duals = lower efficiency?

Jason

For for the same vehicle with narrow or wide tires, singles or duals, which one will get the best mileage ?

Best fuel efficiency on a vehicle would be bicycle tires inflated to rock hard. Wouldn't do much for practical use, but it would be most efficient. (Note the high-milage races, they all have bike tires of some sort.)

For hauling - trucks - you need a tire that can handle the load. The big singles are more efficent that duals used to be, so we see more new trucks with the large singles. Bicycle tires just wouldn't do much for a truck....

A tractor or other heavy pulling unit - it's all about traction, controling the wheelspin. Get the wheelspin low enough to be very efficient. The most efficient traveling tractor is the one with the proper wheelspin.

Duals, triples, or I've even seen quads, will control the wheelspin & improve the efficiency - but it all has to 'make sense' and be matched to the dirt & the load you are pulling & the weight of the tractor.

Driving down the road from one field to the next, a tractor is not efficient in any shape or form, so the number of wheels has about zero effect on efficiency of just traveling down the road. :)

--->Paul

This assumes the proper balance, weight, and tractoion matched to the tractor hp & operation you are doing. It is quite a science getting it all set up right to match the soil, implement, & tractor traction to each other on the big rigs.

Often the duals or triples also help with soil compaction as mentioned.

--->Paul

Soil compaction is the other big factor in using duals or triples.Things don't grow on packed down soil.

They only times they would hurt would be when you are on solid footing and the duals are just along for the ride. The extra wieght would take more fuel to move.

Gary