Ballast L3010 FEL rear ballast

[jack9166]

Hi, I know this is an old subject but I could'nt find what I was looking for by searching this site.
I just had a LA482 loader put on my tractor and now I need to know how much weight I should have on the rear of the tractor and does it hurt the three point hitch to have something very heavy on it? I hate to fill the tires because of lawn damage when mowing when the ground is soft, I have ag tires on the tractor and need them for doing other things.

Help me out guys.........what have some of you L3010 owners done for weight? how much did you add? and did'nt it keep the rear of the tractor on the ground?

Thanks
Jack

 

[PTFarmer]

Jack,
Although my tires are loaded, I still like to keep my box blade attatched for extra weight when doing FEL work.

 

[gerard]

I have an L2500 with ags, (not loaded) and I just keep either a 7 foot back blade or a 5 foot box blade that has an added 250 lbs of steel weight on it. Both work just fine in keeping things on the ground. Never found the need to make a counterweight though it would be pretty easy to do.

 

[Buster57]

I keep my 60" rotary mower attached.

 

[jack9166]

WellI went out today and put on the 6' gill blade that weighs about 550 pounds and that kept the rear on the ground even with a heaping bucket of wet dirt.
Man I love this thing!!

 

[Moon]

I just moved 17 tons of crush n run gravel with my 3010. I had my brush hog 5' rotary cutter on the back and my R4's are loaded. No problem at all. I mowed half the summer without the tires loaded and had traction problems in a couple areas. With the tires loaded those problems went away, meaning i can do all my mowing in 2wd, which is easier on the lawn. This crush n run (aka #304 limestone) is extra dense, heaviest stuff I've worked with so far. I'm really impressed with this machine. Some have talked of easy to make ballast boxes in the attachment forum. Basically they just fill em with some sackcrete. If your not filling your tires you'd probably want something like that or ... a heavy box blade might work for you. Good luck.

 

[cisco]

Like most folks, if I'm picking up real heavy stuff with the FEL(L3410, for a few hundred pounds, you need nothing), I just leave on a box blade. Sure, you can fashion a 3pt weight box (and there are some real nice ideas that have been posted before), load the rear tires or similar, but it's not worth it. I do not have loaded tires because of lawn rutting problems, but the box blade weighs 5-600 lbs and is easy to take off/on. That said, the most valuable asset my tractor has when moving heavy stuff with the FEL is 4WD. Oh yeah, make sure the front tires are well inflated when you plan to load up the FEL with heavy stuff, and don't make really sharp turns - lots of posts about breaking the air seal bead around the tubeless tires most of us have - and that ends your work day fast (dump FEL contents, swear, jack up front axle, wet bead area, inflate tire - etc.)