You give your combine a thorough checkup before harvest begins, and perhaps at various points during the season. But what about the tires on that combine and the grain cart? Unless a tire looks low, do they get attention before you head out to the field?

Brad Harris, manager of global agriculture field engineering for Firestone Ag, believes you owe it to yourself to include time for tire maintenance when you’re doing other seasonal maintenance tasks.

“You can break tire maintenance for harvesting and post-harvest activities into three categories,” he says. “You need to pay attention to tire inflation pressure, manage your tire setup to minimize soil compaction and also think about how you can protect tires best against tough stubble they will encounter in the field.”

Austin Fischer, a field engineer for Firestone Ag, helps more fully explain these three critical components of tire maintenance during the harvest season:

Find right inflation pressure. The best place to start when trying to identify inflation pressure is the tire section of the operator’s manual. If your machine is set differently, such as using lower inflation pressure, determine the maximum load each tire will have to carry, which will allow you to find the appropriate inflation pressure via the load tables for the tire. Your local equipment dealer can help you determine weight of the machine, or you can weigh it at an elevator. Use the load tables for this tire or the inflation pressure calculator to identify the optimal tire inflation pressure.

Minimize soil compaction. The introduction and evolution of IF and VF tires over the past decade gives you more flexibility in spreading out the footprint and minimizing the potential for creating soil compaction, Fischer says. Tires with the IF designation are more flexible than regular tires. You can carry about a 20% heavier load vs. regular non-IF tires, or run at about 20% lower pressure, he explains. VF tires feature even more flexibility, so you can run with about a 40% heavier load, or operate at about 40% lower inflation pressure. By opting for lower inflation pressure, you can spread the footprint of the tire and reduce the force exerted per square inch, Fischer says.

More original equipment manufacturer companies are choosing to send out equipment with IF or VF tires today than in the past, Harris says. If the tires on your machine don’t have this technology, consider it when you upgrade to newer tires, he says.

Factor in effect of hard stubble. Companies continuously look for ways to make rubber harder, but today, cornstalk stubble of modern GMO hybrids is often harder than rubber, Fischer notes. Soybean, canola, cotton and wheat stubble can also be tough enough to damage tires in some situations.

“We advocate using some sort of device to mash down or bend over stalks during harvest,” Harris says. “It really helps tires if they’re not standing straight up.”

Several commercial add-on devices are available for corn heads to knock down stubble. Fischer adds that this is another reason to run at minimum recommended inflation pressures. The more pressure inside the tire and the stiffer it is, the more susceptible it is to puncture by stubble, he says. Choosing IF and VF technology can also provide some help in dealing with stubble.”