Looks like I need to get some rear wheel weights

[xring100]

Having a tractor that doesn't tear up the lawn is nice but if you need to do any winter work with it I'd trade a few lawn divots for not being stuck out in the snow or sliding into Mom ma's new car. Chains are the bare minimum to have on hand in snow country and loaded tires should be the norm not the exception if you have a loader on the machine. The combination works great. You should have enough weight so spinning a chained tire is a rare thing and if your not spinning then you won't tear up your pavement.

Well said

 

[art]

WE have gone to studding tires to still give good traction and not hinder the ride or overly mark up driveways.

 

[wmonroe]

Wow, lots more replies than i expected. Thanks for the help, now to go back and read them all.

 

[wmonroe]

I have a L4740 w/R-4's and I had a hard time plowing my private road, like you, one section is really steep, yesterday I plowed on the way down,tractor with loaded rears wouldn't come back up. I had some ash's from my coal stoker with me and lightly dusted the paved road, tractor went up without spinning a wheel. I plowed this morning and was able to come up without reapply ash. It appears the ground is just warm enough to keep the snow as a slush, when I plow it,what is left turns to Ice. The only thing that helps on ice is tire chains.

Sounds like we have the same issue, i can make it back up my hill as long as the tires spin down through the snow/slush/ice and hit the gravel underneath.

We have filled tires on our tractor with R1 and R4 and neither does all that well in snow on steep stuff unless it is pretty fluffy, if we had it more often, we would have to get some chains. I even have ballast on the back of one of them.

Thats good to know that the extra weight really doesn't help in this situation. I guess i'll pick up a set of chains. It would have been pretty disappointing to spend the money on weights only to get out in the snow and have the same issues. LOL.

 

[wmonroe]

If you are in snow or ice especially in R1's More weight won't help much you need to increase the coefficient of adhesion between the tire and ground. your money would be best invested in some chains. especially if you don't plan on leaving the wheel weights on all the time. I have not had a chance to invest in chains for my M8540 yet as its not my primary mode for cleaning off the driveway, but i have loaded rear tires 900 + pounds in each tire and it still sucks in hard pack snow or ice. I was on my way over to my buddies 2.5 miles away the other day to work on some firewood and struggled to get going on the hill in front of my house in 4wd My total weight with my wood box and loader is pushing 10,000 lbs. My parents have an old 2wd ingersoll 4018, with chains only no weights on the rears and that thing plows snow like mad even on ice.

The amount of force you can generate prior to wheel spin (static Friction) can be measured by F= u N
Where

F= Tractor pulling/ pushing force
u = coefficient of friction
N = Normal force perpendicular to the road surface for this example assume level ground.

Assume 2wd for example you have 2500 lbs on the rear axle on gravel the force you can generate is F= 2500lbs *0.6 = 1500 lbs

on hard pack snow you generate 625 lbs of force
on ice you could only generate 250 lbs of force

With snow chains and the same weight you could generate at least 1000 lbs of force but probably more. to calculate how much weight you would have to add on level ground to get the same traction you would need to solve F/u -2500lbs = Added weight = 1000lbs /.25 -2500 lbs = 1500 lbs of additional weight on level ground. On a 10% or 20% slope all of this goes out the window and your future looks very dismal :laughing: (see part 2) as your additional weight is now only a portion of the normal force increase, the rest is additional weight trying to pull you down the the hill ,this gets geometry involved and the example gets much longer.

Friction Coefficients for Ag tires to various surfaces
Assuming your driveway is gravel the coefficient of friction is approximately 0.6
Hard pack snow = 0.25
Ice =0.1
estimated friction values for various surface and ag tires found here
Tire Friction coeffiecnts

Snow chains are a little harder to find information on but i found this
link stating that snow chains must have a friction level of at least 0.4 on hard pack snow.

Part two the more entertaining part other people who could benefit from chains

This guy can't even stop himself from sliding down the hill and he probably weighs 15000 lbs

Very informative post, thanks. I didn't realize there was so little benefit to be gained by the added weight. Good video also, sliding with no control is a helpless feeling, although the tractor operator didnt seem too concerned about the truck that stopped him.

 

[ovrszd]

Buying cast iron wheel weights would be last on my list. I often hear guys say they'll take them off when it's mowing time. But I've never saw a post on any thread where an operator talks about actually doing it. Lastly, cast iron weights are $1 per pound. I added 1350lbs of fluid to my rears for just over $200. That would have only bought me 200lbs of cast iron weights......

Go for chains.

 

[Deere Dude]

I can't figure out why the guy didn't drop the blade?

 

[RaydaKub]

I can't figure out why the guy is out there chipping ice with an 8" shovel. Good grief man, you slid backwards 15 feet! What good are you gonna do chipping ice?

 

[oldballs]

I can't figure out why the guy is out there chipping ice with an 8" shovel. Good grief man, you slid backwards 15 feet! What good are you gonna do chipping ice?

Me too....that sure was funny.

 

[northwind318]

Hi Save yourself the expense of the Weights and try to find some chains that will fit.The weights will just get you sideways real fast.Nothing grips better on frozen ground