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100 HOUR REVIEW OF TWEELS - PROS & MAJOR CONS

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#22 ·
zlandman said:
I like to run lower than recommended air pressure in my air tires for a better ride. Looked at the tweels couple years ago. Decided to buy a tire machine instead. Some of the best money spent. I can peel the tire off and put a professional inside plug/patch on in 10-15 minutes without leaving home.
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Money well spent.
 
#23 ·
zlandman said:
I like to run lower than recommended air pressure in my air tires for a better ride. Looked at the tweels couple years ago. Decided to buy a tire machine instead. Some of the best money spent. I can peel the tire off and put a professional inside plug/patch on in 10-15 minutes without leaving home.
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Great Job having a machine, we have one as well, we use bar grip tyres for the early season as sites are wet, and then can fit regular tyres for the rest of the summer, or as you say fix a puncture if needed quickly. we also use a tyre sealant called OKO which gives another level of protection to the wheels.
 
#24 ·
MowDaddy said:
I seriously hope your kidding :(
Those hardened wires can kill people. We give flags 2 weeks then pull them.
If you just chop them up, now 20 pieces of wire are now 60 pieces.
Only takes one wire to blind or kill someone.
Your better then that. :(
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Seriously hope your post above is not serious? The chances of that happening basically zero. And I don't mow the things over when anyone is anywhere near me while mowing....no one should be near you while mowing anyway. No, I wasnt kidding. I mow them over. Not spending time picking up after other people's ignorance....applies mostly to big commercial properties, homeowners I'll pull because they are usually all right out front of the home takes two seconds.
 
#25 ·
VikLawnServices said:
We had a John Deere 652r stander at my old work. It had tweels on it. We both hated them. Harsh ride, they wouldn't hold a hill to save their life, and we found them doing a lot more turf damage to the lawns since they would slide when we would try to turn rather than actually grip up and turn. Most likely not operator error since we had both run zero turns and standers a long time. The Toro and Gravely stand ons we also ran NEVER had those issues. I doubt it was a JD issue either since we have a few guys in town running them, but they have pneumatic tires and have never complained of the issues we had.
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Tweels wont hold a hill? You must be joking. I can side-slope so much better and safer with tweels than I ever could with air tires. Used to have a lot of problems sliding and biting the bottom of the slope with air tires. Little to no issue now. That square corner bites into the slope.

Now if you are talking going nose down a slope.....then no tweels will slide but so will everything else Z's don't nose down a slope well no matter what tire you have on there.
 
#26 ·
DA Quality Lawn & YS said:
Tweels wont hold a hill? You must be joking. I can side-slope so much better and safer with tweels than I ever could with air tires. Used to have a lot of problems sliding and biting the bottom of the slope with air tires. Little to no issue now. That square corner bites into the slope.

Now if you are talking going nose down a slope.....then no tweels will slide but so will everything else Z's don't nose down a slope well no matter what tire you have on there.
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Easy now- AT101's hold hills like a goat going up, down, no matter. Wet or dry. I would never be without them on a Z again. They ride better than any oem tire too.
 
#28 ·
DA Quality Lawn & YS said:
Seriously hope your post above is not serious? The chances of that happening basically zero. And I don't mow the things over when anyone is anywhere near me while mowing....no one should be near you while mowing anyway. No, I wasnt kidding. I mow them over. Not spending time picking up after other people's ignorance....applies mostly to big commercial properties, homeowners I'll pull because they are usually all right out front of the home takes two seconds.
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Absolutely not kidding.
I would instantly fire someone if I saw them intentionally mowing down flags. And chances aren't almost zero.
One wire on Monday got launched right through the sidewall of my mower. Could just as easily been my leg or face.
I've still got a 1" piece of wire in my leg from 45 yrs ago. My brother was mowing the lawn with a push mower and a scrap of wire hit me in the leg. Emergency room did an xray it was bent like an L shape.
They opted to leave it in.
Also you chop up those wires an people will step on them.
Or they hit a car etc.
Good grief.
Plucking out flags is just part of the business. Just like not mowing over beer bottles in the ditch.
 
#30 ·
DA Quality Lawn & YS said:
Tweels wont hold a hill? You must be joking. I can side-slope so much better and safer with tweels than I ever could with air tires. Used to have a lot of problems sliding and biting the bottom of the slope with air tires. Little to no issue now. That square corner bites into the slope.

Now if you are talking going nose down a slope.....then no tweels will slide but so will everything else Z's don't nose down a slope well no matter what tire you have on there.
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I'm talking side to side here. Not up and down. Only mower I'll take straight down would be a walk behind or a 4wd tractor, and even then, depends on the hill. Just our experience when we used tweels. Might be our soil in MN or just the lawns that have hills. To each their own. I'll stick to pneumatic tires over the overpriced tweels any day.
 
#33 ·
At101 only slightly better on hills. Not a miracle tire folks come on. Walk behinds are hill monsters, sit down zero turns for the most part are limited by their design and theres no miracle tire for them. Whether it be a tweel or a at101 or a mud tire. At101 do give good traction going through slop or up hills, they dont make your mower a mountain climbing side sloping miracle
 
#34 ·
MowDaddy said:
Absolutely not kidding.
I would instantly fire someone if I saw them intentionally mowing down flags. And chances aren't almost zero.
One wire on Monday got launched right through the sidewall of my mower. Could just as easily been my leg or face.
I've still got a 1" piece of wire in my leg from 45 yrs ago. My brother was mowing the lawn with a push mower and a scrap of wire hit me in the leg. Emergency room did an xray it was bent like an L shape.
They opted to leave it in.
Also you chop up those wires an people will step on them.
Or they hit a car etc.
Good grief.
Plucking out flags is just part of the business. Just like not mowing over beer bottles in the ditch.
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Why are you mowing so close to someone that debris is hitting them anyway?? Heck could have been a rock or piece of glass for you....just happened to be a piece of wire. Don't mow when people are anywhere near your operation.

No, pulling out flags that other people fail to remove is NOT my business. Like I said before I'll do it on a quarter acre homeowner lawn because they are all right there for the plucking. I'm not spending 15 minutes walking a 2 acre commercial lawn pulling 100 flags. Sorry. As long as no one is around, Im mowing them over and I can do that without tire puncture too now:)
 
#35 ·
VikLawnServices said:
@DA Quality Lawn & YS
Actually, I see you're from the same city as me so my argument about the soil doesn't hold much water... might have to show me sometime how your tweels hold hills.
[/QUOTE

Not gonna argue, but I've just had so much better luck on side-hilling with tweels. Had an older Gravely PT 260 that was large frame, and the air tires just did not hold a candle. They were turfmasters is as typical on a Z.

That said, the investment in Tweels is such that if you dont mind a little slip sliding on air tires, and dont mind plugging tires a few times a year, go for it.
I've had mixed success with plugging. In those soft mower tires, sometimes the plugs work sometimes they leak right away. And then yes, stick a tube in the tire. For me, that involves removing the wheel and hauling to Discount Tire. I dont have tire mounting tools and dont care to mess with that.
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#36 ·
DA Quality Lawn & YS said:
Why are you mowing so close to someone that debris is hitting them anyway?? Heck could have been a rock or piece of glass for you....just happened to be a piece of wire. Don't mow when people are anywhere near your operation.

No, pulling out flags that other people fail to remove is NOT my business. Like I said before I'll do it on a quarter acre homeowner lawn because they are all right there for the plucking. I'm not spending 15 minutes walking a 2 acre commercial lawn pulling 100 flags. Sorry. As long as no one is around, Im mowing them over and I can do that without tire puncture too now:)
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First of all 90% of our mowing is commercial and municipal. Pretty impossible not to mow when people aren't around.
Secondly even if people aren't around those cut up pieces of wire don't disappear. They scatter everywhere. Also what about the plastic flag portion? You just blow that sheet all over someone's lawn?
I'm guessing your blowing smoke about mowing hundreds of flag wires everywhere. If not that is actually the most unprofessional thing I've ever read on Lawnsite.
 
#38 ·
MowDaddy said:
First of all 90% of our mowing is commercial and municipal. Pretty impossible not to mow when people aren't around.
Secondly even if people aren't around those cut up pieces of wire don't disappear. They scatter everywhere. Also what about the plastic flag portion? You just blow that sheet all over someone's lawn?
I'm guessing your blowing smoke about mowing hundreds of flag wires everywhere. If not that is actually the most unprofessional thing I've ever read on Lawnsite.
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Not blowing smoke. I've mowed over a bunch. Might have exaggerated a bit on the flag count at some properties because the things piss me off so bad. Apol for that.

Whats unprofessional are contractors and property owners not removing those flags like they should be when they are done with their work. It really hacks me off when I see that crap in lawns for weeks and weeks on end, beyond the two week req. Im not spending a ton of time picking up after other people's ignorance.
And what is also unprofessional is mowing around them, leaving tufts of grass everywhere....also wastes time because your playing dodge-a-flag instead of mowing lawn like you should be.

To get back on subject, I went to tweels to avoid flats from those stupid flags. And it works like a charm, but yes it is an investment.
 
#39 ·
FlemingIslandLawnService said:
100 HOUR REVIEW OF TWEELS

PROS:

NON FLAT
NO DOWN TIME DUE TO TIRE ISSUES
DON'T HAVE TO AIR UP
DON'T HAVE TO GREASE BEARINGS OR REPLACE BEARINGS
LAST TIRES YOU'LL EVER BUY (SUPPOSEDLY)
GOOD TRACTION


CONS:

RIDES INCREDIBLY ROUGHER THAN AIR TIRES DESPITE CLAIMS OF A COMFORTABLE RIDE
COSTLY
TEARS THIN TURF EASIER THAN AIR TIRES
NON RETURNABLE, NONREFUNDABLE, HARD TO RESELL


I spent $1,650 on a set of 4 tweels for my Grasshopper but after 100 hours I had enough of them. My back was getting so sore from how much rougher the ride was compared to how it was before with the air tires. As you can see I have the Gravely air ride seat on my Grasshopper so that speaks volumes on how rough the ride is with the tweels. I called Michelin trying to return the tweels arguing that on their website they had claims of tweels softening the ride for extreme comfort. Michelin set me up with a case number and said they would be in contact with me about this but I never heard from them again. They also changed the wording on the website about the comfort thing right after my complaint. Just wanted to share an honest review before any of you put tweels on your mower.


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i have the same setup on a 328 g4 efi grasshopper. i dont call it a rough ride....i call it bouncy. seems like there are times i get bounced out of the seat - but i deal with it. on my other grasshopper i have the twhhels on the front only - that is great! when there is a slow leak up front, its still too much of a leak and youre flat too fast to just keep adding air. so in front i like them.....in back it seems a bit bouncy. however.....on my other machine i recently had my partner run the tires along a barbed wire fence and slashed the sidewall - i replaced the tires as a pair....$140 each and $40 mounting....$320.....and a good portion of the afternoon was shot. i have also noticed that the twheels in fron on one of the machines seems to be out of round and gallops when going on pavement. i cant see it in the cut of the lawns yet.....but that is going to make me mad if i do.
 
Discussion starter · #40 ·
Brucey said:
Ordered and carry a spare rim and tire in the truck for the next time we have an issue with it.
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Great idea! I'll be doing ordering spares on the rims for both my mowers since I'm done with tweels... one spare for the front and one for the back tire for each mower. I already have a heavy duty dewalt battery pack impact and a jack in my truck tool box along with tire plugs and fix a flat. I'll make room for the spare mower tires in the enclosed trailer. It'll be the best solution for not having to go to the mower shop anymore for tire issues.
 
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