Speaking of tilt...

[Harv]

Here I go sounding naive again...

As I continue shopping for my 'Bota I'm filling in the voids by making what preparations I can. One thing I'm doing is mapping out a tractor path which will allow me to get to various portions of my 42 acres where work needs to be done. After reading so many posts about the cautions and outright dangers of hill driving with a tractor I'm starting to re-think parts of that path.

The naive question is this -- what's a good way to measure the incline of a slope? I certainly don't trust my eyeballs and I don't have a transit (I suppose I could jerry-rig one). With a little effort I could figure it out with a string level and a tape measure, but I'm guessing there are better ways to go about this.

It occurs to me that I could buy a tiltmeter (quick, while I still have 35 bucks) and mount it to my little red wagon, but the wheelbase on the wagon is vastly different than, say, an L3000.

Ideas? Suggestions?

 

[PaulB]

Harv - buy the tiltmeter and mount it to a 2 by 4 as long as the wheelbase of your (virtual) tractor, then lay the 2 by 4 onto any suspect slope, and it should be accurate.

 

[Bird]

Very good thinking, PaulB, that ought to work just fine, and then Harv would already have his tiltmeter ready to install when he gets the tractor.

Bird

 

[Harv]

Thanks, PaulB and Bird.

Buying a tiltmeter might make me feel like I'm actually going to get a tractor soon. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Now, PaulB has picked 15 degrees as a safe limit for side-to-side tilt (thanks for your posts, PaulB), but what about the front-back slope? I've read a lot of posts about the how-to's and how-not-to's of climbing steep hills, but I haven't seen much in the way of numbers (degrees) for defining what "steep" means. I understand there are a lot of variables here, but let's pick as a reference a well-balanced 4wd tractor with ag tires on firm ground. Or would it be safer to assume 2wd? Anybody have any actual degrees of incline which they consider a safe limit?

Hmmmmm... Sounds like two tiltmeters might be in order.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

You can purchase a "Carpenters Protractor Level" for about $5-7 at any hardware store or supply house such as Lowes, Menards, etc. It has a circular face (about 4 inches in diameter) with a pendulum arm and a flat base (about 4" by 1"). Some have a magnetic base, but that is not essential. Place it on a small slab of plywood or a 2 x 4 on a slope and you can instantly read the degrees of slope in the direction you want to travel. I have R & B tiltmeters on both my tractors, but I also carry these protractor levels in my toolboxes. When I arrive at a ditch bank or steep slope I have not traversed before, I get off the tractor and check it out with the little protractor level to know whether or not I should even attempt to proceed. Even with this prior checking, I keep a watchful eye on the tiltmeter as I drive on the slope. In reference to your question of mounting a tiltmeter on a "little red wagon with a different wheelbase," that would not be a problem. It would allow you to determine the slope in degrees which is what you want. The minimum slope where the tractor would tip would not necessarily be the same as where the wagon would tip, but you don't want to be that close to the edge anyway. The goal is to find out if the slope is approaching or exceeding the point of concern for the tractor.

 

[MarkV]

Harv,

I ask Rick of R&B Manufacuring about a degree max for up and down slopes a while back. Rick knows his stuff and said that 30 degrees was the magic number for up/down and 20 for side slope. As you said, there are a lot of thing that come into play so these are only guide lines.

One thing I will mention to you, if you have that many hills on your property, plan on getting as much wieght in your tires as you can when you get that mean machine.

MarkV

 

[Harv]

Jack -

Thanks for the tip. I ran over to Home Depot just now and picked up a protractor level for 7 bucks. Not suitable as a mobile tiltmeter, but plenty good enough for laying out my path. I will definitely mount a real tiltmeter or two in my eventual tractor, but this will keep me productive in the meantime.

BTW - while waiting in line at Home Depot I noticed a stack of medium grade plastic toolboxes for sale.

They were orange.

I got one. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

 

[Harv]

Thanks, MarkV --

That's good info. Now that I have a protractor level I can map out the best possible path for my tractor route. I'll see if I can keep side tilt to 15 degrees or less and maybe 25 or less for the head-on stuff. This will sure beat the heck out of finding out the "hard way".

And yes, I have already been looking seriously at the wheel weight issue. I'm a big do-it-yourself kind of guy and I found a local scrap dealer who sells lead at 29 cents a pound. I should probably start another thread here, but I haven't heard of anybody using lead on their wheels. You can melt it down and pour it into any shape you want. Probably need a little steel to protect the soft stuff, but you get a LOT of weight in a small space.

 

[scruffy]

Harv, would the lead stand up to the stressing/bouncing without rounding out mounting holes, etc over time?

 

[Harv]

Scruffy -

One of the notions I had was sort of an Oreo cookie arrangement -- steel plate on the outside and the creamy filling would be the lead. Like you say, the lead is too soft to handle the stuctural requirements by itself.

Quick calculations tell me it should easily be possible to put 250 pounds or more on each wheel using lead. Is there such a thing as too much wheel weight?