B2650 help on wheel spacers

[Rock Crawler]

You have been running your 1.5" spacers since new with backhoe? No issues or concerns from your kubota dealer? Really surprised to hear him say to actually remove the spacers when chains would be removed?

Yes, the spacers were installed when the tractor was assembled. They will never be removed. If in 10, 20 or 30 years my rear axle bearings fail, I'll fix it. I have to have the spacers and I have to have the loaded tires otherwise I wouldn't call it a tractor, I would call it a ball.... As it rolled down my property. I live on a steep slope and my tractor lives on it with me. I need all the low weight and wheel width I can get, that's why I have the B3350SU optional wider tires, spacers and about 400 lbs of Rim Gard. My B2650 is 60" wide at the rear wheels, yours is I believe 53" it 54" with cute little tires, little wheels and no spacers. The attached photos are prior to the spacers going on, the spacers added another 3" to those offset wheels and wider tires.

 

[BCWoodtick]

Nice upgrade, luckily I don't have very big slopes,but saying that you never know what I could end up with. I will try and get my dealer to price out the 1.5" that he should know about.

 

[JWR]

Crawler: I too have enough steep ground down in WV 130 miles south of you that wide spread wheels/tires is survival gear. Very unstable/unsafe as it was in the "before" picture below. Huge improvement in the "after" picture with 6" spacers on each side. For size ref that is a 5ft Bush hog attached.

Before:



After:

 

[Rock Crawler]

Yes JWR,

I think that some folks don't quite understand what kind of ground that some of us live on. My general grade is 16°, and then as I drop out of my yard and into the trails it gets steeper. With my BX that I had, I would float the backhoe it the rear blade a couple inches off of the trail as I went up so that I would ride a wheelie using the implement behind me as a wheelie bar and prevent flipping backwards.

Some guy told me to ballast up better so that I can back up my worst area in 2WD... I about laughed when I read that. You aren't going anywhere in 2WD here, not forward or backward. It's 4x4 all the time and careful moves at all times. Wider is better!

Is that a B2650 with the 6" spacers?

 

[JWR]

No, not a 2650. It is a B2150. I have 2 of them, one I bought down in Tenn about 3 years ago, kept at my farm, and the other I bought decades ago during some poor guy's divorce liquidation here in Southern MD, now used at my cabin the mountains for snow removal, grass cutting in warm months, etc. but on flat ground. The one from MD only had 225hrs on it when I got it in the 1980s. One had ag tires, the other had turf tires, one had a belly mower, etc. I swapped tires around among the two B2150's and use the wheel spacers on the one at my farm (where steep slopes abound.)

 

[BCWoodtick]

Well finally received the 1.5" spacers and started to pull wheel off and can not believe how tight the lugs are?? I broke a 1/2" drive and managed to twist a 1/2" extender in half? I think they were not tourqued properly?
I did manage to get one side done and sure makes a huge difference for chain allowance space.

 

[Rock Crawler]

My dealer blew my wheel nuts on with an impact, I had to break them all loose and properly torque them.

 

[JWR]

My dealer blew my wheel nuts on with an impact, I had to break them all loose and properly torque them.

That happens a lot. Woodtick -- you need to use an air wrench if you have one or can borrow. Anytime you run across nut or lug bolts that tight you are much better off and less likely to break off bolts (and of course avoid breaking tools) that way. The shock loads that an air wrench puts on a nut or bolt are such great persuaders ! Of course one can twist off bolts with an air wrench too but if you adjust it right you normally won't.

 

[BCWoodtick]

JWR, Ya thanks I will pull out the compressor and impact and try that. I was just shocked that a Kubota dealer can be that dumb?? Is not like Kubota's are cheap, you would think they would know better? I wish I would have checked them a long time ago. Looking forward to getting some good traction with the chains now!

 

[BCWoodtick]

Manageded to get the other side off today. Air impact didn't help at all, took a 1/2" breaker bar with a 6' cheater pipe to get old lugs off. New spacers went on easy and wasn't bad getting the filled tires on and off. Pretty surprised how much of a difference a 1 1/2" makes. Way better traction in snow now but noticing how some extra hp would help. Lol. Thanks for the help all.