Good points and thanks for the updates. BTW, i found a good deal on some wider tires and I got them coming to the house next week. Only worry I have is that if I put them on their wides setting, will I be able to get the 4310 into my garage! LOL!
4320 do I load the tires or not
- Thread starter JYD
- Start date
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Z-Michigan
Veteran Member
You gonna play polo with them there tires?
mars1952
Silver Member
- Joined
- Jan 12, 2007
- Messages
- 238
- Location
- Western North Carolina
- Tractor
- 1999 John Deere 4300 12/12 sync-reverse
Liquid vs steel ballast? When I bought my tractor I looked at steel ballast instead of liquid because of leaks rusty rims etc and decided that I couldn't afford it. I filled my own tires with Calcium Chloride/Water. I happen to have a large commercial blender and I used it to mix dry CaCl2 and water. I'm sorry that I don't remember the formula that I worked out. I started by filling the 2 gal blender with water and then I added CaCl2 until no more would desolve no matter how long I mixed it. Then I added the same amount to every batch. I filled the tires using a bucket with a hose attached and an adapter from Tractor Supply. I kept track of the number of bags of CaCl2 and gallons of water and it came to almost 700lbs. The Total cost was less than $100 and I had 4 bags of CaCl2 left over. I keep my tires inflated to less than 10 psi and the difference in traction and stability is very noticeable.
How much ballast is enough? I tend to agree with John Deere on this point (see attached scan). I have done the under ballasted teeter-totter dance with my FEL and while mowing on hillsides and I don’t want to have to do it again. This is my opinion on how much ballast should be used:
Rear traction is one of the reasons to add ballast. The other very important reason is to take weight off your front axle. If your rear wheels are slipping more than 15% when you use your FEL that means that you have almost all the weight transferred to the front axle (The whole weight of the tractor plus the dirt in the bucket). Small CUTs can lift an impressive amount of weight with their FEL. Look at your user manual and see how much weight your front axle can take. I am sure that it wasn't meant for that much additional weight. Also almost all your stability comes from the rear axle. Your front axle can pivot and allow the tractor to roll over when your tractor is balanced on the front axle. To transfer weight from your front axle to your rear wheels you must put weight behind the rear wheels. Loading the tires or adding weight to the rear tires only ads weight to the rear tires it does not transfer weight off the front. Think of a teeter-totter. If you put weight on the pivot nothing is changed on the seats. If you put equal weight on the seats the teeter-totter will balance. In this case the rear axle is the pivot point but we want about 45-50% of the weight to remain on the front axle.
John Deere Ballast Handout Scan I hope this scan is readable.
My tractor is a JD 4300 MFWD with FEL with Calcium Chloride in the rear R4 tires (700 lbs) and foam filled front tires. I get the best FEL performance when I have my backhoe on. The Back Hoe weighs something over 1200 lbs. The combo of filled tires and the backhoe makes a total of about 1900 lbs ballast.
Obviously this is a very touchy, hotly debated subject. MHO is that metal axle weights are probably better than liquid filled tires but the performance difference is very small and the price difference is very large.
Good Luck, Marshall
How much ballast is enough? I tend to agree with John Deere on this point (see attached scan). I have done the under ballasted teeter-totter dance with my FEL and while mowing on hillsides and I don’t want to have to do it again. This is my opinion on how much ballast should be used:
Rear traction is one of the reasons to add ballast. The other very important reason is to take weight off your front axle. If your rear wheels are slipping more than 15% when you use your FEL that means that you have almost all the weight transferred to the front axle (The whole weight of the tractor plus the dirt in the bucket). Small CUTs can lift an impressive amount of weight with their FEL. Look at your user manual and see how much weight your front axle can take. I am sure that it wasn't meant for that much additional weight. Also almost all your stability comes from the rear axle. Your front axle can pivot and allow the tractor to roll over when your tractor is balanced on the front axle. To transfer weight from your front axle to your rear wheels you must put weight behind the rear wheels. Loading the tires or adding weight to the rear tires only ads weight to the rear tires it does not transfer weight off the front. Think of a teeter-totter. If you put weight on the pivot nothing is changed on the seats. If you put equal weight on the seats the teeter-totter will balance. In this case the rear axle is the pivot point but we want about 45-50% of the weight to remain on the front axle.
John Deere Ballast Handout Scan I hope this scan is readable.
My tractor is a JD 4300 MFWD with FEL with Calcium Chloride in the rear R4 tires (700 lbs) and foam filled front tires. I get the best FEL performance when I have my backhoe on. The Back Hoe weighs something over 1200 lbs. The combo of filled tires and the backhoe makes a total of about 1900 lbs ballast.
Obviously this is a very touchy, hotly debated subject. MHO is that metal axle weights are probably better than liquid filled tires but the performance difference is very small and the price difference is very large.
Good Luck, Marshall
All i know is if i load my tires on a tc55d at 1600#s and my backhoe weighs 1800#s so thats 3400#s on the rear axle more then i want for wear and tear. I have a tc33d now that i use all the time for dirt work and have no loaded tires and no counter weight at all and i haul loads of dirt with the bucket no problem. If i put weight on 3pt hitch then i will easily be able to do things with loader. Most of my tractor work is not loader work so i choose not to carry the excess weight and cause more wear and tear for nothing. I sink in the ground some as it is so i definatly am not loading the tires at 1600#s. I have plenty of attachments to throw on 3pt for counter weight. Im not arguing or anything im just telling you my version of why i dont choose to load tires but i recommend loading if someone is going to be doing mostly loader work with it.
Mike
Mike
Nope, but let me tell you . I went out and switched the tires today and hurt my wrist with my 36volt dewalt drillZ-Michigan said:
. Ouch. And the rears were very heavy, but I still lifted them a qtr inch (several times - ouch again) to get then on and off the hubs! Ok, i will admit it. The lifting worked on one, barely, but on the other i had to lower the tractor and raise it with the floor jack - wife wouldn't help me, so I went it alone!Attachments
mars1952 said:
I used, used anti-freeze and that was very cheap and no rust worry on my 4100. The 4310, i am not sure if i will need to do that. Looks like usings the ballst box will do it, especially when i run on the Turf Specials. But Foam loading on the fronts might be a way to go. However the tire manufacturer said not to do that, so...etc.
mars1952
Silver Member
- Joined
- Jan 12, 2007
- Messages
- 238
- Location
- Western North Carolina
- Tractor
- 1999 John Deere 4300 12/12 sync-reverse
I don't think that I would load turf tires since the whole idea of turf tires is that they should float. You don't want any extra weight on your lawn or you will end up with tracks in the mowing pattern. You can drop the weight box anytime you want to.Nuru said:
Since you now have two sets of turf tires. I suggest that you trade off the old set for some R1 or R4 tires. There are plenty of people out there that are looking for some turf tires. You could load the R1/R4 tires and just run air in the turfs. I have always thought that having two sets of tires is the way to go (or having two or more tractors
).Marshall
mars1952 said:I don't think that I would load turf tires since the whole idea of turf tires is that they should float. You don't want any extra weight on your lawn or you will end up with tracks in the mowing pattern. You can drop the weight box anytime you want to.
Since you now have two sets of turf tires. I suggest that you trade off the old set for some R1 or R4 tires. There are plenty of people out there that are looking for some turf tires. You could load the R1/R4 tires and just run air in the turfs. I have always thought that having two sets of tires is the way to go (or having two or more tractors
Marshall
Hmmm, trade in my other R3's, Hmmm. That is an interesting thought. Did not think about that route. Another route is to just get the rubber and replace it . Hmmm, let me think about that. Thanks for seeding my mind
!
