Loader Counterweight

[Anonymous Poster]

Finished building the counterweight for my tractor today /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif and after attaching it, I got to thinking.....does it make any difference if the counterweight is carried low near the ground or up high. Decided to ask the experts. So experts, any comments? By the way, the counterweight is patterned after one I saw on the following site: http:// [url]www.his.com/~msimpson/tractor [/url] Go to the hacker page and click on tractor counter weight.

 

[TomG]

Lower is better. Carrying weight higher raises the centre of gravity, which reduces stability when traversing hills. Carrying a loader bucket low also is a good idea for the same reason.

 

[Bird]

Amen, low as possible.

Bird

 

[MChalkley]

Thirded.

Mark

 

[Anonymous Poster]

And to bring up my recent post again, if you catch one corner of the loader on something so the lifted load isn't centered, nothing will help you. I have a 9 foot backhoe on my tractor, and the right rear tire came off the ground with great speed because I was pushing over a tree and it's dirt wad and it slipped, putting the whole load on the LF corner of the loader.

And like someone else mentioned, after I calmed down and had all four paws on the ground again I looked around to see if anyone was viewing my antics. I have to be careful with the Kubota, it's much quieter than my Ford, with the Ford no one would know something was wrong as they wouldn't have been able to hear me yell as easily!{grin}

 

[MChalkley]

Del - Yeah, I've done stuff like that and felt like yelling "Look Ma! No brains!" After getting the tractor back on the ground, of course. Before that, it's hard to think of things like being clever. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Mark

 

[Bird]

Haven't we all? I sometimes wonder how I've survived as long as I have./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Bird

 

[gordon]

All so right sometimes I wonder how I've survived through some of the dumb move of the day moves. After doing one you have to do the --look around-- and hopefully noone else saw your dumb move of the day. I cuss my loader for being slow and weak then wonder how the heck it can pick up a rear tire at times without a problem--I guess just to see if I'm paying close attention to the job at hand.

A worst case if someone does see you do a three tire stand just simply tell them its time for the cross rotational frame to bolt test its required every 300 hours for safty purposes only./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

But I do like the look Ma no brains makes me think of my kids and some of the silly things they do.
Gordon

 

[MChalkley]

It's been said a dozen times before, but I'll say it again: That's one of the reasons I think it's so valuable to discuss safety constantly on this board. If there's always a thread running that mentions some aspect of safety, we're all thinking about it when we go out and use our equipment. I know for a fact that it works. I told the story a while back of how the guy who had lost both arms to an auger came up to me and congratulated me for being so safety-conscious. I may have been before, and I appreciated him noticing, but I'm even moreso now, and I suspect that was his intention. I've never since engaged the PTO with that thing on the back without thinking of what happened to him. So, like I said, I know it works.

Mark

 

[Bird]

Amen, amongst other things, being the safety officer was one of my responsibilities for awhile, back when I was gainfully employed./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Bird