Ballast Double rear wheels or liquid ballast?

[Tractorman46]

I have a Kioti CK2810 with Ag tyres and FEL. I am British but live in the South of France. I have 7 hectares of olives, woodland on a slope and some terraces. I would like to improve the stability of my tractor. When I lived in the UK I had a Kubota B1800 fitted with double rear wheels. My dealer here in France says Kioti should not have double rear wheels fitted and his only suggestion is to put water in the tyres. I have spent a lot of time on the forum here reading about stability, CGs, Rimguard etc. so I hope I haven't missed something which would have answered my question which is: Has anyone successfully fitted double rear wheels to a Kioti CK2810 or indeed any model of Kioti and did Kioti sanction it?

I have found this forum extremely interesting, so even if my question cannot be answered I'll be continuing to keep an eye out for more interesting tips and thank you to all who contribute.

 

[texasjohn]

:welcome:
great first post. Thanks for letting us know you have done your TBN research and have this specific question which only an experienced Kioti owner can answer. Did the dealer say why he advises against double rear wheels? What breaks if you do it...or is it simply the easy answer and the safe one? I am simply curious, don't really need the answer myself.

 

[Tractorman46]

Thank you for the response. First I must tell you that in the S o F things aren't anything like the UK or US. France is a bit like the UK before Margaret Thatcher in some respects. So the answer to your question is that I am not certain that the dealer has been able to get an answer from Kioti (I've tried and only the US Kioti organisation answers) or if he has, then was it the true definitive answer. That's why I'm trying to check if anyone else has done it. It worked well with my Kubota in England where they fitted a special steel spacer.
I suspect Kiotijust aren't as responsive to customers' requirements as Kubota.
Stop Press! Kioti USA have just replied as I type and they say it's not possible to fit double rear wheels. You chaps in the US are better served by Kioti than here in Europe. It was very good of them to look into something for someone "out of area".
Looks like I will have to adopt the liquid ballast option. Next problem is what to use. The dealer mentions just water. I see that in the US people use a product called RimGuard. Don't think that is available here so looks like more research . . . . .

 

[k0ua]

People here us us a variety of liquid ballast for the rear tires. Rimguard, which is a byproduct of the sugar beet extraction process. ( kind of a beet juice sludge) It is used because of its superior weight, which is heavier than water and it freezes at a much lower temperature than water and is non toxic. Also popular is a Methanol and water mixture. It is low price and has a low freezing point. It is toxic however. Next on the list is what we call RV antifreeze, because it is used in the water systems of Recreational Vehicles. It is actually Propylene Glycol. Low freezing point and Non toxic. It will cost more than the Methanol mix however. Some people use a mixture of Ethylene Glycol (regular ordinary anti-freeze) and water, but this is very toxic to animals if there is a leak. If your temperature never gets below the freezing point of water for long periods of time, a lot of people just use water. Very low cost, non toxic and extremely easy to put into the tire.

 

[pmsmechanic]

All Kioti is saying is that their engineers have not developed a kit for installing duals. Therefor they do not know whether Kioti axles are strong enough to handle the extra strain. If you want to take the risk and install duals yourself there is nothing other than your common sense stopping you. Because I wanted extra stability while mowing slopes I installed duals on my 4410 John Deere. I'm not using them for heavy work I'm just using them for stability and floatation. There is no doubt that there is extra strain on the axles but I'm willing to take the chance.

 

[oldnslo]

Duals will provide far more side slope stability than fluid in the tires. Like pmsmechanic stated: Unless you are carrying a lot of the tractor weight on the dual a lot of the time I would suspect you would have no issues with using duals. Also run the duals with very low air pressure to help reduce the strain on the axles.

 

[Gary Fowler]

You will likely have to have spacer hubs machined to fit your tractor in order to install dual tires, hopefully you can find a machine shop that will do that for you and not charge an arm and 2 legs.

 

[pmsmechanic]

All I did with mine was make a bracket to bolt onto the center hub. I had a ring rolled to fit in the rim of the tires and I used a large bolt to hold everything together. It works ok except that the one wheel loosens off the nut as you work the tractor and you need to retighten periodically. At some point in time I might come up with a better plan to hold everything together but for now this works.

 

[ritcheyvs]

I don't know your specific model, but many Kioti tractors allow you to adjust the rear wheel spacing by changing the orientation of the rear tire rims and center disk. If you are not already at the maximum spacing you may be able to gain some stability that way. Check your owners' manual.

 

[Tractorman46]

Thank you all for your replies. There are one or two points which have clarified things for me especially the information on the liquids you use in the US.
I've measured the rear wheels and it appears that by swopping them over I could gain about 3.4cm in track width. Not very much, I know, but every little helps and once I have the liquid in the tyres I'll be a bit happier, though still careful of course, on the slopes.