Abstract: In order to get a clear understanding of the tractive performance of a tractor which has the rear wheels running on the rut formed by the front wheels in different field conditions, a series of experiments were undertaken in the field at the National Center for Farm Machinery, Agricultural Engineering, Water and Forestry (CEMAGREF, France). Experiments were done on the tractive performance of a single driven radial tyre on the on wheel rut and the out of wheel rut conditions, tests on the following conditions: two soil types (loam clay and sandy soil), two different loads and three different speeds. The results showed that on the loam clay soil, the on wheel rut tractive performance is better than that of out of wheel rut, but no significant difference on the sandy soil. However, for the three different speeds, it was found that the coefficient of net traction has a tendency to decrease as the forward speed increases.