Rick: I can tell you that in my farming application 15.5x38 was not the best tire for a 560 or 656. Both my 560 and 656 came new with 15.5x38 and I swore at them, more than swore by them. First and foremost I needed ground clearence, and with 15.5x38 coupled with larger chassis than 300, they didn't have as much ground clearence as 300 with 13.6x38. That 15.5 was a bummer, low profile. A neighbor up the road had a Cockshutt 570 with 18.4x34, didn't have as much hp as I did yet the extra clearence and more rubber on the ground he was all over me.
At this point, changing my tractors to disc wheels, plus hubs was an expensive option. Now. do you suppose I could get those 15.5x38 to wear out, no way. Finally I put all 4 - 15.5x38 on the 560 as duals, then bought a new set of 16.9x38 for my 656, and that made a tractor out of it in my opinion. The guy with the Cockshutt had to take a back seat. Finally I put a set of 16.9x38 on the 560.
My tractors had 7.50x16 up front and yes they did look low behind with 15.5x38. The 16.9 changed all that, but what amazed me most was the added traction and ground clearence I got from 16.9. I saw the same when I went to buy a 1066, larger chassis still and on 18.4x38 those tractors just didn't have ground clearence. I went with 20.8x38 duals and never regreted it. I wasn't going to be caught again trying to wear out a set of tires just trying to get good tire equipment.
I realize most of you guys across the mid west didn't have the same conditions as I did. In the early days we used the 300 and 560 in the farm woodlot with a home built logging winch, removed the hitch completely and the winch clamped to rear axle housings much the same as U drawbar. This winch was designed so lowest point was tractor rear end. With 15.5 tires the 560 was no better than 300 with 13.6. One does not get much traction with that big rearend hung up on a stump.
Our other unique situation was 45" annual rainfall on sandy loam soils. One slip of a rear wheel and a tractor could be drawbar deep before one could hit the clutch. For this reason we were demanding wider tires as far back as the 1940s. My dad tells a story about his father in law warning him to be careful where he crossed the wet area from one field to another with team of horses and mower. Dad said, "I just laughed at him thinking how could any fool get stuck with a team of horses and a mower. Later he acknowledged, father in law was right, horses almost didn't make. Using open and tile drainage, clearing water chanels of debris, 25 year later I was crossing these same fields with trucks at harvest time. Early in the season one still had to be careful from spring run off in the massive forrest lands surrounding, as water table would be within 2' on surface. This land was soft, basically 6-8 feet of sandy loam over gravel. Once we got the water table down near the gravel, man would that soil ever grow alfalfa. 8 tons of dry matter per acre was average. The single first cutting could often hit 5 ton in the bud stage. I required a tractor with good clearence on a 9' haybine, and we never had to double windrows not even with 1066 and NH 890 forage harvester.
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