Shawn T. W.
Veteran Member
- Joined
- Jul 14, 2025
- Messages
- 2,072
- Location
- SW Missouri Ozarks
- Tractor
- Massey Ferguson GC 1725 MB - Kubota L5030 - John Deere Z960M
How much ballast does your tractor NEED?
What kind of ballast does your tractor NEED?
This is aimed at what I feel is what most of our members have for tractors, mostly under 80 HP … once you get into a couple hundred horses and 15,000 plus pounds, I'm sure it's different …
Ballast is to make your tractor more stable, and to hopefully allow you to never tip your tractor over, plus a balanced tractor will not cause it to wear out or break stuff prematurely.
There are basically three kinds of ballast …
Front Ballast.
Tire/Wheel Ballast.
Rear Ballast.
They all will almost always lower the center of gravity …
Front ballast is primarily used when lifting something heavy on the back, or pulling hard on something in the ground, like a bottom plow in a dirt field.
Here you can see that I added rocks to the bucket as front ballast to offset the heavy and long brush hog as I creep back into the creek bed, and want the front chained tires to pull me back up!
Tire/Wheel Ballast is primarily for TRACTION. (Sometimes confused with “rear ballast”)
Here I've added 275 Lbs of steel weight lifting plates to the BH frame to give me TRACTION ballast to assist the filled tires and steel wheel weights, while pulling a full load of dirt with the rear blade, since the weight of the blade is on the ground, it does help traction, since it's angled, it will try to push a light rear end sideways ... Not now!
Rear Ballast is primarily used when lifting something heavy on the front of the tractor to counter balance the load and keep the tractor stable.
Here is my rear ballast box, to counter balance the weight of the front tote, but also acts as a trailer hitch for the trailer with the rear tote!
There seems to be a lot of misunderstanding on rear ballast and why it's important, and what I'm addressing in this thread …
Unfortunately most tractor dealers do not even mention this topic, and lots of “Internet myths” floating around too, it seems many unknowingly embrace liquid filled tires, but refuse to add weight to the three point hitch … ?
Remember usually weight is a tractor's best friend!
Four years ago I was a new tractor owner/operator … I had run a tractor a few times in the past, way back, but didn't really know very much … I bought a tiny little Sub-Compact Utility Tractor (SCUT) Tractor Loader Backhoe (TLB) a Massey Ferguson GC 1725 MB, as I needed a backhoe (BH) for my new to me property, (couldn't get a contractor to even return my calls!) and back in 2022 there weren't many options due to supply chain issues, I was really looking for something much bigger … but ended up with this tiny little overgrown lawnmower! I got the three manuals for it, and read every word, I like to read and I thought I understood what I was supposed to do to operate it … and I got a lot of work done with it … unfortunately the manual is/was not very clear on HOW MUCH rear ballast was needed for operation!
This is all my manual says … huh??? How in the world am I to figure that out? (There is a member here that posted a picture of there manual which had a way with measuring things to figure it out, but I don't remember who it was, I think tractor and member are from Europe?)
For example when I took off the BH (651 Lbs) to put on the rototiller … I thought that was fine, as I had an attachment on the back … rototiller weighs 351 Lbs plus the 69 Lb quick hitch … how much do you think this load of rocks that I hand filled the bucket with that I “harvested” out of my “garden” weighs?
Sometimes I used my land plane (285 Lbs), but added a couple of hardwood timbers, a steel I-beam and a couple of cement blocks… was it enough? No way! (Now I know!)
At 347 hours I had to replace my front R4 tires, as the sidewalls were getting “cut” or maybe just failing? I have lots of rocky ground where I live, and I had filled the front tires with windshield washer fluid, so the leaks were obvious!
I decided to replace the 4 ply rated tires with 8 ply, as even with the tractor manual saying to inflate to 22 PSI, and the tire sidewall said the same, the poor little tires would “squat” under a full load at 22 PSI, sometimes it looked like the rim was almost on the ground! I figured if the hydraulics would lift it, it was “OK”! I ran the 8 ply’s at 35 PSI, sidewall said Max at 44 PSI!
By adding on the Bxpanded Piranha Tooth Bar, it expanded the volume capacity of the bucket, and I wasn't bashful about filling it until it spilled over the edges! That's a heavy load, but the tires aren't squatting anymore!
At just under the two year (bumper to bumper warranty) warranty was up, I had 385 hours on it … definitely “hard” hours … I took it in to the dealership for some recently acquired front axle leaks, both sides were leaking and so was the middle pivot! They fixed it all at no charge, but didn't ask me anything about it, or tell me to put more weight on the back …
But … I like to read … I was reading over at another tractor forum where @kennyd started a thread on ballast … I read it, and said “Ah HA! That's why I was leaking!” I broke my tractor from not operating it properly! Duh!!!
So I went about to build a multi-purpose ballast box that I could use with the loader when I didn't have the backhoe on, and didn't want the 8’+ long brush hog “in the way”, while the 5’ wide brush hog only weighed 518 Lbs, it had more effect than the BH, as it hung out so far from the rear axle, I actually needed ballast in the bucket up front when I mowed with it, as when the tail wheel would come off the ground, the steering was a bit too “light”!!! So there isn't a “magic number” for rear ballast, it depends on how much weight, how far from the rear axle, and how much you are lifting on the front!
Here's a few questions that may not have a real answer, but makes me wonder, did overloading the front axle cause my fluid to get “dirtier”? … the owners manual says to change the front axle fluid (hydraulic fluid) “every 2 years, or 500 hours” … I drained it at only 1 year and 244 hours, it looked like this!
I showed my dealer that picture, he said it looked “normal” !!!
Since my 8 ply tires don't squat like the old ones do, did that help wear out the seals, as there was no give in the tires? I've since reduced the front tires PSI to 20, and they still don't squat under a full load. (But I have more weight on the back now too!)
Here are a couple of videos with scales to show how ballast affects the tractor in different scenarios … scales don't have opinions!
Proves tire/wheel ballast doesn't relieve the front axle of ANY WEIGHT!
Shows how the typical advice of people that say “put as much on the back, as on the front” is still unbalanced … I would have liked to see how much adding another 10 bags on the back made the front lighter … and if he stated what the front axle was rated for.
I'm mostly trying to help new members who know next to nothing about tractors, and those that have been misled by the omission of information from dealers which have led to some myths … such as “if the rear tires don't leave the ground, it's enough”! Which is false.
I could have easily said to anybody that would listen … “Don't buy a Massey Ferguson, they are junk, I lost the front end out of it in less than two years, the seals were leaking and the oil was trashed!” When really it was ignorance on my part, and lack of usable communication in the manual! Nothing to do with the quality of the tractor!
It really doesn't matter what color paint, or what lettering is on the hood, ALL tractors with loaders need to be balanced!
What kind of ballast does your tractor NEED?
This is aimed at what I feel is what most of our members have for tractors, mostly under 80 HP … once you get into a couple hundred horses and 15,000 plus pounds, I'm sure it's different …
Ballast is to make your tractor more stable, and to hopefully allow you to never tip your tractor over, plus a balanced tractor will not cause it to wear out or break stuff prematurely.
There are basically three kinds of ballast …
Front Ballast.
Tire/Wheel Ballast.
Rear Ballast.
They all will almost always lower the center of gravity …
Front ballast is primarily used when lifting something heavy on the back, or pulling hard on something in the ground, like a bottom plow in a dirt field.
Here you can see that I added rocks to the bucket as front ballast to offset the heavy and long brush hog as I creep back into the creek bed, and want the front chained tires to pull me back up!
Tire/Wheel Ballast is primarily for TRACTION. (Sometimes confused with “rear ballast”)
Here I've added 275 Lbs of steel weight lifting plates to the BH frame to give me TRACTION ballast to assist the filled tires and steel wheel weights, while pulling a full load of dirt with the rear blade, since the weight of the blade is on the ground, it does help traction, since it's angled, it will try to push a light rear end sideways ... Not now!
Rear Ballast is primarily used when lifting something heavy on the front of the tractor to counter balance the load and keep the tractor stable.
Here is my rear ballast box, to counter balance the weight of the front tote, but also acts as a trailer hitch for the trailer with the rear tote!
There seems to be a lot of misunderstanding on rear ballast and why it's important, and what I'm addressing in this thread …
Unfortunately most tractor dealers do not even mention this topic, and lots of “Internet myths” floating around too, it seems many unknowingly embrace liquid filled tires, but refuse to add weight to the three point hitch … ?
Remember usually weight is a tractor's best friend!
Four years ago I was a new tractor owner/operator … I had run a tractor a few times in the past, way back, but didn't really know very much … I bought a tiny little Sub-Compact Utility Tractor (SCUT) Tractor Loader Backhoe (TLB) a Massey Ferguson GC 1725 MB, as I needed a backhoe (BH) for my new to me property, (couldn't get a contractor to even return my calls!) and back in 2022 there weren't many options due to supply chain issues, I was really looking for something much bigger … but ended up with this tiny little overgrown lawnmower! I got the three manuals for it, and read every word, I like to read and I thought I understood what I was supposed to do to operate it … and I got a lot of work done with it … unfortunately the manual is/was not very clear on HOW MUCH rear ballast was needed for operation!
This is all my manual says … huh??? How in the world am I to figure that out? (There is a member here that posted a picture of there manual which had a way with measuring things to figure it out, but I don't remember who it was, I think tractor and member are from Europe?)
For example when I took off the BH (651 Lbs) to put on the rototiller … I thought that was fine, as I had an attachment on the back … rototiller weighs 351 Lbs plus the 69 Lb quick hitch … how much do you think this load of rocks that I hand filled the bucket with that I “harvested” out of my “garden” weighs?
Sometimes I used my land plane (285 Lbs), but added a couple of hardwood timbers, a steel I-beam and a couple of cement blocks… was it enough? No way! (Now I know!)
At 347 hours I had to replace my front R4 tires, as the sidewalls were getting “cut” or maybe just failing? I have lots of rocky ground where I live, and I had filled the front tires with windshield washer fluid, so the leaks were obvious!
I decided to replace the 4 ply rated tires with 8 ply, as even with the tractor manual saying to inflate to 22 PSI, and the tire sidewall said the same, the poor little tires would “squat” under a full load at 22 PSI, sometimes it looked like the rim was almost on the ground! I figured if the hydraulics would lift it, it was “OK”! I ran the 8 ply’s at 35 PSI, sidewall said Max at 44 PSI!
By adding on the Bxpanded Piranha Tooth Bar, it expanded the volume capacity of the bucket, and I wasn't bashful about filling it until it spilled over the edges! That's a heavy load, but the tires aren't squatting anymore!
At just under the two year (bumper to bumper warranty) warranty was up, I had 385 hours on it … definitely “hard” hours … I took it in to the dealership for some recently acquired front axle leaks, both sides were leaking and so was the middle pivot! They fixed it all at no charge, but didn't ask me anything about it, or tell me to put more weight on the back …
But … I like to read … I was reading over at another tractor forum where @kennyd started a thread on ballast … I read it, and said “Ah HA! That's why I was leaking!” I broke my tractor from not operating it properly! Duh!!!
So I went about to build a multi-purpose ballast box that I could use with the loader when I didn't have the backhoe on, and didn't want the 8’+ long brush hog “in the way”, while the 5’ wide brush hog only weighed 518 Lbs, it had more effect than the BH, as it hung out so far from the rear axle, I actually needed ballast in the bucket up front when I mowed with it, as when the tail wheel would come off the ground, the steering was a bit too “light”!!! So there isn't a “magic number” for rear ballast, it depends on how much weight, how far from the rear axle, and how much you are lifting on the front!
Here's a few questions that may not have a real answer, but makes me wonder, did overloading the front axle cause my fluid to get “dirtier”? … the owners manual says to change the front axle fluid (hydraulic fluid) “every 2 years, or 500 hours” … I drained it at only 1 year and 244 hours, it looked like this!
I showed my dealer that picture, he said it looked “normal” !!!
Since my 8 ply tires don't squat like the old ones do, did that help wear out the seals, as there was no give in the tires? I've since reduced the front tires PSI to 20, and they still don't squat under a full load. (But I have more weight on the back now too!)
Here are a couple of videos with scales to show how ballast affects the tractor in different scenarios … scales don't have opinions!
Proves tire/wheel ballast doesn't relieve the front axle of ANY WEIGHT!
Shows how the typical advice of people that say “put as much on the back, as on the front” is still unbalanced … I would have liked to see how much adding another 10 bags on the back made the front lighter … and if he stated what the front axle was rated for.
I'm mostly trying to help new members who know next to nothing about tractors, and those that have been misled by the omission of information from dealers which have led to some myths … such as “if the rear tires don't leave the ground, it's enough”! Which is false.
I could have easily said to anybody that would listen … “Don't buy a Massey Ferguson, they are junk, I lost the front end out of it in less than two years, the seals were leaking and the oil was trashed!” When really it was ignorance on my part, and lack of usable communication in the manual! Nothing to do with the quality of the tractor!
It really doesn't matter what color paint, or what lettering is on the hood, ALL tractors with loaders need to be balanced!
