Tires L3400 with BH75 - tires - to fill or not to fill

[bigballer]

i know it's not recommended (by kubota) to fill the rear tires if you have a backhoe attached but i really feel like i need to for stability sake, my property is generally sloped (from 2% to over 10% in places) and i always feel like i'm on the edge of my seat when running across the slope or with a loaded up fel.. i just feel like loading the tires would give me more stability in general (and i'm not so worried about denting the lawn).. so what is the consensus, how many of you have a hoe AND have the rear tires filled? have there been any poor results by doing so?

 

[driver444]

I have a 2015 Mahindra with a Woods hoe and loaded tires. I loaded the tires way before I ever thought of putting the hoe on the tractor. That said, loading the tires DEFINITELY made a difference in stability, center of gravity, and traction, (without the hoe attached). It's not really all that noticeable with the hoe, since that adds around 8 or 9 hundred pounds.

I think you ought to first determine if you're going to leave the hoe on all the time. If you never plan on using the machine without the hoe, there isn't much benefit to loading the tires. The backhoe will be more than enough weight for any loader work. But if you're gonna use a box blade, or any other ground engaging tool, I'd load them up!

 

[AMR]

I have a B3030 with a BH75, I haven't really read in the manual where it sais not to load them with a BH and my dealer loaded em' up for free so I took it. I have about 40 hours with my BH alone in the last two months and I can't say that I have seen a problem nor can I see where a problem could exist. A thread discussed this before and about the only thought that was posed that made me think a little was when you raise the rear tires off the ground with the stabilizers, perhaps that loads up the axle in a way that it was not intended, that is the only idea that made any sense to my peanut sized noggin.

So, I try to keep the tires on the ground but light and it works fine. Admittedly to level the machine out I have been working the BH with the tires off of the ground some.

I look forward to hearing from someone more knowledgable.

In the end though I don't think that I would ever own a tractor without loaded tires, for me it is about traction plowing and stability mowing, world of difference that stuff in those tires makes.

 

[MDM]

I have an L2800 with loaded tires and BH75 hoe. I do alot of swapping out between hoe and mower. I only have about 8 hrs on the hoe, but I can tell you that my tires will remain loaded.

 

[wushaw]

I have L2800 and Bh75. I ran the hoe without the tires loaded and the hoe would really pull me around alot and then I loaded the rears and it helped alot, I do not raise the tires off the ground, I set the brakes tight, put the outriggers down firm and rest the FEL on the ground and go to diggin.

 

[swampvol]

I do not raise the tires off the ground

I'm going to open another can of worms....aren't you suppose to?

 

[bandit67]

I have the smaller B3030 with the BH75, and have the tires loaded. I haven't poured through the manual yet, and am interested to see where it says no loading, so I'm going to look for it. But since the backhoe isn't on all the time, I wanted to be as safe as possible and have the rears loaded, and I don't even plan on doing any loader work without an implement of some sort on the 3pt hitch.

I also don't understand the whole "don't pick the wheels up off the ground with the stabilizers" comments. The way I see it, the only stress on the axles or diff is the weight of the loaded wheels/tires when they're up in the air. How is that few hundred pounds tougher on the diff or the axles than having the weight of the rear of the tractor and the nearly 1000 lb backhoe pushing down while you're driving, or even sitting parked? The physics of the whole 'no loading with a backhoe' idea doesn't seem to make sense to me.

 

[bigballer]

check out page 6 of the BH75 manual - under the Ballast section:

Important:
* Do not add liquid ballast or any other weights to the front tires.
* While the BH75 is installed on the tractor, liquid ballast in the rear tires should be removed.

now the second statment just doesn't make any sense - it's not really realistic to think ANYONE would do this so why does Kubota have this in their manual? liability reasons maybe?

 

[familyman]

Mine are loaded with methanol. Significant difference in traction and load carrying stability when using the FEL.

 

[ChuckinNH]

The local Kubota dealer sells lots of TLB's of every size, and loads the tires of every one of them before they go out the door.