Newbie with first tractor

[MrDouglas]

Hi,

I have just purchased a JD5065E and awaiting it's delivery from India. It has the 553 loader on it and 4WD. I have consulted my farm guru and he has advised me not to get liquid ballast (beet juice) in the tires.

His thoughts he had six reasons for for his opinions. 1) If you get a flat, you must have somone come to you place to fix it. 2) The tractor @ approx 4600 lbs is heavy enough. 3) You will cause hardpanning of soil. 4) Beet juice/rim gaurd is awful messy, can pulg up you valve stem. 5) If you are carring eough weight in the loader and you are tipping, maybe you ought to think twice about carrying that much 6) for got what #6 was.

I am just going to be moving the wife's horse manure around the property. The tractor is going to be used primarily for food plotting 8 acres.

Thanks for your help, I am sure to have many more questions along the way.

(PS This site is setup just like MI sportsman forum. Wonder if the same company?)

Opps put this in wrong spot...

 

[WH401]

I got my tires filled with RimGuard and would suggest anyone with a loader to at least get filled tires for extra ballast if nothing else. I have not regretted it for a moment and I would definitely buy it again if I got another tractor. Not only do filled tires give you extra weight, they give you stability as well. The more weight you have down low and around the axle, the lower your center of gravity is. Not to mention when going over bumps the rear tires don't have a spungy feel to them.

As far as fixing a flat, yeah someone else may have to come out to fix it, but I'm pretty careful in my usage and I don't expect to encounter anything that is going to puncture the tire.

As far as the weight of the tractor/hard panning the soil, my dry weight is about 3k lbs, add the 600 lbs of RG for the rear tires, the 700 lbs of the mower deck, and the 800 lbs of the loader frame and I'm cutting grass at 5100 pounds. That's a lot of weight for mowing but I have no problems with leaving marks in the ground/grass or feeling that it is too heavy. Really I shouldn't even include the deck because that moves on it's own wheels, even then it's at 4400 lbs still.

As far as RG being messy and plugging the valve stem, I would rather buy the RG as it is biodegradable so if I do get a flat and it leaks the it won't hard anything. Also I have never heard of it plugging a valve stem.

As far as a tipping sensation, as long as you have proper ballast and you don't exceed the loader capacity then there is no reason you can't lift whatever you want.

 

[greenmule]

There is also methinal,thats what I got in mine[mixed with water of course],would say its cheaper than rim guard,doesn't weigh quite as much don't think,and won't rust your rims anymore than rimguard will.

 

[WH401]

There is also methinal,thats what I got in mine[mixed with water of course],would say its cheaper than rim guard,doesn't weigh quite as much don't think,and won't rust your rims anymore than rimguard will.

RG is non-corrosive, it won't rust the rims at all. The same can't be said for methanol.

 

[AKfish]

Welcome to TNB and congrats on your new tractor!

5000 series machines are pretty good sized tractors.. your 4WD model will be significantly heavier than the 2WD model (quoted weight) likely by 1,000lbs or more. The loader will probably add 1,500lbs to your tractor's weight, too.

Long and short - your 65hp, 5000 series tractor is gonna be very close to 8,000lbs as configured.

However, if you read your owner's manual - Deere has recommendations for safely adding ballast to your tractor to improve stability and handling while using the front-end loader.

Most folk's do not tackle 5000 series sized tires without 1.) help 2.) mechanical advantages. Even unfilled tires.

Enjoy your new tractor. Best of luck and safe tractoring.

AKfish

 

[greenmule]

WH401,Your going to have to explain it to me than,how beet juice which is mostly water could be less harmfull to your rims than alcohol and water??bet you can't?

 

[Erik_in_Hoyt]

WH401,Your going to have to explain it to me than,how beet juice which is mostly water could be less harmfull to your rims than alcohol and water??bet you can't?

actually it's not the water that causes the problems - Methanol ("wood" alcohol) is fairly corrosive, Ethanol ("grain" alcohol) is not.
I've also heard of people using milk in their tires as it forms an aliphatic layer that helps plug small punctures -- but it freezes, so is not good to use in cold climates, and tire changers hate cracking the seal on them due to the "spoiled cottage cheese" smell after a while.

 

[GreenWannabe]

Hello, MrDouglas, and congrats on the fine machine!

Your tractor and loader manuals together will give you the minimum ballasting requirements. If you don't have your printed copies yet, you can view them on Deere's website here: Operator's Manuals for John Deere Equipment. Just do a search for Operator's manuals, and enter your model number to pull up each manual. Take a look at the loader manual first.

Have fun with your new toy - oops, did I say that? Tool! and be save out there. Please remember, we want pictures!

 

[greenmule]

You may be right,but I ain't convinced that methinal is corrosive,they store it in 55 gal steel drums,at least they used too.

 

[WH401]

WH401,Your going to have to explain it to me than,how beet juice which is mostly water could be less harmfull to your rims than alcohol and water??bet you can't?

There's no need, it's already been done.