Hiya,
Yes, there have been a great many posts about the "3x20 pucker factor". That being said they are mainly from new owners getting used to the machines or by people test driving them. As mentioned in this thread, the 3x20 platform is a tall operator position relative to the smaller chassis 1 and 2 series, people that make the jump to it are likely to feel "tippy" at first.
I too had this feeling after jumping off a 2520 and onto a 3120 at the dealer years ago. To me the tippy feeling comes from the machines weight causing it to follow the ground contour more closely than the lighter chassis and the height of the operator platform and seat in relationship to the axle centerline. Since the seat is higher, the operator "sees" greater side to side movement as the machine follows the slight dips and ripples in the ground because they are higher and because the machine is heavy, it tends to rock side to side quickly adding to this feeling.
Now, can it tip, yep, any tractor can tip even on level ground if improperly ballasted. I operate a 3320 cab with R3's on a mountain so I am well acquainted with the chassis. I had a demo 3120 open station on my property when they first came out, it had R3's and a 300cx. The first day it was here we had about half a foot of snow overnight, I scraped the snow and when I lifted the bucket I had the tractor up on 3 wheels before the bucket was a foot off the ground. The rears were not loaded and I didn't have
ballast on the hitch. Point to this is the 300cx loader is a long lever and as such, easily lifts the rear of the tractor if there is no weight back there, add to this equation the pivoting front axle and you have a tractor that very much wants to go up on 3 wheels.
After all that and a few years seat time in the chassis, I don't find it all that tippy. My 3320 cab has beet juice R3's in the narrow setting, 2 wheel weights per side and a Portland filled ballast box with 4, 40 Lb weights on top (mainly because I had to move them one day and they fit perfectly on top of the box so saw no reason not to leave them as ballast) I should also point out that ballast box position does influence the machines ride over ground with respect to rocking movement. The higher up the box is, the slower the side to side rock is over uneven ground however when operating on a side slope, this tends to make the machine side slip more so when I'm going cross slope, I drop the box as low as I can without letting it touch the ground. The weight being low helps keep the upside tire pined to the ground.
Well after all this typing, I guess my point is that the 3x20 series is no more or less "tippy" than the other chassis if you ballast it properly, keep the weight low when traversing slopes, keep your speed slow in areas that present a greater potential to be unstable and realize that big bucket on your loader is at the end of a very long lever with a great deal of mechanical advantage on the chassis and if not properly loaded and ballasted, will have you up on 3 wheels very quickly.
My 2 cents,
Tom
