You need balast or you will trash your front axle!!!! really?

[gladehound]

Can we get to 300 replies here?

Yes we can!

 

[Luke'sScreenName]

Well, the words some and significant have no meaning. They are relative terms not absolute. Soooo.. No point in going further. If I proved to you that placing 1000 lbs on the 3pt took 1000 lbs off of the front axle (easily possible if placed at the correct distance behind the lift balls), that might be some or that might be significant. That is a losing proposition.

You make a fair point but let's say you have 1000lbs 2ft behind the rear axle and your wheelbase is 8ft. I believe you have only taken about 250lbs off the front axle (2/8th or 1/4th of 1000lbs).
If the weight on the front axle with a capacity load might be 5000lbs (an educated guess for a medium large CUT). Then you have reduced the weight on the front axel by 5%.
.
Weather this is significant is subjective. It just is not as much as I would have thought before gladehound brought this up.

 

[Snowback]

Yes we can!

That was funny. The count was 297 and then you dropped 2 in on me while I was typing. Nice! Also a very useful discussion here to help new owners and also those who have never fully extended the loaded bucket on dad's tractor way up in the air when they were 14 years old...

 

[gladehound]

Use appropriate counterbalance behind rear axle and far enough out to return your front axle to somewhere approximating its normal unloaded operating range on average during work periods. Still able to steer, and not adding the full additional 1,000-2,000+ pounds of force directly on the axle stress points that can come from a full bucket, full forks, or full grapple.

When using the loader you are loaded about half the time, and unloaded the other half. Too much counter balance/ballast/weight would have you doing wheelies back to the gravel pile between loads! Can we get to 300 replies here?

This works if you run your loader at 50% capacity. And for me, that's fine. Most of my loader work keeps the load around 50% capacity or less.

At max loader capacity it falls apart because any counterweight big enough and far enough back to return you front axle to somewhere approximating its normal unloaded operating range on average will make the front so light that you can't steer during the 50% of the time that you don't have a load in front.

-My front axle typically carries ~3000 pounds (tractor, loader, bucket)
-front axle at max lift carries ~8000 pounds (2,500 pounds 1x wheelbase in front of the front axle)
-The difference is 5000 pounds.
-Need to remove 2500 pounds from the front axle. That's one long weight out back and if you actually had such a weight you couldn't steer unloaded.

 

[gladehound]

That was funny. The count was 297 and then you dropped 2 in on me while I was typing. Nice! Also a very useful discussion here to help new owners and also those who have never fully extended the loaded bucket on dad's tractor way up in the air when they were 14 years old...

So how'd that work out for you when you were 14?

 

[Snowback]

So how'd that work out for you when you were 14?

It may or may not have looked something like this for that as of yet unidentified 14 year old that I mentioned earlier. The kid can't remember much about that episode except that nothing broke and he was usually much more careful from that point on.

On to that skidsteer dirt tipping reenactment I posted earlier in the thread? Now the kid remembers that one very well, but he was 17 then and trying to show off while the boss took a break. Just last year I was able to stand the Max on its nose while trying to lift up a stretched and lifted golf cart with my clamp on pallet forks. Now that would have made a great picture, but my feet were firmly planted on the dash until I got back down. Everything works fine until the total CG just barely tips past the front axle and then it's all over.

 

[LD1]

View attachment 459303

Interesting picture.

Way to small of a tractor and with a light PHD on the back to boot.

What is that? a Full bundle of treated deck boards? 2500-3000# assuming only 8' boards?

 

[ovrszd]

When using the loader you are loaded about half the time, and unloaded the other half. Too much counter balance/ballast/weight would have you doing wheelies back to the gravel pile between loads! Can we get to 300 replies here?

Very true. And I've found myself in situations where I had too much counterweight and made the front end too light in steep terrain situations.

Ballast weight on the rear tires will never do that.

To me, that's the difference between counterweight and ballast.

 

[ovrszd]

Interesting picture.

Way to small of a tractor and with a light PHD on the back to boot.

What is that? a Full bundle of treated deck boards? 2500-3000# assuming only 8' boards?

I think it's a simple matter of the counterweight (PHD) being too light......

 

[CalG]

The Little Hurlimann 435 weighs in at 2500# The appropriate Allied 195 loader weighs in at about 1000# with mounting

The lift capacity of the loader is between 750-1000#

With a load capacity of 2200# on the front axle, a counter weight that takes off weight from the front axle is going to be way more than 5% reduction.