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Mechanized farm equipment started out in what today must be considered quite primitive form. In the early 1930's an orange grower in Florida tried a set of low pressure airplane tires on a farm tractor in an effort to provide better flotation to get his work done. These tires offered a big improvement over the steel wheels in general use and the stage was set for the pneumatic tire to take over on agricultural equipment.

The changeover to pneumatic tires on farm equipment did not occur all at once nor did it follow a predetermined pattern. New tire sizes were introduced individually as required to meet a specific set of new operating conditions. Consistent design parameters were not established early as was done with passenger tires, and farm tires stay in service a lot longer than passenger tires, so that today most lines of agricultural tires are still not designed to a common set of proportions.

Basic Tire Design. Dimensional factors to be considered in the basic design of any tire include section height, section width, aspect ratio, rim diameter and width, tread pattern and lug height.