Tires Loaded the tires on my JD 3032E today

[picker77]

Took the new 3032E down and had the rear tires loaded today. I had them use a weaker than normal solution of calcium chloride--25 pounds of cc in each tire mixed with 35 gallons of water (no ultra-cold winters in my part of the country, and besides, I keep this tractor inside). I later decided 35 gallons of liquid was too much, I didn't feel it left enough room for air at the top. 25 gallons or so seemed more like it, so I drained them down several gallons worth. With about 28 gallons left in each that should give me around 250 lb per tire, which when combined with my 400# TufLine box blade ought to hold the rear end down just fine for any reasonable bucket load on the front. The JD manual recommends about 800-1000 lb rear loading with the 305 loader. Since I had five 50-lb Kubota cast iron front weights left over from the sale of my old tractor, I was figuring on welding up a weight bracket on the back of the box blade for those, but since I already have around 900 lb back there I'm not going to worry about doing that unless I find what I have isn't enough for some reason. The tractor actually feels more solid and rides better with loaded tires, too. FWIW the tire loading cost me $150 total ($50 for a 50-lb bag of calcium chloride and $100 labor).

I know there are varying opinions and a lot of hand-wringing on using calcium chloride, but my 30-year old Kubota ran loaded fronts and rears from day one and did just fine, and John Deere still recommends using it, so there ya go. The only real downside is fixing a flat (assuming you notice it in time to not let all the liquid drain out!), which entails a truck tire dealer pumping out the liquid, fixing the flat, and then pumping the liquid back in, which means flats ain't cheap to fix labor wise. I had one on the old Kubota that cost me $100 to fix, mostly labor. BTW, that Kubota rim looked just fine inside after umpteen years of calcium chloride in it. I don't know if you can plug a CC'd tire or not, but I'll sure try it first next time. Maybe if a person put the puncture at 12 o'clock and jacked up the tire for a few days to sort of let the puncture area inside dry out a little and then plug it the plug cement would hold?

I also want to put some chain hooks of some sort on the bucket, but I haven't gotten around to figuring out how I want to do that yet. I'm thinking of maybe welding a five foot piece of 4" x 3/8" bar stock across the top of the bucket before any hooks are added. Few things are uglier than a bent bucket top!

 

[VABlue]

I don't know that you'll see much help from the loaded tires with FEL work. Certainly some, but most benefit comes from weight balancing out the front and back sides of the machine - ie: suspended weight on both sides. Because the tires hold the weight of the machine, they won't really balance out the FEL like a 3ph weight will. You may not notice a difference until you're lifting something heavy in the bucket, and add a few hundred lbs more back aft just to see.

Take what I say with a grain of salt, though! I have a 2305 and only a few times have stressed the bucket with heavy loads. When I did, I had the weight box on with a couple hundred lbs of red clay dirt in it. In any case, have fun!!

 

[k0ua]

I noticed a big difference in loading the rear tires with 25 gal of Polyethelene glycol (RV antifreeze) even without the weight of the ballast barrel on the back I could safely use the loader. Without the loaded tires, it was unsafe, just bounced around all over the place, and felt very tippy on any slight slope. With the loaded tires and the 750 lbs ballast barrel on the back it feels like you could push or lift anything. The only thing I worry about now is actually breaking something as tire spin is a thing of the past. Hopefully the relief valve in the loader control will give out before the bucket does but I have to be careful with pushing on things.
James
K0UA

 

[picker77]

I'll report back when I have a chance to try out the bucket, but just from eyeball it seems to me the pivot point of the whole rig when the bucket is loaded is the front axle, so loaded rears should help balance that out a lot, although something heavy hanging off the 3PT, which is much further aft, will obviously have the most beneficial effect per pound. The JD 305 loader manual gives four options to arrive at a "required minimum ballast": (a) 816 lb on the 3pt hitch; (b) 551 lb on the hitch plus loaded rear tires; (c) 375 lb on the hitch and loaded rear tires, plus 6 rear wheel weights (weights totaling 309 lb); and (d) 650 lb on the hitch and 6 rear wheel weights (weights totaling 309 lb). Giving the cost of JD wheel weights the loaded tires and a box blade were a no-brainer in my case.

With approx 500 lb of liquid in the rear tires and a 400# box blade on the hitch, I figure I'm pretty well covered, plus those are the two implements I'll use most anyway, so I'll just leave them on there 95% of the time. I have a stout 650 lb Rhino 5' brush hog, but haven't used it much since I got a Scag 61" zero turn several years back for the bulk of my mowing. The brush hog is a long beast with a huge swing arc, though, so it would be a constant pain to have it hanging out there as ballast for the loader.

 

[Chilly807]

Aside from a raging debate in the Kubota forum on bucket hooks at the moment, most of us find them pretty handy.

I added three to mine, one at the bucket heel on the centerline and two more at the top corners. If you're using the top corner hooks (anything outside of the loader arms) you have to balance the load properly, but that falls under common sense.

Sean