Weights for beginners

[ning]

One local tire store is or was loading them with used auto antifreeze for a low price. It's a great way for them to get rid of it; but there's no way that I would want it on my property. Get a slow leak and you're spewing that crap everywhere.

Yeah I read about people using RV water system antifreeze because it's non-toxic; the other will kill your dog fast.

WW fluid is cheaper than a 50lb bag of calcium and 40-50gal of water? I think I paid $25-30 for 50lbs of ice melt (calcium chloride) at the height of winter when I filled my tires.

WW fluid may cost more today, but the calcium may cost you more in the long run, depending on if you keep the tractor long enough for the calcium to destroy your rims or if it becomes someone else's problem...

Also, if you've got say a 12.4-28 tire, that's about 35 gallons of plain water per tire, or 27.5 gallons of water with 6 pounds of CaCl2 per gallon, or 138 pounds of calcium per tire, or six bags for both tires. It may cost more than $25 if you're actually trying to maximize your tire loading (75% fill for tube tires; for tubeless, increase by 20%) [source].

 

[oosik]

Torvy - you have to decide what is required based upon what you will be doing. Loader work - you will need some form of rear weight - wheel weights on the tires, fluid in the tires, something heavy on the 3-point. One or two or all three of these choices. Your Operators manual for your tractor should help. It could, like mine, indicate max load on the 3-point, max weight clapped on the rear rims, what fluid can be added to the rear tires for weight.

I've had two tractors. Brand new Ford 1700 4WD. It had a bucket on the FEL, CaCl in the rear tires( BIG mistake ) and a rear blade on the 3-point. This was enough weight to allow the tractor to lift max loads with the FEL.

My 2009 Kubota M6040 tips the grain scales @ 10,100 pounds. A grapple on the FEL, 1550# of RimGuard in the rear tires & a 1050# rear blade on the 3-point. I can lift all I will ever need with this combination. This is the way the tractor is set up about 95% of the time

One suggestion - do not add CaCl fluid to the rear tires for weight. Today there are fluids that are so much better. Meaning they do not cause extensive corrosion. RimGuard, windshield washer fluid, RV antifreeze, methanol.

 

[amhicks21]

WW fluid is cheaper than a 50lb bag of calcium and 40-50gal of water? I think I paid $25-30 for 50lbs of ice melt (calcium chloride) at the height of winter when I filled my tires.

I have driven many machines with loaded and even foam filled tires. I have never felt sloshing. You can and only really want to fill the liquid in the tire to just below the valve stem when it's at the 12 o clock possition.

I also have a old ford 851 that has loaded tires that are so dry rotted I'm suprised the tube is still in the tire yet they still are and I have driven over many stumps and sharp rocks with out even taking a valve stem out while useing it to clear brush.

Im aware of the correct level to load tires. Noticeable sloshing occurs when they are under filled with a low viscosity fluid like washer fluid. CaCl is a great way to rot out rims that dont have tubes. Im not running brine without tubes in a nearly new tractor and im not putting tubes in tires that dont need em. a 270 gallon tote of washer fluid cost us 330 dollars if the tote gets exchanged.

 

[Torvy]

I agree - I wouldn't have a tractor w/o loaded rear tires. But I don't have a lawn to worry about like some.

gg

This would be my situation. No lawn. Probably bucket and/or grapple most of the time. Moving deadfall or thinned trees and branches.. some dirt work as well.. will have an RC, maybe a chipper.
Sounds like I need to learn more, too. Adding air is easy with a compressor. How do you get fluid into the tires? Any idea how much foam fill would run?

Thanks all for the good info!

 

[nyone]

I think we are mostly all talking about weight for a front end loader. Let's also not forget that wheel weights or balist in tires also helps when you have a 3pt attachment on and it's being driven through the ground. Once that attachment is on/in the ground the tractor may not carry its weight...yet the tractor will still need traction.

 

[Jstpssng]

This would be my situation. No lawn. Probably bucket and/or grapple most of the time. Moving deadfall or thinned trees and branches.. some dirt work as well.. will have an RC, maybe a chipper.
Sounds like I need to learn more, too. Adding air is easy with a compressor. How do you get fluid into the tires? Any idea how much foam fill would run?

Thanks all for the good info!

https://www.napaonline.com/en/p/NCB20073

 

[Jstpssng]

I just found this interesting "Ballast Calculator" spreadsheet for JD which allows you to punch in all of your applicable data, and apparently gives recommended weight needed. You would need to download the actual spreadsheet, the link is for demonstration purposes only.

 

[CoyPatton]

So my next question by a beginner for beginners...
We hear a lot about weight, more is better, less is better, tires, suitcases, front, back, etc.
Ultimately, weight is a balancing act using your tractor as the fulcrum. Pick up a heavy load with your FEL and no weight in back and your back wheels may come off the ground or worse. Add too much weight and you can increase stress on structure and will definitely spend more money on fuel and potentially do more damage as you sink deeper in soil.
So, that's what I think I know...experts, here are my questions...

How do I know how much weight to add?
What is the best way to add weight?
What ways should be avoided?
What else do you think us beginners need to know about weight?

Thanks!

Start with your owners manual! You should find recommended weights for each situation weather with loader installed looking at rear ballast. Rear ballast can be from wheel weights, filled tires, and 3PH added weight (several options here as well, a frame to accept suitcase weights or ballast box including homemade and commercially available). If you remove the loader, you may need front ballast. There should be a related section in the owners manual here as well.
As long as your weight you add stays within the limits of your mfg recommendations, you should be find on structural limits of your tractor.

 

[Hay Dude]

You’ll like liquid ballast until you have a leak.
Then you won’t like liquid ballast

 

[IndyJay]

You’ll like liquid ballast until you have a leak.
Then you won’t like liquid ballast

See my post #14 in this thread. I had the same concern but went with a tire sealant that works with liquid ballast and used non-toxic RV antifreeze.

 

[Cameron Smith]

FYI! A 55 gallon drum full of concrete weighs a bit over 1100 lbs. (7.5 gal per cubic ft., 153 # of conc. per cubic ft. A 1-1/4 or 1-1/2 pipe installed transversely a few inches above center height of the barrel (BEFORE filling it with concrete!) allows an appropriately sized steel rod to slide through your spee balls to allow it to be easily slid on or off for ballast. Check the capacity of your lift arms before you make something your tractor can't handle (it has been done). Scrap iron thrown in makes it heavier (added while pouring the concrete). Make sure the barrel ends up bottom heavy or you will wish you HAD! 800lbs on my Ford 1900, 1500lbs for my big tractors. A 35 gal drum comes out about 720 lbs. for smaller tractors.

 

[Hay Dude]

See my post #14 in this thread. I had the same concern but went with a tire sealant that works with liquid ballast and used non-toxic RV antifreeze.

I actually can’t use it, too much worry about a massive leak in crop fields or along roads, etc.

 

[amhicks21]

This would be my situation. No lawn. Probably bucket and/or grapple most of the time. Moving deadfall or thinned trees and branches.. some dirt work as well.. will have an RC, maybe a chipper.
Sounds like I need to learn more, too. Adding air is easy with a compressor. How do you get fluid into the tires? Any idea how much foam fill would run?

Thanks all for the good info!

To answer your question of how to get fluid in to the tires, they make a schrader valve to garden hose fitting with a little pressure relief valve button that you can find for about 12 bucks. from there, you can either use a little pump or if you dont mind the extra hassle you could gravity feed it in. you just take the weight off of the tire and let the air out. then occasionally stop pumping and press the relief valve to let the air thats being compressed out. how often you have the relieve the pressure depends on how much pressure your pump can produce. you'll put the valve stem at 12 o'clock and once you start getting fluid out of the relief valve instead of air you know you're finished.

 

[OregonCraig]

So my next question by a beginner for beginners...
We hear a lot about weight, more is better, less is better, tires, suitcases, front, back, etc.
Ultimately, weight is a balancing act using your tractor as the fulcrum. Pick up a heavy load with your FEL and no weight in back and your back wheels may come off the ground or worse. Add too much weight and you can increase stress on structure and will definitely spend more money on fuel and potentially do more damage as you sink deeper in soil.
So, that's what I think I know...experts, here are my questions...

How do I know how much weight to add?
What is the best way to add weight?
What ways should be avoided?
What else do you think us beginners need to know about weight?

Thanks!

In my case, my 3720 came with a separate manual for the 300CX loader. The minimum recommended ballast is filled rear tires, three wheel weights per side, and ~1100 pounds on the 3-point hitch. So, not just one type of ballast, but all three.
Hopefully your loader manual has recommendations for ballast.
I do have a dedicated mower, so I'm not concerned about the 3720 damaging the lawn.

 

[jigs_n_fixtures]

i would measure the distance from the front wheel contact patch with the ground, and the bucket mount. Then look up your max rated loader lift. Multiply those two together, and you have the moment/torque of the load around the front wheel. Multiply it by three to account for a dynamic load.

Then measure the track length from the front wheels to the rear wheels, and divide the moment/torque around the front wheel, by the track length, and you know how much weight you need on the rear wheels to balance the loader weight. So long as you add that much behind the rear wheels some where, you wont be able to load the bucket enough to roll the tractor forward.

 

[Torvy]

May need to enlist my engineer son to help with that.

 

[Doughknob]

i would measure the distance from the front wheel contact patch with the ground, and the bucket mount. Then look up your max rated loader lift. Multiply those two together, and you have the moment/torque of the load around the front wheel. Multiply it by three to account for a dynamic load.

Then measure the track length from the front wheels to the rear wheels, and divide the moment/torque around the front wheel, by the track length, and you know how much weight you need on the rear wheels to balance the loader weight. So long as you add that much behind the rear wheels some where, you wont be able to load the bucket enough to roll the tractor forward.

You forget that there is already a moment from the rear due to the existing weight of the tractor itself on the rear wheels. To know how much additional weight to add, you'd need to know weight on rear wheels as tractor sits with no external loads, and then subtract that from your last instruction there.

 

[jigs_n_fixtures]

The rear will have bout 60% of the weight of the tractor on it. But I would ignore it unless I was very close to a set of scales, and could get an accurate weight all the way around and total.


Read OregonCraig’s post about how much the manual says to add on his tractor. The load at the rear wheels before you add that much, doesn’t contribute much to the balance.