Jesse masterson
Platinum Member
Main problem would be if your going down any steep hill the back end gets light if it flips up could roll you down a hill , other than that no problem. And good job , it looks good !
5 ft. Boom - Cheap and easy
- Thread starter Wheels2
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cqaigy2
Super Member
pretty common to use a boom on a tractor, just think it over and be careful.
TMB1320
Bronze Member
The light went on for me with what you just posted. I was reading a post the other day, saying that he forgot
to put it into 4WD when descending a hill with a big load on the front. He said it got away from him and nearly killed himself. I didn't not get it at the time I read it, but now I realize that my tractor doesn't have front
brakes, and unloading the rear wheels on a decline would be a scary ride. Ding!!
k0ua
Epic Contributor
Yep. rode a B7500 all the way to the bottom of hill. Once the rears break traction thats it. If you are in 4WD, you will have the front tires contact patch with the road too. and they are carrying the most weight when you are going down hill, and are the least likely to break traction. Of course dropping the bucket would probably fix the problem, but it all happened so fast, I just concentrated on steering straight and just let it slide down hill.. I now keep it in 4WD when descending hills with a full load up front. Safer that way.
James K0UA
TMB1320
Bronze Member
suppose it might be safer to back down the hill. Do tactor brakes fade when Hot? can you use the HST as brake.
I remember riding a foot clutch while in opposite direction gear for brakes along time ago.
had to work because, because, well because it had no brakes.
TMB1320
Bronze Member
Forget the HST question. I had another Ding!. The HST should hold it back to set speed. It's traction that goes away.
Jesse masterson
Platinum Member
Any tranny will hold back, but even with 4 wd when going down hill frontwards if you appply have to much weight in front you maybe ok on flat ground but when you begin to decend even with 4 wd drive you may flip the rear end up and on a steep hill it may roll, no sliding involved to be safe back down a hill with 4 wd and don't even try it on 2 wd it's not worth dying over.
rambler
Veteran Member
- Joined
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- Ford 960, 7700, TW20, 1720; IHC H, 300; Ollie S77
Neat build.
Safety with a loader tractor is always good. A lever makes everything a little different, good advice here too.
Myself, I'm a bit concerned about the little angle iron shelf that is holding most of the weight. It doesn't look like anything is pinning that down, and as the loader is used and the front edge wears away,t he angle iron will be sitting on less and less of the bucket. Everything depends on that weld up top of the strut, seems there could be a lot of flex to allow that angle iron to flex down past the loader lip.
Still and all, a really neat build, I like it.
--->Paul
Safety with a loader tractor is always good. A lever makes everything a little different, good advice here too.
Myself, I'm a bit concerned about the little angle iron shelf that is holding most of the weight. It doesn't look like anything is pinning that down, and as the loader is used and the front edge wears away,t he angle iron will be sitting on less and less of the bucket. Everything depends on that weld up top of the strut, seems there could be a lot of flex to allow that angle iron to flex down past the loader lip.
Still and all, a really neat build, I like it.
--->Paul
joshuabardwell
Elite Member
Whether it's safer or not to back down the hill depends on where the load is. The goal is always to keep weight on the back wheels, which is where most of your traction comes from. The general rule is that the heavy part of the tractor always points uphill.
The HST will not work as brakes if your rear wheels are losing traction and you are in 2wd. Whether you apply back-pressure with the brakes or the transmission doesn't matter if the wheels don't have good contact with the ground. Being in 4wd is especially important for compact and sub-compact tractors, which have minimal weight over their tires to begin with. It doesn't take much to get one of these tractors started sliding.
I actually had an incident like this just a few days ago. I was going down a hill that I regularly drive down forwards, and I noticed I was going a smidge faster than I would prefer. I was only just pressing the HST pedal to begin with, so I tapped it back to the center, and nothing happened except that the back end started sliding to the side a bit. I had suspected I was losing traction, so I didn't freak out. Just kept the pedal where it was and steered, and very shortly the rear settled back down and the tractor slid to a stop in the loose dirt.
What went wrong here? Several things. 1) I was in 2wd instead of 4wd while going head-first down a hill. 2) I did not have ballast on the tractor. I usually do, but I had been moving hay bales at the top of the hill, so I had a hay spear on the back and nothing else. 3) I was in M instead of L gear, so there was less back-pressure on the tractor to keep it from picking up speed in the first place. What went right was that I approached the hill slowly, noticed when things weren't going as expected, and didn't freak out. I was also wearing my seat belt, with ROPS up.
What will I do differently in that situation today? For one thing, I'm just going to leave the tractor in 4wd unless I have a darn good reason not to. I don't know why I keep trying to put it back into 2wd as if 4wd is something I'm going to use up and not have any more of. But even being in 4wd is not enough to make that hill as safe as I'd like it to be. What if the diff goes out when I'm on that hill? So the rule is now "one hand on the loader joystick" any time I'm in a situation where the tractor might get away from me. I knew this rule already, but wasn't following it. Dropping the bucket will provide an anchor, but it will also push the rear wheels back down on the ground.
k0ua
Epic Contributor
I my case with the B7500 in 2wd, dropping the bucket of gravel would have probably fixed the problem in providing drag and letting the rears have some more weight to prevent them sliding.. It was a gear tractor, but as said that does not really matter, I was in second gear, a hydro works the same way as the gears and compression braking to slow you down, but the problem is not wheel braking the problem was contact patch traction.. I did not have enough! and no amount of braking will fix that! I had went down that hill several times that day with the same load, but always in 4wd, and no problems . because I had turned out onto the road rather sharply, on that load, I put it into 2wd so as not to bind the front wheels in 4wd. I forgot to put it back into 4wd on that one load as I was going straight. As the road became steep downhill is when the problem happened.. You can bet I kept it in 4wd for all the rest of the loads, and of course I had no problems.. Not a big deal, I did not wreck the tractor, and while it was scary, I did not totally freak out, I figured just steer it straight and I would be fine, and I was.
James K0UA
James K0UA