Theory of rear ballast?

[k0ua]

A cubic foot of concrete weighs from about 145 to 150 lbs. There are exceptions of course

 

[JerryK]

Looks great. What is the weight of 1 cf of dry concrete? How did you chamfer the corners?

I bought some cheap foam half round corner material [ fake wood looking stuff ] from Home Depot or Lowes and glued it in place all around the corners. Tried not to mess it up too much when I filled the form with concrete. After I unscrewed the forms, the foam basically came off the cement fairly easily with the wood. Cement was still a little green, so I could knock off any sharp edges that were not supposed to be there. You could just cut some wood 45's and put them in the corners... but the foam was cheap. I figured the weight by knowing that an 80 pound bag of cement would fill .6 cubic feet of space... Weighed the steel, and finished the form depth to get it close to 2000 pounds. Did not figure in the weight of the water, so it is probably a little over... but close enough for me...

 

[Sodo]

Make a ballast with 3-pt attach points AND fork sockets. If the forkit is on rear, just forkit. If forkit is on the FEL then attach 3-pt.

 

[franklin2]

The owners manual for your loader should have recommendations for you. Mine recommends filled rear tires and 2000lbs on the 3 point hitch when doing heavy loader work such as stone or manure.
Having the loaded tires is handy as it is out of the way and always with you and balances out the weight of the loader arms and bucket. Also they aid traction when pulling a tool that is on the ground and not pressing down on draw bar or the 3PH. They also aid in stability as the fluid is mostly below the axle and helps lower your center of gravity. With just the filled rears I'm not afraid to do a bucket or two now and then or lift a log when needed but if I was going to bail manure all day I'd certainly want to load up the 3PH. I'm going to get another plastic barrel and stick a TSC cross bar in it and fill it 3/4 full of concrete and rocks. I'm going to see if I can set my draw bar out enough to rest the barrel on when in use so as to not constantly stress the seals.

Do ALL OEM's recommend some sort of ballast or weight added to the rear of their tractors with a frontend loader? I never had FEL before, and I was going ask are you guys using the tractor for more than it's designed or do you want the extra security of the extra weight. But from the above quote, it looks like his tractor manufacturer recommends extra weight.

 

[vtsnowedin]

Do ALL OEM's recommend some sort of ballast or weight added to the rear of their tractors with a frontend loader? I never had FEL before, and I was going ask are you guys using the tractor for more than it's designed or do you want the extra security of the extra weight. But from the above quote, it looks like his tractor manufacturer recommends extra weight.

They probably all do as gravity works the same for everybody. My loader will lift 4000lbs and that is what it is designed for. When you have a full load in the bucket it tries to set the tractor on it's nose and lift the rear wheels off the ground. The pivot point is the front axle bearings and that is a weak link as the parts there have to allow for steering. Having the proper weight (it's not extra if its recommended) in the tires and on the 3PH keeps the rear wheels down and takes load off the front bearings. Note that a tractor with it's rears off the ground has no breaks so if your traveling down hill with a full bucket close to the balance point you can take quite a ride. One other thing is to have your rear tires set wide to improve stability when you have a load raised. I've taken this to the extreme with four inch spacers and tires set in position H the wides they will go. There is a recommendation on minimum tread width in the loader manual and being wider then minimum is safer yet.

 

[CalG]

An aspect to consider.

Every pound BEHIND the rear axle adds to the rear tire loading not only the ballast weight, but also the weight that is take off the front axle.

Taken to exteme for the sake of visualisation, If your front axle carried a 1000 pound load, and rear ballast was added to "float" the front tires, that 1000 puond load would now appear ON the rear axle and tires. That would be the full weight of the tractor, PLUS the weight of ballast.

Chloride (or beet juice) in the tires won't do that. ;-)

 

[Tractor Seabee]

This is probably not applicable to the larger tractors but for my fellow SCUT guys this is my solution. The tires on a SCUT are too small to really add effective weight by loading them plus once there you cannot adjust that weight. I made a rack that attaches with pins to my QH to hang suitcase weights. I have 500# in 10 50# increments. That way i have some adjustment room to not overload the rear axle. It works so well my next step is to devise a way to attach the same rack to the front end fro when I want the FEL off to counterbalance rear loads. My chipper almost lifts the front tires to the non-steering point even with the FEL on. This is probably not the answer for everybody that has a SCUT but works for me.

Ron

 

[dragoneggs]

This is probably not applicable to the larger tractors but for my fellow SCUT guys this is my solution. The tires on a SCUT are too small to really add effective weight by loading them plus once there you cannot adjust that weight. I made a rack that attaches with pins to my QH to hang suitcase weights. I have 500# in 10 50# increments. That way i have some adjustment room to not overload the rear axle. It works so well my next step is to devise a way to attach the same rack to the front end fro when I want the FEL off to counterbalance rear loads. My chipper almost lifts the front tires to the non-steering point even with the FEL on. This is probably not the answer for everybody that has a SCUT but works for me.

Ron

Hi Ron, Do you have any pics to share of your set up? Personally, I keep my BH on most of the time, only removing it to put the back blade or rake on but I do see myself someday using a ballast if it could easily be attached and loaded.

 

[vtsnowedin]

An aspect to consider.

Every pound BEHIND the rear axle adds to the rear tire loading not only the ballast weight, but also the weight that is take off the front axle.

Taken to exteme for the sake of visualisation, If your front axle carried a 1000 pound load, and rear ballast was added to "float" the front tires, that 1000 puond load would now appear ON the rear axle and tires. That would be the full weight of the tractor, PLUS the weight of ballast.

Chloride (or beet juice) in the tires won't do that. ;-)

Yes but it is not, "fill the tires or add weight to the 3ph", it is 'both'. To balance out a 4000 lb load in my bucket I need 3000 lbs more then the empty machine at or beyond the rear axle. The 3ph is rated for 3000 so you could put a very big block back there but if there is anything wrong with the 3PH you couldn't lift it. Put 920 lbs of beet juice in the tires and your block is down to 2080 and puts much less strain on the 3ph. Also the load from the beet juice is not "ON" the rear axle it is under it pulling down.
Just my opinion of course but a tractor without fluid in the tires is not ready to do any serious work or as safe as it should be. The one exception would be a tractor with a heavy (for the machine size) backhoe mounted most of the time.

 

[JerryK]

One way to think about it is a dual teeter totter... [ even I am not to old too remember those.... ] If you have a loader tractor and have the bucket full of something, that weight is way forward of the front axle which is bearing the entire load. You can put a million tons of weight centered onto the rear axle, and that will not take any of the load off the front axle. It's all on the front teeter totter. But, any weight you add behind the rear axle makes the rear teeter totter try to lift up the front of the tractor and remove a little weight off the front. Since the front load is way in front of the front axle, you actually need a huge weight on the rear to try to make a difference. Adding tire weight helps keep your rear end on the ground and gives you that ' feel good ' experience, but does nothing to help the front axle/bearings/etc... If you are lifting a ton way in front of your front axle, you probably need a ton ballast 15 feet behind your rear on the 3pt to make a real difference... but that would not be very practical. So you have to try to do what you can. When lifting without any tire weight or rear ballast the rear of the tractor's weight is also transferred to the front axle, which really stresses the front axle. Besides loosing rear traction, the tractor rear can violently slam side ways pivoting on the front axle....... [ lot's of fun ]