adding rear weight to farmtrac 270 question

[Ryan03]

I purchased my first compact utility tractor around 9 monthes ago, a farmtrac 270 with fel. I normaly operate the tractor with a 6 foot king cutter landscape rake on back. The type of use my tractor sees is moving remaining dirt from recent construction of my home, [packed yellow clay]. Clearing trails on wooded parts of my land many of which are sloping with thickets mixed with mature forest, and many soft spring fed marshy areas with thickets growing on top of them. After using the machine most of the spring and summer, I feel that I need to add a decent amount of rear weight, say 500 to 750 pounds. Tractor seems real front heavy, even with empty fel bucket, making it nececary to run in 4x4 mode all the time. when working on hills or in mud, front will sink to hubs and back to depth of treads and back tires will do little to move tractor. I am considering having rear tires completly filled with calcium and possibly adding wheel weights in addition to filled tires, My rear tire size is 12.5-80-18 industrial, I have been told by a neighbor that just filling the rear tires will not add the weight I am looking for, only around 90 pounds each. any truth to this? what are your thoughts on amount of weight to add?, should I add weight and go with ag. tires all the way around to increase traction,[kind of hate to do that due to narrower track width and cost, but would be willing to if it made it load better and get through the mud], P.S. adding weight box to rear not an option thanks for your time and help!!!!!

 

[Slacker]

I purchased my first compact utility tractor around 9 monthes ago, a farmtrac 270 with fel. I normaly operate the tractor with a 6 foot king cutter landscape rake on back. The type of use my tractor sees is moving remaining dirt from recent construction of my home, [packed yellow clay]. Clearing trails on wooded parts of my land many of which are sloping with thickets mixed with mature forest, and many soft spring fed marshy areas with thickets growing on top of them. After using the machine most of the spring and summer, I feel that I need to add a decent amount of rear weight, say 500 to 750 pounds. Tractor seems real front heavy, even with empty fel bucket, making it nececary to run in 4x4 mode all the time. when working on hills or in mud, front will sink to hubs and back to depth of treads and back tires will do little to move tractor. I am considering having rear tires completly filled with calcium and possibly adding wheel weights in addition to filled tires, My rear tire size is 12.5-80-18 industrial, I have been told by a neighbor that just filling the rear tires will not add the weight I am looking for, only around 90 pounds each. any truth to this? what are your thoughts on amount of weight to add?, should I add weight and go with ag. tires all the way around to increase traction,[kind of hate to do that due to narrower track width and cost, but would be willing to if it made it load better and get through the mud], P.S. adding weight box to rear not an option thanks for your time and help!!!!!

Without hesitation, I say fill the rears. You should have done that already if its a woods/loader machine. That'll help alot. I tried to buy wheel weights for my FT360 and the dealer told me they were not made. I have the oversized industial tires (R4) filled. You may need to custom build some brackets.

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Fluid fill weigth roughly 9 pounds per gallon, I suspect your tires will each hold a lot more than your neighbor suggests. It would not surprise me if you ended up with 400+ pounds of fluid weight added.

You can also get a weight box for the 3pt hitch. They serve no purpose other than weight, but they are very compact and can be loaded very heavy so you will have no trouble working in the woods and worrying about hitting your mower against a tree.

Heavy tractors, just like light tractors, need to be properly ballasted to operate safely with a loader.