3320 Stability Woes

bluemalibu · Feb 13, 2009

I ordered my '08 last year with the 300cx FEL option to give me the flexibility of higher payloads and a more rugged unit, but have come to regret it... I have less than 30 hours on the machine and have had it on two tires three times now. I cannot believe just how much the extra beef of the cx unit has raised the center of gravity on this beast. It is downright spooky to operate. (The dealer was wide-eyed as he backed it off of the car trailer when delivering it... the pucker factor hit him as well)

All of our orchards are on rolling foothills so it doesn't help the situation.

I'm lugging around a 550lb box scraper now to help stabilize it... and am about to have the tires filled, but am wondering if that will make that much of a difference?

kennyd · Feb 13, 2009

Welcome

I think filling the tires will help a lot...also do a search on "spacers" to look at what others have done to widen the stance to improve stability.

MarkV · Feb 13, 2009

Definitely get the rear tire filled with liquid of your choice. It made a huge difference in stability on my tractors.

MarkV

nmu98 · Feb 13, 2009

bluemalibu said:
I ordered my '08 last year with the 300cx FEL option to give me the flexibility of higher payloads and a more rugged unit, but have come to regret it... I have less than 30 hours on the machine and have had it on two tires three times now. I cannot believe just how much the extra beef of the cx unit has raised the center of gravity on this beast. It is downright spooky to operate. (The dealer was wide-eyed as he backed it off of the car trailer when delivering it... the pucker factor hit him as well)

All of our orchards are on rolling foothills so it doesn't help the situation.

I'm lugging around a 550lb box scraper now to help stabilize it... and am about to have the tires filled, but am wondering if that will make that much of a difference?[/QUOTE]

You need to get a ballast box at a minimum. Loading the tires will help alot also! This tractor was not designed to be a loader without substantial weight on the rear. If you read the manual, it stated a filled ballast box and filled tires. This is about proper use and operation of the tractor....

If your dealer does not know this, he should have his dealership taken away....

thewizard · Feb 13, 2009

Any time that a FEL is installed, the tires must be loaded along with ballast weight or wheel wgts in place of loaded tires. in addition to traction and stability reasons, this also protects the front axle, which is designed to handle 15% of load when bucket is full, when improperly ballasted, the front end is handling upwards of 70 to 80% of weight load. Front axle not built for this.

CinderSchnauzer · Feb 13, 2009

Also try turning the wheels inside out for better lateral stability. As long as there is no MMM there shouldn't be any clearance problems.

Gator6x4 · Feb 13, 2009

I thought John Deere had a policy of not selling a Cut with a loader without a ballast box, was I wrong in this thinking?

thewizard · Feb 13, 2009

deere does a great job of specs and requirements for the dealer to follow, what it comes down to is dealerships bottom line to get the deal compromises the integrity of the tractor and the dealership. I will not do that, poor training on part of dealership to not convey to the consumer why these things are important to overall performance and cost. " what you pay is relevant to the value you receive "

jcmseven · Feb 13, 2009

I hate to say this, but the 3000 series tractors stock from JD without spacers, etc. are inherantly unstable. Those that do not have problems with this aspect of the operation either have taken steps to stabilize the tractor with additional ballast or have added spacers or inverted wheels, or both. This is one reason I sold my 3720. I loved the tractor, though it was too large for my needs. It had good power but on my hills would raise rear tires easily and even tilt up on two wheels at times. This was with R4 tires filled to the brim with RimGuard and running either a ballast box or heavy rear implement. Due to the tightness of many of my work areas I could not substantially widen my rear stance without limiting access to these areas of my property. I would say ballast and ballast box and perhaps spacers will help this issue, but even then it will not totally solve it and one will still have to be mighty careful.

John M

CinderSchnauzer · Feb 13, 2009

This info from the JD manual.

REQUIRED MINIMUM BALLAST FOR 3X20 SERIES AND 3203 TRACTORS

Ballast - Fluid-filled rear tires and 500 kg (1100 lb) of 3-Point hitch ballast and three rear wheel weights per wheel.

Ballast given is required with minimum rear tread setting.

A Ballast Box with Extension willl yield 1056Lbs when filled with concrete (JD Spec)

I have my rear wheels set to wide and leave the BH on most of the time and have no compliants regarding stability.