weighted wheels of BB?

   / weighted wheels of BB? #1  

Eric_Phillips

Platinum Member
Joined
May 16, 2005
Messages
706
Location
Rochester, NY
Tractor
FarmTrac 270DTC
I am in western NY and looking to buy my first tractor. We have 11 acres that I will be mowing and I need to move some dirt around to put in our lawn and pasture. We will have several horses on the property so we will be moving some manure around also. So with the FEL what about the differences between loading the tires for ballast or using a ballast box? Being a cyclist I am very concious about revolving weight vs static weight. But 1 human power is very different than 30 horse power.

Eric
 
   / weighted wheels of BB? #2  
How is it 'revolving' weight? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif
The fluid doens't go round with the tire, unless you get going really fast and then it can be pretty disastrous. I know. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

I'd go with both, fluid and ballast box (BB usually is used for box blade, but no problem here).
 
   / weighted wheels of BB? #3  
I am a bigger fan of loading the tires than of ballast boxes or other weights. Think about it.... you load the tires the load is on the tires. If you load the 3PT or whatever with ballast, you are putting weight on the wheel bearings and other parts, therefore accelorating the wear on them. You are putting a little more load on the transmission with loaded tires, but I think it is more 'stable' weight. With a tractor, you are not trying to reduce 'unsprung weight' for ride purposes. you are just trying to get the thing to stick to the ground.
My .02
 
   / weighted wheels of BB?
  • Thread Starter
#4  
Thank you for the information. The fact of not having the weight on the bearings is a good thought.

It was mentioned that the weight in the wheels is liquid. My NH dealer said he would put Mg in the tires. I was assuming that would be some kind of pellet. Is there different material used for weighting the wheels? One better than another?

Thanks,
Eric
 
   / weighted wheels of BB? #5  
Eric . . . Not knowing the tractor you are looking I will state the most every loader manual I have ever looked at says that you need BOTH types of weight on your tractor to safely use the loader. My New Holland loader manual says FLUID FILL plus WHEEL WEIGHTS plus a BALLAST BOX.

Now most of us don't do all that.

I would suggest fluid fill AND some implement or a ballast box. On my Kubota I use fluid filled rear tires AND a box blade.

The reason for all the rear weight is that many of the front end loaders are very powerful and to achieve proper balance so the machine can actually USE the capacity of the FEL you need to have a lot of weight on the rear of the machine. It is interesting that both light and heavy tractors still require a lot of weight on the rear of the tractor, that is largely due to the fact that much of the tractors weight is fairly far forward (the engine is typically in front of the FEL attachment point) on a small tractor. So to achieve balance on any tractor, you need ballast, and if you read the owners manual, you need a lot of it. Again, most of us don't have all the ballast that the manual says we should have (I don't on one tractor and do on the other) and what that means is that most of us actually can't use our FEL to its maximum capacity under the most adverse conditions . . . but we can use most of it most of the time and that is usually good enough.


BTW, I'm not sure what "Mg" is in the tire, there are several types of fluid typically put in tires, basically they are mostly water mixed with something. Calcium is common. "Beet Juice" is common. Wiper Fluid is fairly common. Anti-Freeze is unfortunately still being used . . . it is very poisonous and if the tire leaks can be a major hazard and easily will kill a pet or child who tastes it (about 1 tablespoon of anti-freeze will kill a very large dog) and even more unfortunately, it smells sweet and attracts animals to it.

You might also want to fill out your profile so we can get a better idea of your location, climate, property type, etc. It is helpful when we try to make recommendations.
 
   / weighted wheels of BB?
  • Thread Starter
#6  
Mg is magnesium. Since you said they use Calcium a lot I assume the dealer is using Magnesium Chloride. It sounds like filling the tires is the easiest way to go but I am a little worried about mowing with the extra weight. The soil is mostly sandy around the house but turns to muck land in what will be the pastures. Hopefully in a year or so I will be buying a good mower that will take the place of the tractor for mowing. More things to think about.

Thanks,
Eric
 
   / weighted wheels of BB? #7  
Hi Eric welcome, I live just west of Rochester and work for frontier telephone. Im lookin at John Deere I see you have New Holland. Lookin forward chatin on this forum. Oh by the way there are alot of very smart tractor folk on here, so enjoy /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
   / weighted wheels of BB? #8  
I went with the beet juice. If I ever punture the tire, at least I can have a snack. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Make sure they throw the loaded tires in for free if you are buying a new machine. Some dealers will ask for $250 just for the rear tires of a compact tractor.

Good luck,

skivt
 
   / weighted wheels of BB?
  • Thread Starter
#9  
The NH dealer wants $350 to load the tires but will give it to me for $300. The Farmtrac dealer will do it for free.

Eric
 
 
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