CT335 Weight distribution

[oldchevelle541]

Greetings,
Hoping someone can help or provide a contact number at Bobcat.

I am designing a shed floor for storage of my CT335. Floor will be wood framing. I have factory front end loader and know total weight of unit. I wish to learn how total weight is shared by front and rear axle so I can determine individual wheel loads/weight. This will allow me to design floor. My dealer does not seem to understand what I need and I called Bobcat but got no return call.
Thanks in advance.
J

[catdozer]

I don't understand. You need to be more specific of what your doing

[oldchevelle541]

To better illustrate:
lets say tractor weighs 4,000 lbs. I am looking to see if for example front axle carries 2500 lbs of that weight and the rear carries 1500 lbs of total weight. The weight that either axle carries divided by 2 equals weight carried by individual tire.

[catdozer]

To better illustrate:
lets say tractor weighs 4,000 lbs. I am looking to see if for example front axle carries 2500 lbs of that weight and the rear carries 1500 lbs of total weight. The weight that either axle carries divided by 2 equals weight carried by individual tire.

Hmm ok, if your building the floor your just going to have to build it to hold the entire 4000 lbs. there really is no way to determine how much weight on front or back. To be safe I would say 3000 on the front axle and 2000 on the back.

[krazsk]

When I was in engineering shool, we used to tease the civil engineers, the way they designed things was to calculate their needs, then add another zero for safety. if the calculation showed 1000# they designed it for 10,000# for safety. I am only slightly being facetious. I really don't think you want to design the floor that close. Assume about 2000# per wheel/tire and design your floor for 7500-10000# per tire to make sure it doesn't break when you drive in with a implement attached or try to lift something with your loader inside. If you design it that close I guarantee that it will fail when you're doing something in the shop. So design the floor for even distribution of about 40,000# and you will probably be ok.

[wallace]

Use 2x8 16 on center and top it with 3/4 plywood!
I am running 3,000lbs pallets across this with a pallet jack. havent fell through yet!

[jrpat]

Years ago as part of my job I used to help weigh railroad cars on a scale track. There were times when a rail car was too long to fit on the scale. The procedure then was to weigh each end of the car. Pull one set of trucks on the scale, uncouple the locomotive and pull it off the scale. Weigh the car, then couple up and pull the lead set of trucks off the scale and leave the rear set of trucks on the scale. Weigh the car again, then add the 2 weights. Could you not weigh each end of the tractor separately? Then add the 2 weights together to see if the total weights compare to the factory specs. If the compared weights are close,then each end weight of the tractor could be devided by half to give you the weight under each wheel. Have I got you confused? Now all ya gotta do is find a scale big enough.

[krazsk]

Seriously, what are you tryng to do? This seems crazy at first glance, I hope you aren't doing what it seems to imply you are trying to do with your obsession to know exactly what the weight distribution on your tractor is. (only designing for the exact weight of the tractor with nothing to spare) The weight distribution will vary all over the place depending on your loader, and other things. A fat guy or a skinny guy getting on the tractor will vary the weight between the front and back more that what you seem to be worried about. If there is any downforce on the loader there will be more weight on the back tires and less on the front, and some on the loader bucket. If you are designing the floor for the exact weight, be sure to use wet weight or it will be too much when it's filled with diesel. Seriously, why are you that worried about the exact distribuition? It has to be overbuilt more than you seem to be designing it for or it will fail.

[Gil Case]

Funny discussion, but in the old days on the farm you would weigh a cow or horse by putting the front legs on the scale and then the back legs on the scale and add the two together. More accurate than a girth tape.

If you go from Rick's two by eights to two by tens you will have doubled the strength of the floor joist, so overbuilding is cheap and the way to go Sounds illogical, but true, you can look it up.

[powerscol]

Run the tractor up to you local scale house and get it weighed. Front /rear/and whole) I suggest getting it weighed too with your heaviest implement. Then add at least a factor of 3 to this number (tractors do bounce a bit) Then get with you local building department for code and check with you local lumber yard for joist data (I suggest using boxed TGI's at about 12 in centers with full blocking at 1/3 points across the spans if you insist on using wood). You will want two layers of flooring - one replaceable and be sure you using good marine grade on bottom layer to make it water resistant. Best bet is to have a structural engineer look at this too as you will have very concentrated point loads - the weak spot may be the floor sheeting. Your local building codes may require this.

Good luck

PS if it were me I would look into poring a reinforced and sealed 6 inch concrete floor over your wood framing, using steel I-beams for support below.