Ballast/Counterweight

   / Ballast/Counterweight #31  
Just for grins, here is a cast concrete block that was once used as a counterweight on the skidder for plowing snow. About 2'x2' 4'. Painted CAT yellow too!

FREE FOR THE TAKING /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

DFB

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   / Ballast/Counterweight #32  
Why do you suppose you shouldn't fill the tires on the cab model?
 
   / Ballast/Counterweight
  • Thread Starter
#33  
DFB, Oh yeah, real high tech stuff. When I build my carry-all platform, I think I will make it only stick about 50-60% as far back as the store bought version. Then I will use bolt on extensions to regain the "lost" capacity. I'm also thinking bolt on rather than weld on diagonal braces so I can get them out of the way when clear loading overhang space is needed but max weight carrying capacity isn't. The concrete weiights could be cast so as to extend forward of the platform, reducing the benefit of leverage just a bit but improving close in manuevering. I'm thinking of trying to brace the vertical to horizontal weld connection on the outside of the 90 degree angle so the diagonal braces won't be so important or missed as much when not affixed. Hope that makes sense.

Patrick
 

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   / Ballast/Counterweight
  • Thread Starter
#34  
Glennmac, Yeah, not real cheap or is it? One fill should last many years, until tires are totally destroyed or worn so badly there is just no traction A N D you never have a flat, EVER or have to do anything to the tires or wheels for years. Still given the weight involved, until I find out what the Kubota folks had in mind when they put the "don't put ballast in your tires if you have a cab" comment in my manual, I don't think I will make that investment.

Patrick
 
   / Ballast/Counterweight
  • Thread Starter
#35  
Gee, aren't you worried that someone might take it with it just out there, not indoors or anything? It must only weigh about 2400 lbs.

Patrick
 
   / Ballast/Counterweight
  • Thread Starter
#36  
Sorry Hayden, I already asked that question, I'm looking for the answer. Thought it might relate to cab weight but surely the weight of the cab is much less than the ballast weight (my tires will hold over a thousand pounds of CaCl solution). They could have just said only fill 1/2 (not the 3/4 recommended for non-cab models) or some such reduction.

Yet another mystery of the orient.

Patrick (got to go se some traps, big increase in beaver activity)
 
   / Ballast/Counterweight #37  
Alas, Gramps the creator of such a legacy is gone now. To be bequeathed to his heirs and assigns forever! /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif

DFB
 
   / Ballast/Counterweight #38  
patrickg
My manual had the warning to not load the fronts "due to loss of steering stability". I've really tried/w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif, even though I loaded them she's not unstable. IMHO the benefit of loaded tires is greater than any warning label but I'll not advise anyone else not to follow the mfg's. recommendations.
regards
Mutt
 
   / Ballast/Counterweight
  • Thread Starter
#39  
Yeah, Mutt,
warning labels used to make sense but as crazy lawsuits became a way of life manufacturers started labeling everything to limit liability. Hence the warning on plastic glue that it is not to be taken internally and so on and so forth. I'm not agreeing or dissagreeing with the Kubota engineers, yet. I do want to know their reasoning. I find it often prudent to find out the why of a warning before violating it (which I do but prefer to do from a position of knowlege rather than the opposite). If, for instance, the liklihood of the "bad outcome" they are protecting me against is an acceptable risk to me then I'll take my chances. What IS a bad idea is to assume that because I don't know why they would issue such a warning that there is no valid reason. Since I won't be harmed if I delay a while and research the issue, that is my course. If I had a dire need for ballast and someone put a gun to my head, so to speak, I'd probably guess the weight of the cab and deduct that from the ballast weight and proceed cautiously. Luckily that is not the case.

Well the magic spell is broken. Unseasonable 60's and 70's are gone, teens are on the way and up to 3 inches of snow due this afternoon and evening. Counted 24 ducks on the small pond visible from Mom's south window and maybe 30 or so in the larger pond and 30 or so goldfinches mobbing the feeders, which need filling again (every two days) and a lone cardinal,locally named descriptively, redbird.

Patrick
 
   / Ballast/Counterweight #40  
<font color=blue>goldfinches mobbing the feeders, which need filling again (every two days) and a lone cardinal</font color=blue>

Patrickg, last year we had lots of goldfinches, but this Fall I hadn't even noticed any and I'd let my birdfeeder run out. So when I read your message here, I went out and filled the birdfeeder and within 30 minutes I had maybe a dozen goldfinches and a lone cardinal hen. Kinda weird. And the guestion I've wondered about in the past is how do those little birds find that food and how would they know it's there that soon after I put it out?
 
 
 
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