Ballast filling rears

[19th_VA]

I've had my tractor for about two months now. My land is very hilly and I have a lot of heavy clearing to do. Originally I wanted to get my rears filled for ballast, stability on the slopes and transferring more power to the ground. My dealer dissuaded me, saying I should get a feel for how the tractor handles first, and then decide about loading the tires. Sounded sensible to me, so I took the advice.

My question now is not about ballast, as I feel with either my cutter or boxblade on, the tractor is well balanced. My question is twofold: first, would this added weight help A LOT with lowering the center of gravity and making the tractor less likely to turn over. second, would this help A LOT with pulling stumps, which is the only time I've had significant spinning of the tires (to the point that I either give up, or end up digging my way to China)?

I have a Branson 3520 with fel, which weights about 4800 pounds, not including the boxblade (600#'s) or the cutter (1000#'s).

P.S. I'm not to worried about tearing up the turf at this point because for the most part I don't have any!

 

[TC18guy]

Jonathon

Since I've never use un-loaded tires, I definitely don't have expert advice to offer, but here's my $.02.

Loading the tires would probably add 800lbs? to the tractor but way below the center of gravity. I would think it would be a big difference. Not only that, loading the tires with fluid will take out alot of the cushy bounce too. I know my tractor is quite a bit smaller than yours, but I can't spin the tires on turf unless I load the FEL. I have some lawn area and the loaded turfs do not bother the lawn.

I like my loaded turfs for ballast for FEL work, but I wonder if they are a little to rough on my back for mowing. Without the FEL it's a hard ride!

 

[chrisjbell]

When I first got my tractor the rears weren't loaded. My dealer asked if I wanted them filled and I was too cheap to fork over the $$$ /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif. My property is very hilly and it wasn't long before I started wondering how to further stabilize the tractor - the wheels were already the whole way out so I went back to the dealer.

About 7 bucks later I had a little adapter that I used to fill the tires with. It makes a night and day difference, in my mind, and when I have to replace my tires I'm going to pony up the extra $$$ to have them foam filled (denser than liquid, I'm told, which == more weight). I definately recommend it. I haven't found any drawbacks - except when you have to take the tires off /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif.

There are caveats to this technique, but here's what I do. My tires all have tubes in them. It doesn't freeze here. I fill mine with straight water. The two main issues with doing that are rusting out the rim (which the tubes save me from) or freezing (which would not be pretty - but it don't freeze here).

What you *might* try is to get one of those little hose adapters (my dealer carries them - not sure where else to get 'em). They're pretty cheap. Then fill the tires with water - but only as a temporary thing, because I'd guess you have tubeless tires that haven't been destroyed to the point that you needed to put tubes in all of them /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif. Make sure you wait until it is warm enough where you are that they won't freeze (shouldn't get that cold any more out there, right?).

Anyway, that way for a pretty low price you can try it out. If you like it then you can easily drain the tires out and fill them with a better choice (windshield washer fluid seems to be a pretty good solution - calcium chlorate is another route) for your application. Draining 'em is easy - just pull the valve stem out, and because it'll just be water you can do it just about anywhere without worrying about creating a toxic waste dump.

Or just get 'em filled the right way the first time /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif. I'm pretty sure you'll want to keep 'em that way.

 

[19th_VA]

Thanks for the input. Sounds sensible enough. How about from the power standpoint (transferring hp to the ground)? Did you notice a difference there too? I'll probably just "do it right the firt time." I guess tubes are a good idea.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Calcium cloride is heavier than water, and it can cause rust if you are careless or it does kill the grass if you have a blowout - but it is just salt & not an issue. However, most of the antifreeze suggestions are much lighter than water, and are toxic to animals & people if a major spill, even considered a toxic hazzardous spill. I'd go for the real deal on liquid weight. There are Rimguard beet-juice options too, don't know so much about them.

For either the water or calcium cloride to cause any amount of rust, it needs oxygen. The rim will _not_ rust out from the inside. I have a 1977 7700 Ford tractor that has had calcium cloride in all 4 corners from day one. It does not have rear tubes, and when I replaced the tires 2 years ago, the rims looked great inside.

The only rust you get is if you allow any leaks or seapage of fluid, and don't rinse it off with water right away.

I think with a loader you would like the fluid, but it's up to you. Of course, only fill 75%, you still need a 25% air cushion.

--->Paul

 

[chrisjbell]

<font color="blue"> How about from the power standpoint (transferring hp to the ground)? Did you notice a difference there too? </font>

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. We've actually had nice weather lately so I've been doing more work with the tractor than talking about it /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif. Yes, I am able to apply more power to the ground. I think I mentioned that I generally run out of traction before running out of power - but loading the tires helped in that respect.

I put the tubes in my tires because I have these nasty choke cherry trees that have long, very hard thorns on them. When I first got the place the trees were in terrible shape and dropped limbs like crazy. I'd get a flat almost every time I took my tractor to certain areas of the property /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif. So that was why I put the tubes in - but figure it can't hurt to keep rust away. But I'd also buy the argument that without oxygen there's no rust - I don't know, myself.

But yeah, I'd say load 'em up...

 

[19th_VA]

Thanks, Chris. It's on the list. Would like to try and get Rim Guard, which sounds very interesting. Not available down South. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif Geez, you'd think we lost the war or something /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif