, the Dutch importer of Claas, added: “We are excited to be part of this project which shows the possibilities of agricultural machinery from a different angle. We could never guess that our tractor would be walking on the water.”

The total weight of the Claas Axos 320 tractor inclusive of its full fuel tank, front base weight and driver, was 4,068 kilograms. While the volume of the Mitas 1250/50 R 32 SFT tire is an impressive 2,157 liters, the 750/55 R 30 SFT boasts 685 liters at a nominal pressure of 2.4 bar.

The Mitas 1250/50 R 32 SFT is meant for grain carts, combine harvesters and other strong agricultural machines. The Mitas 1250/50 R 32 SFT 188A8/185B tire has a diameter of 2.02 meters and can support loads of up to 14 metric tons (10 kilometers per hour, cyclic). With a weight of 571 kilograms, in this size, the Super Flexion Tire (SFT) is also the heaviest tire in Mitas’ product portfolio. The tire is available globally.