Ballast or weight on rear when using FEL to move snow on BX1860?

[legbuh]

I asked this in another question because it came up, but I thought I'd make a new thread for it.

When moving snow with my FEL on my BX1860 I have my box blade on the rear for counterweight. But I notice on float on the FEL I have virtually no steering.

SHould I remove it for the winter when I'm moving snow around?

[easygo]

No. Don't remove the box blade. The front gets light as the loader digs in in float mode and it pushes the front wheels up a little bit as well as it takes weight off of them by placing the loader onto the ground. You could help the situation if you managed to put 200-300lbs of weight on the front somehow.

[legbuh]

No, I;m just plowing show... almost flat/very slight angle on the FEL, just to scrape and the front tires are off the ground and I can't steer. I'm not digging into dirt/gravel.

you say it would help to add weight to the front, isn't removing weight from the rear basically the same thing?

If I was moving piles of snow around yes, I could see having the weight on the rear, but not for just pushing snow... I guess all I have to do is try it out.

[stevess]

i've got the 60" plow on my bx25 and tried using it with the backhoe attached and it just didn't seem to work well. the front felt too light. easy enough for you to try with the rear weight on-off and see for yourself.
steve

[k0ua]

My 2 cents, I would not remove the weight, because then the rears are liable to spin, I would try adding weight to the front. For what is is worth, my old B7500DT did the same thing, but I used the split brakes to steer, and just went on. I am guessing you dont have split brakes on the BX, so you cannot do that. You might try angling up the bucket just a bit so it does not dig in as much, and see if that helps any. Do whatever works, and let us know how it came out.
James K0UA

[PILOON]

If you observe where the FEL hinge point is, i.e. about dash height, the more weight/load in the FEL, the more resistance or 'back push' is created and because of the pivot height you are essentially lifting the front off of the ground.

When I designed my snow plow attachment I was careful to create a straight line push in order to avoid that effect.
Therefore my plow arms are actually lower than my bumper and about at front axle height and parallel to the ground.
As a result I retain steering even when plowing with a 6' blade set at 45 deg on my 20 hp tractor.

[David s Von Gieserbrechta]

I had much the same problem, seems to be an on going thing with the BX's. I hung 275 pounds of lead on the front end. It helps a lot.

[easygo]

This is the Charlie Brown version but this is what's going on with your tractor and mine and all others if you use the loader in float.

[radioman]

That is pretty much right easy go. I'll just add that with a 3 pt wieght, the weight is more of a fulcrum since fulcrum point is above the axles. This is why I went with liquid tire ballast to go low as possible. When snow gets really bunched up in front of BX plowing with FEL it does lift the front end.

When I start plowing with my FEL mounted plow, I start in flost mode and if it starts to lose steering, I go out of float and tap just enough to do a lift of the weight of snow pushin down i get enough steering. The weight of snow does a good snow of sticking the FEL to driveway once you practice that technique. If you are skeptical, just stop in middle of plowing and backup without touching the FEL controls, you will see the FEL pop up off ground just a bit.

[V1Rotate]

This is the Charlie Brown version but this is what's going on with your tractor and mine and all others if you use the loader in float.

Easygo, That's a great picture!