Ballast Ballast help FEL loading ?

[schmism]

i need to check my pressures on my FEL....

i have a pile of dirt ive started collecting at the end of my new garden... doubles as a compost pile.....

Every few times i pass it i take the chance to push it around, pick it up, dump it on itself... practice my FEL skills....

so this weekend i want to actually use some....

low range, push right into the base of the pile and lift in a nice smooth motion as ive practiced.

filled the bucket to near heaping. but now the d@mn machine wont LIFT the FEL OUT of the pile.

in the past ive alwasy carried heavy buckets with something on the rear for ballest, but i had mowed last week and was going to the next day so i didnt have anything mounted.... I was surprised to see how well it handled the full bucket of dirt with no 3pt weight.....

the heavyest ive had was a full bucket of 2" gravel and that put the rear end light WITH the brush hog hanging off the back!

 

[hemiguy]

bcarwell,
I haven't read this whole thread and I may repeat what some others have said but here is what I've learned from maybe 200hrs of loader work (plus reading here on TBN) with small HST tractors.
1) Yes, DEFINITELY ballast on the back of the tractor will help. Your tractor or loader manual should have some guidelines, but rule of thumb would be at least weight greater than/equal to loader lift capacity. Usually any combination of wheel weights, fluid filled tires, and/or 3pt attachment. If you are working on unlevel ground usually more weight is recommended (for safty reasons).
2) Always use Low gear (HST or gear drive) for loader work. And rear diff lock will also help if your rear end is spinning pushing into a pile.
3) Of course 4wd also helps if you have it. Also if you are driving down hill (with loader full) you should always use 4wd for safety reasons. No front brakes on tractors plus no traction in 2wd on rears could equal a wild ride.
4) Always make sure your bucket is level entering the pile. This is very important. Either have your dealer add a bucket level gauge or learn from experience how to tell if it is level
5) I do disagree with what some others have said here. If you are pushing into a really large pile don't start from the bottom, start higher up in the pile. If you start from the bottom a small loader is trying to lift its bucket load plus whats on top of it which is probably too much for it.
6) Vary which side you attack the pile from. I have found I want to keep the pile approximately round to concentrate the weight of the pile to keep getting full bucket fulls to push against.
7) When the pile gets down to the last couple of bucket fulls, you might have to do some shoveling as the pile just may not have enough weight left in it to push in your bucket.

Number one though is to add some rear ballast. I see you have a box blade so I would try that first as it must be at least 350-400 lbs. I would think for your KB7500 500-600 lbs total ballast would be about right.

 

[Ford850]

The problem with some of these arguements is that physics for both weighted wheels and adding a rear ballast are lumped together.
Weighting the rear wheels/tires does not reduce the load on the front tires when using the loader. Tractor is more stable but the front tires remain the only pivot point.
Adding a rear ballast does reduce the load on the front tires since it uses the rear tires as a second pivot point. It has the same effects on the rear axle as the front end loader has on the front axle. Too much weight on the front loader will lift the rear end, and too much weight on the rear ballast will lift the front end.

 

[crashz]

Jb's post explains the theory of ballast BEHIND the rear axle the best. And as stated above, rear axle weights merely give you better traction. Both will help with loader work, a ballast box being the better of the two choices.

But technique is good to perfect. I can fill the bucket on my JD770 in 2wd, no ballast or toothbar, with turfs, in a gravel pile. If the pile is big, dig in straight using low gear, low range medium throttle. As soon as it feels like you're gonna spin, curl and lift. Keep going forward as you lift. The bucket will curl first and as you lift, the bucket edge will be going in and up at the same time. This will get the maximum breakout force availible. By the time my bucket is above the hood, its full and I'm climbing the pile. Works for gear or hst drive machines, but gear drive machines will always spin a little.