B2920 Wheel Spacers vs Tire Ballast

[Howard92]

Bought a new B2920 w/R4 tires, FEL, 4' bush hog and 5' finish mower last Fall. It's my first tractor and I've been very happy with it.

I mainly use it to mow our 2 acre yard and to clear and maintain some very rugged mountain land we own. I knew before I bought it that I would probably want more stability when we use it up in the mountains due to the rocky and steep terrain, but I thought I would try it first as is. I have taken it very slowly and it is more stable than I anticipated, but I have had it up on 2 or 3 wheels a couple of times. So now I am thinking about wheel ballast or wheel spacers.

Wheel Ballast - This seems to be the most common way that folks add stability, but I's concerned about the added weight tearing up my grass when I mow the yard.

Factory Wheel Spacers - I'm leaning towards this option, but they they only add about 1-1/2 on each side and I wondering how much help that would be vs tire ballast.

Any guidance or suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Howard

 

[vtsnowedin]

Depending on what type rims you have you may be able to set the rims to a dished out configuration which gains you some width. Some have eight different positions you can chose from others two and some only the one choice. Check your owners manual. Using your loader you need (not want "NEED) ballast on the rear of the tractor to counter balance the load in the bucket and take load off the front axle. It can be wheel weights ,liquid ballast, and weight on the 3 point hitch or a combination of two or three of them. On uneven ground this is even more important and even when properly ballasted you need to keep the bucket low to keep you center of gravity inside the zone of safety. Increasing the width of the rear tread increases the size of the safety zone so is worth considering. I've gone to the max with this as I own nothing but sloped ground so have tires in position eight, loaded with beet juice and four inch spacers each side. I still need to add a 2000 lb counter weight if loading anything heavier then snow.

 

[art]

If you aren't spinning or at a loss of traction then go for the spacers. Lighter is better!

 

[s219]

Unless you frequently take the FEL off, I'd say filling the tires is a must. I am surprised the dealer did not recommend this. That is more about basic front/rear balance than anything else. Widening the tires will not help that at all.

 

[tractchores]

I have the same tractor with loaded turfs its pretty good on the lawn if i take it out of 4wd. R4s mau be a bit tougher on the lawn. I feel that loaded tires are a must for stability.

 

[Leejohn]

I would go with both.

 

[Howard92]

Unless you frequently take the FEL off, I'd say filling the tires is a must.

The FEL is off the tractor 95% of the time from April to October. During that period of time, I mainly use the tractor for mowing our yard with the 5' finish mower.

 

[94BULLITT]

I say fluid in tires since you have a loader. The fluid in the tires will help a make the tractor a little more stable. If you add the spacers will your 4ft rotary cutter still clear your tire tracks?

 

[vtsnowedin]

I say fluid in tires since you have a loader. The fluid in the tires will help a make the tractor a little more stable. If you add the spacers will your 4ft rotary cutter still clear your tire tracks?

I would say that it would make it a lot more stable. 11.2X16 tires hold about 250 lbs of beet juice each for 500 total, and that rotating around the front axle at the 60 inch wheel base will almost balance a full 975 lb bucket and load counter rotating about 36 inches in front of the front axle. Add the weight of a set of chains perhaps another 100 pounds and he shouldn't have much more trouble keeping the rears in contact with the ground. You still need ballast on the 3PH if digging heavy stuff all day or you wear out your front end unnecessarily.
Having the tread wider then the rear cutter is only inconvenient when trying to cut close to a fence line or hedge. Other then that you just get it on the next pass around.

 

[rbtjr]

We have owned several tractors and have had fluid in the rear tires on all. Definitely helps stability. Also, we just bought a Kubota L3800 with R4 tires. The wheel rims on the L3800 have only one position, so it is not possible to adjust the width of the tread. In order to enhance the stability, we put 4"spacers on each rear wheel. We bought them from a vendor we learned about on TBN. His contact info is below. Our Kubota dealer said we should have no problems due to operating the tractor with the spacers. They have helped with stability, but we still have to be very careful on slopes. Here is the info for the spacers vendor:
Christian S. Hansen
7135 Pinehaven Rd. Oakland, CA. 94611
Kubota John Deere Compact Tractor Utility Vehicle Wheel Spacers
(510) 601-7550
(406) 723-0048 cell