How much ballast

[Shaneard]

Sorry. I have no rear wheel ballast now.

I gathered that from your first post :thumbsup:

 

[ruffdog]

Sorry. I have no rear wheel ballast now.

I never wanted permanent weight because I wanted to be light when needed, like on soft conditions.

 

[jeff9366]

I would ballast the rear tires 3/4 full with a liquid. This will increase the weight on your rear tire treads by about 500 pounds improving traction and holding down the rear somewhat on those occasions when you need to lift a moderate FEL load without an implement on the three point hitch.

You can ballast the rear tires yourself.
loading tractor rear tires - YouTube

Ballast materials: Comparing Types of Liquid Tire Ballast | OrangeTractorTalks

Next I would shop for an implement 66" to 72" wide weighing 600 to 800 pounds.
Implements most often used for counterbalance are the Box Blade and Roto-tiller. I often use a Cultipacker. LEVERAGE makes a 700 pound counterbalance implement protruding 48" to the rear of tractor more effective counterbalance than 700 pound implement protruding 30".

HEAVY BOX BLADES: XTreme Duty Box Blade For Tractors With 30-70 HP - Everything Attachments

Category I & II Severe XTreme Duty Tractor Box Blade - Everything Attachments

Dirt Dog Manufacturing >> Box Blades - RO

http://www.dirtdogmfg.com/Box-Blades---MBX-v-19.html


The combination of 500 pounds tire ballast and a 600 pound implement should allow you to safely lift 1,800 - 2,000 pound FEL loads. FEL bucket is bad enough, should you add Pallet Forks which allow you to lift heavier FEL loads, you can enter rollover territory in one heartbeat.

For max loads, which should be infrequent, use your 900 pound Disc Harrow, which extends far to the rear, increasing leverage holding down the rear wheels.

If you decide to construct a ballast barrel after loading the rear tires 3/4 full with liquid, barrel should be 1,000 - 1,200 pounds, as weight will be close in, exerting little leverage. Fill barrel with sand. Add water until you achieve desired balance. Calculate barrel weight. Replace sand with concrete and scrap steel to same weight.


I highly recommend rear tire ballast to help keep you out of trouble with 2,713 pound FEL lift capacity on 3,869 pound bare weight tractor.

 

[shooterdon]

My DH is 900lbs +/_
It works well for "ballast" when I'm digging.
I was thinking of a Carry-All and trying to think of weighs (see what I did there?) to add temporary weight to it and still use it for a carryall when no weigh it needed. I don't have access to lead unfortunately.
I do have a 55 gal steel drum......

You might want to consider having two "boxes" that utilize the carry all.. One to serve as the ballast box and another to serve as a tool/stuff carrier. Build the bottoms like a small pallet for the carry all forks and use pins or bolts to hold the side of the box to the uprights of the carry all. Much easier to swap boxes than adding and removing weights. I made my box that way so I could use my carry all to move pallets until I got a SSQA set of forks. I put the box on HF dollies so I could move it easily when not on the tractor.

BTW adding fluid is cheap and easy. In your area, -20* windshield fluid is all you need. I used the tank and pump from my ATV sprayer to do the job on my old JD855. It is not as dense as RimGuard but it beats nothing. I waited for a sale and bought cases of it. Loaded tires help a lot but are not enough for my needs. YMMV

 

[WranglerX]

That's a great idea and works great for your situation. My situation it wouldn't work. I run 2 sets of rear wheel weights on each side and have 100 gallons of fluid in each rear tire. I need it for traction when plowing/discing and where I bush hog for traction/stability on the hills. I've only marked up the yard a couple times because of it being too wet and even then it wasn't that bad for driving a 60HP tractor with a loader and whatever else was hooked on the back of it in addition to the ballast/weights.

You solution and mine are pretty much what most of us need to select.... Its all about application/use of implements and what fills need of user... Not arguing against you needs, just trying to show OP the is alternatives...

Also here is thread in progress....

https://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/build-yourself/394908-lets-see-some-homemade-3-a.html

Dale

 

[Shaneard]

You solution and mine are pretty much what most of us need to select.... Its all about application/use of implements and what fills need of user... Not arguing against you needs, just trying to show OP the is alternatives...

Also here is thread in progress....

https://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/build-yourself/394908-lets-see-some-homemade-3-a.html

Dale

You nailed it with this, there are different options because not everyones needs are the same :thumbsup:

 

[PILOON]

When you ask HOW MUCH ballast I'd say about as much weight as your FEL can handle and as close to (or on) the rear axle as possible.

In my case I loaded my tires with beet juice and have a 300 # elevator weigh*t that I hang on my 3 point. (nice and close so not inconvenient in maneuvering)
In winter I use studded ice chains with cross links every 3rd link.
Very smooth ride and rare slippage.
LOL, if I do slip I tend to dig awesome ruts, but that is extremely rare.

*my wt also serves to hitch trailers as I included a hitch tube.
I also mounted a powerful winch on a trailer pole for when I need to retrieve wood for fencing or firewood.

Yep, I enjoy welding projects!

 

[jeff9366]

Bare tractors are designed with a standard weight distribution of 40% front, 60% rear.

Add a Front End Loader and the weight distribution becomes 50% front, 50% rear. (+/-)

Fill the bucket and the weight moves forward, leveraged by low-forward position of a laden bucket.
Could be 60% front, 40% rear. (Tractor wheelbase affects weight distribution.)

Traction is reduced because weight has transferred away from the big rear wheels.
(Hence the need for rear axle ballast.)

Rear wheels may or may not lift from the ground at this moment, but they will certainly be "light" if bucket payload is wet.

Green tree trunk sections and laden pallets on pallet forks are often heavier than wet bucket loads. Laden pallets protrude forward. Weight distribution could be 70% front, 30% rear. Rear wheels will lift.

Suffecient Three Point Hitch counterbalance restores weight distribution to 40% front, 60% rear. (+/-)

Too much rear weight and the tractor front will lift when you move up a slope with the bucket empty.

 

[PILOON]

A hint for those looking for ballast.

I have a buddy that has a car rental franchise.
Every rental needs to leave with WW fluid full.
They deliver 45 gal bbls of WW fluid whenever he needs some.

I'd suggest that a rental franchise might just be the best source of cheap WW fluid due to the bulk purchase.
Check it out.
LOL, I have my winter's supply on hand. (of WW fluid), just needed to bring empty jugs that I had to fill!
Down size is I was the one to manually fill my WW jugs.
LOL at that price (?)I did not complain!

 

[PEJ5]

I have a 45hp LS Tractor XR4145(HST)
What is the amount of ballast needed for FEL work. Minimum?
I've been looking but can't find any specifics......500lbs? 100lbs? I know more weight is a good thing but I am wondering what is necessary.....THANKS

My 3400 lb Kioti with a 1600 lb loader is rated to lift 2660 lbs with the bucket and 2700 lbs at the 3Pt Hitch so it is very similar to the specs on your LS. I have loaded the tires with RV plumb antifreeze - about 400 lbs per tire.**

The tractor felt quite stable, but I have a 10° to 18° sloped path down my property and I was not comfortable travelling down/up the hill.* This summer I built a 1300 lb concrete counterweight.* The first thing I learned was that lifting a 1300 lb counterweight off my trailer (without a counterweight) was the absolute limit of my FEL/forks before my loaded rear tires lifted.* (Tires lifted with the load 3' out from* pins, and very light with the load 2' out from pins.)* I raised the load about 4 inches but was afraid to move so we pulled the trailer out from under it and I set the weight down.*

Now that the counterweight is on the 3Pt, I know I am safer to lift heavier loads. The tractor squats an extra inch (garage door clearance) and*I travel down and up the hill with ease now. I moved a big stump over uneven ground and it still felt a little light. Today I took delivery of my new chipper. Crated it weighed 825 lbs and it was no problem to take it off the truck and down the driveway.

I am very happy to have a counterweight. I should mention that I went with a concrete weight because my only heavy implement was my snowblower and it would stick out way too far for woods work. The chipper (710lbs) was a recent decision after burning 15 piles of brush and only making a dent in the cleanup work ahead of us.

Let us know what you decide to go with.

Peter
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[TheMan419]

My rears are not loaded. I still need to do light work when the ground is soft. I have a 600 lb tiller. When I put that on my little 24 hp tractor becomes a whole different machine. I can max lift my loader without feeling any thought of the rear wheels coming off the ground. That is about 50% of my 3 point lift capacity.

Err on the side of more is better until the front wheels start leaving the ground when the bucket is empty.

A ballast box is good for tight working conditions. The nice thing is you can keep adding sand to it or removing until you find the sweet spot for your set up.

I highly recommend getting one of the various quick hitches available. Makes changing out implements sooooo much easier.

 

[gladehound]

I have a 45hp tractor with 1,000 pounds of fill in the rears. It's not enough for any serious loader work. For normal loader work I have 1500 pounds of ballast on the rear wheels (Me, cage, tire fill) and 900 pounds of counter weight (300 on draw bar, 600 on 3 point). The reason I have 300 on the draw bar is because that's there all the time even when I have something light on the 3pt. It makes a difference. And if I'm lifting heavy on the front (~2,000+) I've gone as high as 2,000 on the 3pt. Remember, only weight on the 3pt unloads your front axle during a lift. BTW, my manual indicates I should have 1300 pounds on the 3pt for loader work but says nothing about filling the tires.

 

[SmallChange]

I think we are getting the leverage issue wrong. Yes, if you are worried about the front wheels coming off the ground, it's important how far the ballast is from the rear axle of the tractor. That's because in that scenario the rear axle is the pivot of the lever.

But that's not the issue when you are talking about heavy FEL loading, keeping the rears on the ground and keeping force on them. In that case, the leverage that matters depends on how far back the ballast is measuring from the FRONT axles. The fronts become the pivot in this issue. So moving the ballast back by a foot, say, is only going to increase the leverage by several percent.