How much rear ballast on a CK2610 HST?

danny77 · Jul 30, 2016

Any CK2610 owners know the recommended amount of rear ballast for this tractor? I have filled rear tires (set wide apart) and now want to add 3 point ballast since I'll be primarily doing loader work. I read the owners manual for the FEL and it says to find that information is in the tractor owners manual. Maybe I'm missing something, but all I see in the tractor's owners manual is how important it is to use the proper rear ballast- there's no mention of actual weights required.

My KL2610 FEL weights 915 pounds with my 60" bucket attached. I've got 90 gallons of rimguard in the tires, giving me an added weight of about 975 pounds. The tractor on it's own comes in at about 2700 pounds.

I've read a lot of great threads on how to make a ballast box, but just don't have the time right now. I found one made by Titan that seems pretty highly rated. It's not too pricey at $239 with free shipping. I'm just concerned that the 800 pound capacity might not be enough to properly balance things out.

Hdoilcan · Aug 3, 2016

I made a 1250lbs 55gallon style ballast and my rear tires are filled. I never have an issue.

oosik · Aug 3, 2016

Hey Idaho -
Rather than some type of ballast box - buy an implement for the 3-point hitch that you can use. Rear blade, box blade, LPGS, etc, etc. With loaded rear tires and an implement you will get fairly close to the lifting capacity of the FEL.

I would guess that very few Owners manuals are going to specify specific rear ballast amounts. Liability & attorneys be damed.

danny77 · Aug 3, 2016

I here what your saying on hanging an implement off the 3-point. I was thinking of a ballast box, however, because I'll be operating in tight areas in the woods, I wanted to keep things compact and trim. I'm also holding off on a 3 point implement because I don't really need one yet and am not sure which one(s) I meet need in the future. Right now I'm doing all loader work.

I like the idea of making a 1250 pound ballast box out of a barrel, but haven't done it before and am just too busy to do that right now. I'll probably just go ahead and get the titan ballast box. It seems like 800 pounds with loaded tires ought to work pretty well.

jeff9366 · Aug 3, 2016

What is the lift capacity of your FEL?

You rarely need more ballast capacity than the lift capacity of your FEL.

I would think the 975 pounds of tire liquid should be ample for 80% of your loader needs. Does rear of the tractor feel light when you are moving heavy FEL loads now?

If you will be moving wet sand or a large, green trees trunk chained to the FEL, you may want moderate counterbalance on your Three Point Hitch. Counterbalance on the Three Point, cantilevered behind the rear axle, is much more effective ballast weight than tire ballast, so you will not need much. Three Point Hitch counterbalance has the advantage of relieving stress on tractor's front axle and wheel bearings when doing heavy loader work.

What is the lift capacity of your FEL?

prichard · Aug 3, 2016

My owners manual is pretty clear on how to ballast and recommended weight. I assumed they all had that.

N2DFire · Aug 3, 2016

Funny that Kioti has pulled that item frm their Spec pages as well.
Here's the page to the KL130 we have on the CK35.
KL13 Front End Loader | Kioti Tractors
Lift Capacity to Full Height at Pivot Pins 1,155 lbs
Ballast Box attached to 3-Point 700 lbs

Your KL2610 is :
Lift Capacity to Maximum Ht. at Bucket Pivot Pin 1,252 lbs.
SL241 Front End Loader | Kioti Tractors

If you set up a ratio of Counterweight to lift capacity
700/1155 = X/1252

& solve for "X"
(700 * 1252) / 1155
876400 / 1155
758.78

then you get about 760lbs

I'd say that's a pretty good ballpark.

We made ours from a cut down 55 gallon drum loaded with scrap steel & concrete.
If you're doing pure concrete there are some threads here if you search that will help you calculate the volume of concrete you need to get the weight you want.

Best of luck.

k0ua · Aug 3, 2016

If you will take a 55 gallon drum with your steel hookup hardware in it and and filled all but about the last 10 inches or so with concrete, you will be pretty close to where you need to be for ballast, and will have room on the top to store items like chains, and things.

prichard · Aug 3, 2016

IIRC, cured concrete is 30% over dry weight. i.e. 60lb bag will equal 80lbs cured.

danny77 · Aug 3, 2016

Thanks for all the great info guys.

I thought it was odd as well that they never included the ballast specs for my loader. I read both books, loader and tractor manual and coundn't find actual numbers anywhere for ballast. It's a pretty new model, so maybe it will come out in a later edition owners manual.

My model is pretty similar to a CK35, but I think mine weighs about 300 pounds less (mine is 2700 pounds + loader and bucket 915 pounds). That said N2DFire's math looks pretty compelling. I'll aim for around 800 pounds and see how that works. I've only just got the tractor and haven't tried lifting anything really heavy yet, so I don't know how well it would work with just the tires filled. Reading all the other discussions in this, it seems like the consensus is to add 3 point ballast as well as loaded tires if mostly loading heavy loader work, so that's what I'll do.

Once I get the new ballast on, I'll let you guys know how it handles.