Ballast 2520 ballast

[tomd999]

Pauly,

The wheel lift happens with either the bucket or my Curtis plow. However much more often with the plow when pushing/plowing heavy amounts of snow up the hill.

It's progressive, as I start up the steep part of my drive first the steering goes away, (however my drive is straight at this point so it don't matter) then as the slope gets to the 22% part, the wheels will lift. if I can ride it out to the part above with less of a grade, the wheels will eventually return to the ground and I will regain steering but we are talking about 75-100 yards total from steering loss to where the wheels set down so unless I get lucky, I have to stop and set the wheels down again to correct the direction.

If I stop going forward and roll back slightly the wheels will regain contact however this is not from a buildup of snow as with the plow I bare blade on the driveway so at most there is only a trace of snow left. Also, my driveway is 2 years old without any cracks or holes so I know it's not getting stuck.

I also think that the length of the Curtis plow setup with the JD QC frame and angle cylinders are part of the reason the loader has so much leverage over the tractor. That plow setup weighs about 600 Lbs alone with the QC mount frame and it sticks out a whole lot more than the bucket.

Next time we get a significant, (at least a foot or so is when it happens the most often) I'll take my digi-cam and try to make a movie while plowing but Im not sure I have enough hands for that. (maybe I should graft another one something like that nut in France that had an ear grown on his forearm and rig it with sound so he can broadcast it on the Internet)

See the pics for my snow setup.

Thanks,

Tom

 

[lincolnvt]

Birdmayon
That amount feels good to me - if you hook a root or something you can get the back end up but that would be true even if you had more weight. For gravel and topsoil bucket work it feels great. I don't think you want much more off the back IMHO.

Brad

 

[Birdmayon]

Thanks for the response Brad, I think this is the route I'm going. Tractor is being delivered tomorrow!

 

[lincolnvt]

Awesome - you are in for a real treat. Have fun!

Brad

 

[FastPauly]

Tom,
I didn't realize you were using a plow..for some reason I assumed you were bucketing snow...bad assumption on my part. The Curtiss blade looks like a nice setup....does the power angle have its own control valve/lines or does it use the bucket curl valve/lines?

Zooming in on your first picture...it looks like the bucket arm cylinder shaft is extended 3 or 4 inches with the blade resting on level ground. If that is indeed the case, then I can see your problem. In float mode, As you are pushing snow (especially uphill) the force required overtakes the force (weight) holding the front end down. Being in float mode, the reaction is the raising of the front end of the tractor untill the cylinder is fully retracted....at that point, the raising stops. If you still have control over the curl function, raise the blade using it....then lower the blade using the lift control.....the mission is to have the blade making contact with the ground with the lift cylinder near full retraction. The only catch here is that when you crest the top of your drive, the blade will leave the ground surface untill the back axle of the tractor is on the same plane as the blade (level ground). If you still do have control of the curl funtion, you can maintain blade contact by adjusting this during the crest.

My QA plow has a mechanical adjustment allowing the blade to be raised up/down on the QA backer plate...does the curtiss??

Adding lots of weight to the front end will help elininate what you are experiencing....but I think just some simple adjustments to the position of the blade at rest is all you really need.

FastPauly