Sarah needs advice on setting up a wider wheel base for my JD 3320

[Horse Chick with Tractor]

Hi everyone, does anyone know if the wheels on a JD 3320 can be safely widened. A really nice guy sold my daughter and me our 3320, it only has 40hours on it, and it looks and operates "as new". It came with the climate controlled cab, and a quick adjust rear hitch, and a 5 or 6 foot brush hog, and a 6 foot finish mower. I paid $17,000. which is $10,000. less than the local Deere dealer would sell a new one with the same equipment for.

At first it seemed well suited for our 11 acre property. It came with the standard Front 7-14/ 6PR/ R1 and the Rear 11.2-24/ 6PR/ R1 tires. I have very gently rolling land, with only a very few 'hairy spots' and I was surprised at how unstable I felt. At first I loved my tractor; it was the biggest 'newer type' tractor I could afford. I felt that I was doing the right thing when I bought this tractor, after all, the reputation of the John Deere tractors is so very good. I thought, at the time that I bought it, that I had done well for my child and myself. But when I drove it, it felt so unstable, with too narrow of a wheel base. I have to say I feel a bit silly now, and on top of that, I just don't want to get hurt.

I would like advice on how to gain a little insurance for roll prevention. I feel a bit frightened because of this tractor's slightly narrower profile ... It came with the cab up top which also raises the center of gravity bit.

Can the tires be reversed on the rears for a wider stance? Or, Are Hub extensions available for this unit. Or will just getting the bigger Ag R4 tires help. Does the liquid ballist in the tires really help? I need to learn the smartest way to set this particular tractor up to prevent it from rolling .... Besides of course driving it properly.

I'm thankful to anyone for caring enough to write back. I don't know why John Deere designed a tractor thats center of gravity is too tall for its wheel base. .... I just want to love this tractor again, but I'm frightened of it as it is. I'll be paying it off for a long time, so I need to find a solution. Perhaps I didn't do as well as I first thought that I did. Still, .... I hope with good advice I can get this solved ...... Thanks Guys, .........Sarah

 

[Killer_B]

Hi Sarah,

Look and see if the valve stems are facing out or in. If they are out, you can switch the right and left side rear rims/tires and face the stems in toward the tractor. That will gain you about 5 to 6 inches of width. If that is not enough, there are spacers available. I'm sure someone will chime in on those.

I'm sure you will love your tractor. I like mine a lot.

KB

 

[Roadkill95]

Are the tires loaded with ballast? If not have the rear rires loaded and that will help alot, and not too expensive. Makes the tire heavy on the ground.

 

[JDFANATIC]

Agree with both of the above advice. As you have correctly figured out, a cab does raise the center of gravity. But with proper ballasting and wheel set, you should be fine.

 

[BleedGreen]

Did you receive the owners manual when you bought this unit? It explains in there about tire positioning. You can gain about 8' on the front of the tractor and up to 16' on the rear. Also, unless you have a loader on the unit (which you didn't mention) you are going to want to add at least 350lbs to the front of the tractor when using with the brush hog or finish mower.

 

[GreenMtns]

Did you receive the owners manual when you bought this unit? It explains in there about tire positioning. You can gain about 8' on the front of the tractor and up to 16' on the rear. Also, unless you have a loader on the unit (which you didn't mention) you are going to want to add at least 350lbs to the front of the tractor when using with the brush hog or finish mower.

Hi Sarah

The tractor you have is really a great tractor and you got at a very good price. You will also find most JD dealers are very helpful. The R-4s you mention are only 2 position and when in the wide mounting like mine you only gain about 3" over all. That would cost a lot more money and not improve things much for you.
The R-1s that you have are 2 position on the front and 8 position on the rear. With the 16 inches Bleedgreen mentions, you should be able to gain enough with R-4s to be stable. You will like this tractor more and more as you use it.

 

[Nuru]

Hi everyone, does anyone know if the wheels on a JD 3320 can be safely widened. A really nice guy sold my daughter and me our 3320, it only has 40hours on it, and it looks and operates "as new". It came with the climate controlled cab, and a quick adjust rear hitch, and a 5 or 6 foot brush hog, and a 6 foot finish mower. I paid $17,000. which is $10,000. less than the local Deere dealer would sell a new one with the same equipment for.

At first it seemed well suited for our 11 acre property. It came with the standard Front 7-14/ 6PR/ R1 and the Rear 11.2-24/ 6PR/ R1 tires. I have very gently rolling land, with only a very few 'hairy spots' and I was surprised at how unstable I felt. At first I loved my tractor; it was the biggest 'newer type' tractor I could afford. I felt that I was doing the right thing when I bought this tractor, after all, the reputation of the John Deere tractors is so very good. I thought, at the time that I bought it, that I had done well for my child and myself. But when I drove it, it felt so unstable, with too narrow of a wheel base. I have to say I feel a bit silly now, and on top of that, I just don't want to get hurt.

I would like advice on how to gain a little insurance for roll prevention. I feel a bit frightened because of this tractor's slightly narrower profile ... It came with the cab up top which also raises the center of gravity bit.

Can the tires be reversed on the rears for a wider stance? Or, Are Hub extensions available for this unit. Or will just getting the bigger Ag R4 tires help. Does the liquid ballist in the tires really help? I need to learn the smartest way to set this particular tractor up to prevent it from rolling .... Besides of course driving it properly.

I'm thankful to anyone for caring enough to write back. I don't know why John Deere designed a tractor thats center of gravity is too tall for its wheel base. .... I just want to love this tractor again, but I'm frightened of it as it is. I'll be paying it off for a long time, so I need to find a solution. Perhaps I didn't do as well as I first thought that I did. Still, .... I hope with good advice I can get this solved ...... Thanks Guys, .........Sarah

Oh what a great deal!

You can do just as everyone else has stated and reverse the tires (stems inside), and if that is not enlugh, you can go and speak to multiple firms that make hub extenders for tractors

 

[Nuru]

Unverferth Mfg. Co., Inc. - Contact Us

this vendor used to sell hub spacers/extenders for John deere and other tractors, you might want to give them a call.

 

[3RRL]

Swapping the wheels out for the widest stance is definitely a way to make your tractor more stable. If you don't have filled tires yet, it will make a drastic difference in the way the tractor feels providing more stability, rigidness and added traction. All good things. The combination of the two results in a very noticeable improvement.
When I swapped the fronts out wide it did not hurt my turning radius either. I'm pretty sure it's the same, but there was a feeling of a tighter turn especially in 4wd for some reason? ...weird.

 

[orlo]

Sara:

Maybe I missed something, but if you have R1's they are 8 position Rims and will go pretty wide. You can flip them around and change the 'bushing' positions to get the widest possible position (Pretty wide on the R1's). If that's still not enough for you you can get wheel extensions. I have 6" (per side) wheel extensions on my 3720 cab with R3's and it helped a lot in the 'feel'. The 6" extensions give me an extra foot of width in either of the R3 positions (I'm running the Narrow one now and am about 66" wide with the extensions).

They were Unverferth extensions, pretty pricey (I think Mine were around $600 for the pair) but worth it to me since it makes it much more stable.

The stock tractor is a little more stable than it feels anyway (You should have seen the things I did with unloaded R4's before the extensions and R3's) but with a wider stance it'll make you feel even more stable. I would also suggest a tiltmeter since it takes the guess work of "How far am I tilted?"