If everything you're telling us is legit, sounds like you have a controversy to be settled in court.
Hold manufacturers accountable for their actions. No remorse. Go for their throat. F@#$ em.

 

What? no he doesn't have a court settlement, good god is everybody sue happy?

For some LCO's, the pro's outweigh the cons and what I mean by that is that they don't go flat. That's really what we are talking about here, no plugs, no leaks, no flats. For some, that's all they need to know and they have great success with them.

Otherwise, it's a gimmick, and a real overpriced one. They don't ride softer, they don't last longer, and they aren't easier on the turf, they simply do not go flat and that's worth a lot to some!

 

The other pro, if purchased with a machine (at least with John Deere), the tweels are warrantied for the three years that the machine is.

Other con: weight limitations are lower than pneumatic rim/tire so cannot use with bagger systems, still need traditional set of tires for cleanups.

 

I never thought the tweels were much more than a gimmick.
In 12 yrs of mowing with thousands of hrs on mowers and have only had maybe 6 flat tires.
Side note: you better get a bearing cover on your caster or your going to have rust in there.

 

Disagree. Used to have air tires on my prior sit down Z's. Flats all the time, sidewalls, treads, etc. Usually from those stupid utility marking flags that the morons leave on lawns to be mown over.
I love not having flat issues anymore. And I mow straight over those dumb flags

As for the OP, rough ride?? Strange. Oh, and Tweels will grip a steep side hill better than any air tire give or take one with tractor bar treads on there. Used to fear mowing sidehills. Not anymore.

 

The tweels do last longer, but with the price difference that will pay for a lot of replacement pneumatic tires

 

Have you used Tweels yourself to know they actually last longer?
I've got 3 mowers that I bought brand new, and now have over 2000 hrs on each of them, still have original tires.
I've got 3 more mowers I bought new and still have original tires. Each of those are around 700 to 1000 hrs.
So I'm not buying that Tweels last longer.

 

Well I didn’t mind using them on my toro pro stand but that’s because I’m standing. As far as sitting down I’ve never had an opportunity to use them so I can’t say anything on The comfortability of it. One thing I noted that I didn’t like was they tend to push in if you will on a turn or if a lot of weight is shifted on that side in which case alters the deck and ultimately the cutting height that I’ve had to go back and fix with the trimmer. That’s another con I noticed.

 

Redwing Puncture Resistant Turf 24 Tyres | Tyre Choice

Fit puncture proof tyres | Winter Tyres | Tyre Company Hull

We use these puncture resistant tyres on our rear discharge mowers, a lot cheaper than tweels, Our JD dealer would not supply tweels on our 997R said they had had too many issues with them.

 

I use AT101s on my 72" Gravely,
My personal rider, around 800 hrs.
I've had 1 flat from a marker flag on Monday. Got shot straight into sidewall that my worker hit and speared tire. Stuck a plug in it and rolled on.
How much does 1 Tweel cost?

 

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.

 

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.

 

 

Those were some of the claims on their website. Since I spoke with Michelin about the roughness they have changed some of their wording on their website

 

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.

 

Money well spent.

 

$570 EACH. Ouch.
My first car cost me $450 and lasted me 4 years!

 

The only thing that holds hills on a sit down z is duals. I hear the tweels help, but then I hear that they don't, so I guess I still don't know. One other thing I hear a lot is that the tweels get stuck easier.

 

@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.

 

@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.

 

This sounds like my kind of party. Let me know the when and where and I am there!

 

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

 

I'd prob go rear discharge if I did any mowing where people were around. I prefer the clean cut of side discharge tho.

 

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.


View attachment 511757

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.

 

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.

Interesting how half the guys with tweels say its rough and half don't. If you don't have a perfect healthy back I'd say don't buy tweels. If your back is great then maybe tweels won't bother you with the back pain. For me I had to mow so much slower with tweels for it to not be rough. With air tires I would mow at full speed a lot of the time. With tweels if I mow at full speed on some bumpy yards I get a sore back.

 

It's hard to guage for me as I have the full suspension JD seat with comfortglide on my tweel machine. But I would say the at101s are a little softer ride overall. The tweels are definitely significantly heavier then an at101 and rim.

 

I don't know why anyone would waste their money on these things. I mowed for over 30 years before retiring. Tweels were not even invented yet. Flats were never a problem, and I mowed city landfills, sewer plants and other rough areas. All you need is a cheap tire plugging kit from Auto Zone, and an inexpensive, battery powered air compressor on the truck. Get a flat, fix it on the mower with maybe 10 minutes of downtime. Got a BIG hole? Stuff 3 or 4 plugs in there, it will seal up. Tweels? Bah humbug, save your money.

 

Plugs don’t fix every flat. Shoving 3 or 4 plugs in a big hole doesn’t always work well and sometimes you get slashed side walls that can’t be plugged. There are so many things that can cause down time so it doesn’t have to be tires if you have tweels. Some of us are willing to pay the price to eliminate down time. I have a one year old and a two year old that I have to be off work at 4:00 every day to take care of so down time is not an option for me. My kids are worth whatever price to pay to eliminate down time to ensure I can be there for them when I have to. That was the logic behind getting tweels and if they didn’t cause so much back pain I’d still be using them. For some people tweels may be the answer. Respect that

 

Lol mic drop?

 

Slime for tweels will fix that

I ran the foam filled no flats a couple seasons. They way too heavy. Just slime the air filled when new or carry a battery compressor and sealant.

Tweels about as necessary as a treadmill bike

 

The one thing i see with tweels is the inside splines or whatever you want to call them start to get softer snd bend easier. Maybe the actual plastic tread lasts longer but the structural part of the wheel tends to fail and you cant just air them up.

They are an expensive fad that im seeing more and more often but truly do not think they will take over the pneumatic market.

They are head turners and great for no flats, at a super high price tag. Its a plastic wheel that wont go flat, thats the only benefit they have.

 

The one thing i see with tweels is the inside splines or whatever you want to call them start to get softer snd bend easier.

Well, if you consider the definition of plastic...and the "spokes" are made of plastic...it's a no brainer that these are going to get weaker and break.

We're running VersaTurfs on everything we can. And using Multi-Seal tire sealant.

 

Guessing some guys buy them cause they think they look cool. Seems to be high percentage of tweels on mowers being hauled by trucks running 35”-37” Lo Pro mud tires.

 

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.


View attachment 511757

In your experience was traction noticeably better with Tweels than with pneumatic tires?

 

Based on my time with them, traction when compared to a turfsaver pneumatic is the same. I e. Absolute garbage when conditions are sloppy. Once the tread packs up with mud it's all over, just a super slick at that point They do hold a dry hill well tho.