John Deere 318 tire guide: sizes, tread choice, and tubes

The short answer: a stock John Deere 318 runs 16x6.50-8 tires up front and 23x10.50-12 out back. Turf tread on both ends from the factory. If that’s all you needed — welcome to the easiest tire order you’ll make all year, and both sizes are sitting in our warehouse.

If you want to get it right the first time — the right ply, the tube question, the ag-tread option, and the one variant that trips people up — give me four more minutes.

Why the 318 is worth doing right

The 318 isn’t just another old lawn tractor. It’s the machine the John Deere 300-series (1977–1992) is remembered for — power steering, a hydraulic deck lift, and an Onan twin that simply refuses to die. There’s a reason the Weekend Freedom Machines crowd treats these like family members. Values on clean ones have climbed for years, and a 318 wearing cracked, mismatched rubber is like a restored barn find wearing someone else’s shoes. Tires are the cheapest part of the machine you can get exactly right.

The factory sizes

Decode it once and you’ll never wonder again: 23x10.50-12 means roughly 23″ tall, 10.5″ wide, on a 12″ rim. (Our size-reading guide covers the whole system.) Both sizes are common enough that you have real tread choices — which is the next decision.

Turf, or ag tread? Be honest about the work

Factory spec is turf tread front and rear, and if your 318 mows and parades, stay there — it’s the correct period look and it won’t stripe your lawn. But a lot of 318s earn their keep pulling a cart, pushing snow, or working a garden plot. If that’s yours, an AG/R1 chevron-lug rear in the same 23x10.50-12 size bolts straight on and transforms what the machine can pull. You’ll trade a little lawn cosmetics for it. Our line to 318 owners after 22 years of these conversations: “Buy for the ninety percent of what the tractor does, not the ten percent you daydream about.”

Tubes: usually yes, on a machine this age

These sizes run tubeless on healthy modern rims. But a 318 is thirty-plus years old, and three decades of Ohio winters do things to steel wheels. If your rims show rust pitting along the bead seat, a TR-13 valve tube turns a slow-leak headache into a solved problem for about fifteen bucks a corner. We stock matching tubes for both factory sizes — add them to the order and stop topping up air every weekend. (Not sure whether your rims need one? Our tube vs. tubeless guide walks through the call.)

The order, start to finish

1. Confirm your rear size off the sidewall (23x10.50-12 stock; 26x12-12 on some variants).
2. Pick tread: turf for mowing and shows, AG/R1 rear if the machine works for a living.
3. Go 4-ply on the rears; step the fronts to 4-ply if you push a blade.
4. Rusty rims? Add TR-13 tubes and never think about it again.

Everything above is on the shelf in Cleveland: the 318 fitment page pairs both factory sizes with the exact tires we stock, or browse the sizes directly — 16x6.50-8 and 23x10.50-12.