Traction with FEL and Backhoe

whodattractor · Nov 10, 2015

Howdy,

I have a bit of land that I need to maintain with a tractor. I found one nearby that is a Massey Ferguson and it looks like a 2135. It has a front end loader and a backhoe, but it's two wheel drive. I get quite a bit of water that builds up when it rains, and I'm wondering if the tractor would have enough traction going through mud being two wheel drive (but with a front end loader and backhoe installed to even the weight).

Thanks!

roadhunter · Nov 10, 2015

My guess is that it would be fine. I had an old 2 wd backhoe and it got around in the snow just fine.

DT86 · Nov 10, 2015

Keep looking.

Grandad4 · Nov 10, 2015

DT86 said:
Keep looking.

+1 Probably a good old tractor, but 2wd will limit what you can do in muddy conditions.

whodattractor · Nov 10, 2015

It has water filled rear tires and I thought the backhoe would help keep the back down, but wasn't sure. Thanks for the input!

4570Man · Nov 10, 2015

It won't do well on hills. I'm not sure about mud.

Grandad4 · Nov 11, 2015

whodattractor said:
It has water filled rear tires and I thought the backhoe would help keep the back down, but wasn't sure. Thanks for the input!

Keeping the back down may not solve the problem of lack of traction in the mud. And eventually you find or make a rut deep enough that it bottoms out with all that weight. A lighter 4wd setup with R1 Ag tires all the way around would be more effective in mud.

TomSeller · Nov 11, 2015

It really depends on the hills you have, soils and the amount of weight you can ballast behind the rear wheels. If you can keep most of your weight on the drive wheels, you should be okay. Getter tooted analogy. If you can stack your weight to the rear, you should be okay. Too much on the front rear axle and you are in trouble.

Kenneth S · Nov 11, 2015

I drove my 2135 through a creek with about 2' of water still sitting in it, didn't get stuck (but I don't have a FEL and a BH on mine). A 2wd with a FEL is ok if what you are moving is very loose material. If you try to move material with a FEL that's compacted that's where having 4WD really helps, but you can loosen the material with the BH then use the FEL to move it. That's my 30 years of FEL/BH experience working for a construction company.