Ballasts on subcompact tractors/ loading tires.

[i7win7]

so...how much weight can foaming the front tires add? is it cost effective?

I would think a scoop of dirt in the loader would be better.

The primary reason to foam tires - puncture resistance. Adding weight to rear drive tires a bonus side effect, adding liquid weight usually discouraged, dought you'll ever find bolt on iron weights for front tires.

 

[Texasmark]

Good morning,

I tried to search but I couldn't find my answer. I own a GC1723 MF subcompact tractors, and have been getting conflicting information on the benefits of tire ballasts for it.


Multiple MF dealers have told me that it's not worth the trade off. One dealer mentioned the wheels can have a tendency to spin in the tire, another said it doesn't make much difference and using proper ballasts on the front and rear attachments is the way to go. I also have been in situations where there isn't enough power from the tractor to push me up an incline, and I would assume that a weighted tire/wheel is going to create more resistance.

When shopping for equipment, the Kubota dealer offered to fill the tires for free without me even mentioning it, which makes me assume that this is very common and must serve a purpose on the subcompact lines. I see many other subcompact owners load their tires as well.

Is loading our tires on the subcompact line actually worth the time and energy?

I loaded the OEM R4 stiff sidewall tires on my 2400 initially. The tires are rated for about 2500# each at their rated pressure....18 psi as I recall. 2 tires =5000# and the whole tractor only weighs 1800 + loader.......add that to stiff sidewalls and stiffer than necessary coil springs under the seat and the load on your back is BRUTAL on dry, heavy clay soils.

I filled mine to about 70% tire height and dropped the pressure to less than 10 lbs in an attempt to get a soft ride with the OEM tires. Had 2 problems, one being tires spinning on the nice new, shiny, slick wheel and the other was that the weight of the fluid in the tire tended to put unequal pressure around the circumference of the rim meaning you had weight + air pressure at the lower part and just air pressure at other parts.

Tires would separate from the wheel under working conditions. After spending hundreds of bucks on tire and wheel combinations and seats, I spent another couple hundred or so on wheel weights, actually 2 sets (4 weights, running about 135# per wheel.....equivalent to about 19 gallons of water which no way would the tire accommodate that volume.

The rest of the story is I bought a suspension seat $100+, actually 2 as the first one was like MF seats back in the '60's and was essentially a padded cup...too narrow for my hip bones (suspension part worked great), and the second was flat, more conventional and worked, for another $100+. Then I thought turf tires at 4 ply would give me a soft ride, but the only size available had stiff sidewalls...finding out after the purchase...another $375 down the drain but wait, had to downsize the wheels as the OEM were 16.5" which is a heavy duty tire size...like 12 ply Skid Steer tires and to get a turf and later a set of Farm lug (R1) tires had to go to 16" wheels, another $300ish down the drain.

Finally, the 8x16 4 ply R1s, (soft sidewalls finally) at 10 psi with the weights mentioned above and with the suspension seat, gave me a reasonable ride. But with out an implement attached, it took another 230# in the seat (me), to keep the rear tires on the ground with a full bucket.

On the weights as an offset for heavy FEL work, my 2400 has more HP and lift capacity than the frame can tolerate.....in short, you need something on the rear to hold the rear tires on the ground if you fill up the bucket with dense material, like rocks, or wet sand. So add weights, and yourself, or have an implement on the 3 pt when doing heavy work.

 

[DMW]

so...how much weight can foaming the front tires add? is it cost effective?

I would think a scoop of dirt in the loader would be better.

Fronts are 18 x 8.50 x 10, foam fill adds 20-25lbs per tire. Also never have to worry about flats again. Farm has been in the family for 150+ years, there is lot of scrap metal around.

The FEL is used as well as the rear blower for clearing snow, can't really use it for more ballast.

 

[kempfat]

My Mitsubishi MT372 has loaded rears as well as weights on the back side of the wheels. It also has weights on the front bumper. Wouldn't be able to do half the stuff I do with that tractor without them I recon. It's only 15 hp.

 

[MF RED in MT]

This is the data for my MF tractor tires regarding the weight of RimGuard added to each tire:

9 gallons of Rim Guard for each rear tire = 97 extra pounds per tire, tire brand/size is Titan Trac Loader R4, 26 x 12.0-12NHS.

4 gallons of Rim Guard for each front tire = 43 extra pounds per tire, tire brand/size is Titan Trac Loader R4, 18 X 8.50-10.

The total cost was about $100 in 2011 by dropping off the tires/wheels to the RimGuard installation tire shop.

KC

 

[5030]

One thing I fail to understand and that is.. It's a sub compact tractor so it will do a sub compact job right? If you want a real tractor buy one not a tiny one and then want that tiny tractor to do a big job.

You don't go to a barn fire with a squirt gun. Same applies here.

 

[5030]

The fundamental importance of TRACTOR WEIGHT eludes many tractor shoppers. Neophyte tractor shoppers are often intimidated by instability of tractors with small front wheels and large rear wheels, therefore frequently purchase tractors too light, too small for long term satisfaction. Often subcompacts are gussied up with wheel weights, SSQA FEL bucket and grapples, bucket hooks, work lights, etc. making a subcompact into a big-boy's tractor in the newbie's mind. The options are lipstick on a baby pig.

Bare tractor weight is the tractor metric that best defines tractor capability..

Five reasons owner/operators trade up from Subcompact Tractors:
More tractor weight.
More FEL lift capacity.
More ground clearance.
Three-range (3) HST (Lower LOW, Higher, HIGH) ~~ rather than two-range (2) HST.
More tractor power.



Within subcompact and compact tractor categories, a significant tractor capability increase requires a bare tractor weight increase of 50%. It takes a 100% increase in bare tractor weight to elicit MY-OH-MY!

Exactly. You put lipstick on a pig, it's still a pig.

 

[5030]

Don't get me wrong, I'm tickled you buy them, especially Kubota's. Keeps my dealers light on and his shop help paid, but I'd never have one and never have either because I know the difference between a suburban wannabe toy and a real working tractor.

 

[MoMower]

OP, if you haven’t already, head over to the MF subforum, for all the advice you’ll need, without all the simpletons ****ting in your thread about it not being a real tractor and other overplayed tropes.

 

[Deere Dude]

Good morning,

I tried to search but I couldn't find my answer. I own a GC1723 MF subcompact tractors, and have been getting conflicting information on the benefits of tire ballasts for it.


Multiple MF dealers have told me that it's not worth the trade off. One dealer mentioned the wheels can have a tendency to spin in the tire, another said it doesn't make much difference and using proper ballasts on the front and rear attachments is the way to go. I also have been in situations where there isn't enough power from the tractor to push me up an incline, and I would assume that a weighted tire/wheel is going to create more resistance.

When shopping for equipment, the Kubota dealer offered to fill the tires for free without me even mentioning it, which makes me assume that this is very common and must serve a purpose on the subcompact lines. I see many other subcompact owners load their tires as well.

Is loading our tires on the subcompact line actually worth the time and energy?

It seems to depend on your location, topography and what you do with your tractor. If you are pushing or carrying dirt or tilling you will need ballast. If you have hills that will make the tractor tippy, weight in the tires works great for stability.

It may slow your top end speed a quarter mile an hour when running the road.

I have been putting Rimgard in since 2010 when I got my 45 HP CUT. Previously I had 30+years of larger garden tractors and I put Calcium Chloride in the rears mostly because of the dirt work I was doing. Now that I just mow with my garden tractor I put windshield washer in the rears plus cast wheel weights on because of hills and ditches I mow with.

I cannot see any downside to putting fluid in unless you tear tires up often making changing tires a little more difficult. I just replace my rears after ten years so I just reused to fluid with new tires.

 

[spankan]

I added windshield washer fluid to my BX25D and its a big improvement. I also bumped up the hydraulic pressure..its like a whole new world....Here is how I did it.. YouTube

 

[CoyPatton]

Good morning,

I tried to search but I couldn't find my answer. I own a GC1723 MF subcompact tractors, and have been getting conflicting information on the benefits of tire ballasts for it.


Multiple MF dealers have told me that it's not worth the trade off. One dealer mentioned the wheels can have a tendency to spin in the tire, another said it doesn't make much difference and using proper ballasts on the front and rear attachments is the way to go. I also have been in situations where there isn't enough power from the tractor to push me up an incline, and I would assume that a weighted tire/wheel is going to create more resistance.

When shopping for equipment, the Kubota dealer offered to fill the tires for free without me even mentioning it, which makes me assume that this is very common and must serve a purpose on the subcompact lines. I see many other subcompact owners load their tires as well.

Is loading our tires on the subcompact line actually worth the time and energy?

As you can see there are as many differing opinions about filling tires as there people responding (almost).
There are pros and cons to any and all types of ballast.
You really did not described how you use your tractor, which really determined where the pros and cons fall for you.
You mentioned not be able to pull some hills, but did not really explain the issue. If your tractor is spinning tires in this situation, then filled tires may provide additional grip (traction) to allow you to pull the incline. If the issue is the tractor just does not have have the power to pull the hill, the additional weight will be a greater hindrance to pulling the incline.

 

[CoyPatton]

Not sure at all how my locations has anything to do with the question "Is putting **** in your scut really worth it?"

The simplest answer to why location matters is freezing conditions. In the deep south of the USA, you will rarely find a dealer, while it weighs about 2.5-3 lbs more per gallon than water, most find the expense to not be worth wild. But if you are in an area that freezes, that -35F is very appealing.
Another would be soil types and terrain.
Where I live 50 miles in a few directions can take you from flat land to rolling hills, add another 50 miles and the hills are no longer rolling but all that area is frequently referred to as the same general geographic region—Southeast Missouri.

 

[JD3520Turbo]

If you have a front end loader, I would not put fluid in the front tires. Use your loader for ballast. You will get far more added weight from that, than you will with those small front tires. I would not foam fill them either as now you basically have a solid tire that has a punishing ride at a cost that will scare you. I would only do that if you have a lot of flats.

The rear tires are so small, that I don't think the benefit out weighs the cost. Also, if you do puncture the tire, you leak out out the liquid.

My advice would be if you need weight on the back to hold it down while doing front end work, then either hang a heavy implement on the back, or build a ballast box that you can pick up on the 3 point hitch and remove quickly as needed. This gives you the most flexibility with your tractor. If you need it light to do yard work, say mowing or spraying, or spreading fertilizer, then you can easily drop the ballast box and remove the loader and you now have a lighter weight doing less damage to the soil.
If you need to load gravel or push snow, you can pop the box and loader back on and you are good to go.
That gives you the most flexibility and lets you optimize your tractor for many different tasks.
If you load the tires, you have no flexibility to make the tractor lighter if the job at hand requires less compaction.

I want my tractor to be the lightest it can be to get job done safely and with the least amount of soil disturbance . If I am mowing pasture, i normally take the loader off, if I am picking up big round bales on the back, I put the loader back on and add the bucket to keep my front end down.
In my case, when I use the front end loader, a lot of time, I will just stab a big bale and use that for ballast while doing loader work. Obviously in your case the ballast box would be the way to go.

Good Luck and enjoy your new rig.