Using tire to free tractor stuck in mud - GIF

[BuffaloJohn]

Usually. wheels like that are intended to create channels in wet ground. The wheel gets down to the hard pan for it's traction surface, but sometimes that doesn't work, so the tire strapped on.

This tire trick is also used on regular tires as well, or they might strap on a 6x6 or a railroad tie, or even wrap chains through the rim a bunch of times to make a traction surface.

When you get stuck, there are many ways to get yourself out, its only when those fail that you get help and don't get the helper stuck, because it only gets worse.

My friend tells a story of a customer's tractor with duals, stuck and sunk to the belly. It sat for a few days and then the driver reved the motor to try to get out and snapped the axle. He had to leave the tractor till the field dried out. Then they had to bring in a trackhoe to dig it out, drag the wrecked tractor far enough so they could get under it to lift it and perform a field rear end exchange.