Ballast weight - how high can I go?

[ovrszd]

I just want to get the rear wheels a bit more planted. I notice that with the work I’m doing lately, I’m getting a lot of wheel spin and therefore a loss of traction. I don’t load up the FEL to the point where the back gets light, but I’m hoping that 500-odd pounds hanging nice and low behind me might keep me a bit more planted and keep my centre of gravity a bit lower on a slope.

Yep, will help noticeably!!!!

 

[nebo]

I prefer adjustable ballast weight because it becomes easy to find the sweet spot in regards to how much you need.

Yeah...I’m thinking about a half-barrel of cement, with a bunch of rocks/iron that I can take off/on as needs be.

Easily adjustable rear ballast.

 

[4570Man]

Ballast greatly improves a tractors performance. It'll push a lot harder, lift more, and be more stable. I don't think anyone here is recommending not using ballast, but if you think you're saving your front axle at least in the form of weight reduction you're wrong.

 

[4570Man]

I guess I've been using my front end loader wrong all these years. I thought they were meant for digging.

The fel is on my 4410. I have a quick attach and the bracket I made holds the center of the weights approximately a foot behind the bottom hook on the quick attach.

Loaders are meant for scooping loose materials and lifting them. Backhoes and excavators are meant for digging. There's worse things than carefully digging with a tooth bar. I cringe every time I hear someone mention stump removal with a tractor FEL. I wonder how many newbies follow through with those plans.

 

[RaydaKub]

It'll take around a thousand pounds to keep the rear end on the ground with a larger compact tractor. Any amount of weight between zero and that point adds weight to the front axel under a max lift. Once you reach that point your either going to need literally tons or a boom pole to take a meaningful amount off the front axel. Your working the short side of the lever here. Anyone who can't understand this needs to retake 5th grade physics. This is another TBN created myth that holds no water.

There was a thread here 2, maybe 3 years ago where somebody took his tractor over a grain elevator scale w/ and w/o his usual ballast. I don't remember the size of his tractor or the amount of his ballast, but what I do recall is it amounted to about 20%

 

[nebo]

There was a thread here 2, maybe 3 years ago where somebody took his tractor over a grain elevator scale w/ and w/o his usual ballast. I don't remember the size of his tractor or the amount of his ballast, but what I do recall is it amounted to about 20%

I just found an excel spreadsheet calculation on each axle the other day...really cool....not mine, but found on another site...this forum would not allow me to post an .xls or I would post it for you and a link to it won't work.

Anyone tell me how to post an .xls here?

 

[ovrszd]

Link didn't work for me.

 

[4570Man]

There was a thread here 2, maybe 3 years ago where somebody took his tractor over a grain elevator scale w/ and w/o his usual ballast. I don't remember the size of his tractor or the amount of his ballast, but what I do recall is it amounted to about 20%

Was he using the same load on the FEL? Aside from the leverage working against you is the tractor loader is capable of lifting the a lot more with ballast. To come up with a meaningful number you need to lift as much as possible before the tractor tips over with unloaded rears and no 3 point hitch weight and measures the front axel weight. Then add enough ballast to max out the hydraulics before the tractor tips and measure the front axle weight.

 

[nebo]

Link didn't work for me.

yea sorry, it was a link to another tr@!tor forum. I may need a mod help me get the spreadsheet on here.:ashamed:

 

[jb1390]

Ballast greatly improves a tractors performance. It'll push a lot harder, lift more, and be more stable. I don't think anyone here is recommending not using ballast, but if you think you're saving your front axle at least in the form of weight reduction you're wrong.

Yes and no. On paper, rear ballast will reduce front axle load. However, it will also allow you to load the front axle even heavier, if you can still pick up the rear tires. In practice, rear ballast should be used for tractor stability, not to protect the front axle.

The operator has much more impact on front axle longevity than the ballast does.