Tires Ballast in tires
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Recoveryhill
Gold Member
I'm coming from a marine environment and with ships, ballast is carried for stability when the ship is not normally loaded. "heavy material, such as gravel, sand, iron, or lead, placed low in a vessel to improve its stability." and I add, in ocean going ships mostly water for ballast.
I'm not sure that weight added to tires isn't ballast. Weight added to machine, be it tractor or ship to enhance stability is ballast. I do agree that the stability gained from adding weight in front of or behind wheels is different than that added at the wheel, but it too is ballast.
Gary Fowler
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- 2009 Kubota RTV 900, 2009 Kubota B26 TLB & 2010 model LS P7010
Weight added anywhere on the tractor even the weight of operator is BALLAST. To reduce force on the front axles, Ballast must be added behind the rear wheels so that it becomes COUNTERWEIGHT. Loading the read tires with ballast adds stability by putting more weight below the axles center and increases traction but actually can put more force on the front axle because of the extra weight in the tires now is transferred to the front axle if your tractor FEL hydraulics is forceful enough to raise the rear wheels. Correctly ballasting a tractor increases its weight lifting capacity just like adding ballast in the form of counterweight to a crane but just like counterweight of a crane, it has to be a balanced weight, too much to the rear, puts too much load on the rear axle and not enough for proper steering on the front or put too much weight on the front with not enough ballast on the rear and you will be walking on the front tires and excessive load on the front axle. Everything must be used in moderation.
k0ua
Epic Contributor
I hear rim guard is pricey, but can you imagine how much grasshopper vomit is??
and just exactly who has the enviable task of collecting said substance?
rdsaustintx
Veteran Member
Yes. I don't know what tractor we are talking about, but on a sub (BX) 300# would offset quite a bit of the loader capacity. I doubt mine scoops 300# in most materials (although I have stacked a quarter ton of bagged cement in the bucket on occasions)
vtsnowedin
Elite Member
Load them until the relief valve sings!!!
I was just using an imaginary tractor with nice even dimensions for easy figuring and illistration.
Now consider your tractor with ballast on the 3PH hooked on to a nice big stump and when you try to lift it stays firm and you stand the tractor on its nose with the rear wheels off the ground. Any way you look at it all the weight is on the front axle and having the ballast out beyond isn't reduceing that load at all, in fact it is increasing it by the weight of the ballast times the lever arm length. My last statics class was in 1975 so I have forgotton how to compute when and how the 300 pound weight reduction of front axle load moves back to the the front and when the counter weight adds to the front end load but it is safe to say that any time you pick up one or two rear wheels you are over loaded and need to back off.
cartod
Platinum Member
I cannot argue with that. I guess that what I was trying to say is that adding weight in the rear tires does not counter ballast a loaded front end. So the word ballast can be interchanged with the word weight. Weight used to either stabilize the center of gravity or weight used to offset another weight.
Understanding the difference is very important to a new tractor operator. As you well know, adding weight anywhere except behind the rear axle does nothing to counter ballast a loaded front bucket.
Tx Jim
New Member
Gary
How much counter balance in weight box is required to "significantly reduce force on frt axle" when a large rd bale of hay is picked up on frt end loader? I'll bet with rear counter balance that frt tires will still need to be aired up fairly high to keep tires from squatting.
Gary Fowler
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Any amount of weight behind the wheels will reduce the front axle load. Just how much you need would need to be calculated by figuring how far behind the axles you are. I suppose there is a formula for calculating the opposing forces of the weight of the disc that is spread out over 12 feet of lever; 8 feet of disc, 4 feet of lift arm or so attached right below centerline of the axles so you could average out the forces along the whole 12 feet.
I am not a mathematician but lots of folks here on TBN are. I don't own a weight box and to get counter balance, I use my heaviest piece of equipment on the lift arms which happens to be my disc that weighs around 1200 lbs. so it is plenty of counter weight to offset the weight of a 1000 lb. bale. I don't know how much force that counterweight gives me but it is enough that the FEL wont pick up the rear tires for sure. Now I have also added some water ballast to my tires for added stability. Without the disc behind and using my 6 foot boxblade for counterweight, the tractor would lift the rear wheels off the ground but now it just goes into relief.
Tx Jim
New Member
Yes because of the fulcrum affect weight behind rear axle is more beneficial but it would be interesting to know how much. I can cipher a little but I'm a long way from a mathematician. I think a scale would be the only real way to know. I still think the frt tires would have to be aired up fairly tight even with weight behind rear wheels when picking up a heavy load on FEL.