Counter Balance

[Thomas]

What are your views on counter balance?
I heard the ratio with a front loader should be half of the front loader able to lift.
I use tire chain on my Kubota year round and about 1/3 of counter balance of what the front loader able to lift.

 

[Bird]

Thomas, I don't recall hearing a counter balance ratio described that way (half the lift capacity of the front end loader); however, the examples of counterweights that my manual include would amount to approximately that amount, and with what I've been doing; that ratio sounds pretty good to me.

Bird

 

[W5FL]

The Kubota manuals are not very clear on this subject in either the Tractor manual or Loader manual.

The LA1002 Kubota Loader Manual says Rear Ballast: Caution. To avoid personal injury: For tractor stability and operators safety, rear ballast should be added to the rear of the tractor in the form of 3 point counter weight and rear wheel ballast. The amount of rear ballast will depend on the application. They list a 72 inch Box Scraper at 1029 Pounds and a 65 in Box Scraper at 884 pounds and liquid filling the rear tires. I have 1200# in the rear tires of water/anti-freeze on my Kubota. The loader seems to work pretty well without further load on the 3 point, but I plan to add a 850# box blade.

Some of the loader manuals such as Great Bend are pretty generic in this area and refer back to the tractor manual.

The John Deere manuals are very precise. They normally recommend adding all the weight you can to the tires and then using a counterweight on the three point for heavy lifting with the loader IF you are going to lift all the loader is capable of raising safely.

The breakout forces are really high on some of the loaders. The LA1002 loader breakout is 3750# at the front edge of the bucket. That takes a lot of force on the tractor to counter-balance these high forces if you go in a pile of dirt and then lift straight up.

 

[JRP]

I spoke to the regional Kubota service manager for warranty claims. My question was about failure frequency and the bevel gear 4WD design. He he sees waranty claims on all areas of the Kubota, and that most of the 4WD problems come from operating the FEL without proper counterbalance. This puts too much weight on the front axle compared to the rear axle. He sugested a 40/60 reatio, where 40% of weight is on the front axle, and 60% on rear.

I didn't think to ask "Do you use the weight with the bucket empty, or full?"

I found a 7"x7"x30" cast iron weight (elevator weight???) at a scrap yard for $30. I calculated 600#, or 5 cents per pound. When I get the FEL I'll put this on the 3pt during bigger jobs.

 

[TWINKLE_TOES]

Thomas,

Haven't heard from you for a while, welcome back./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif
Really good to hear from you.

I don't understand the "new member" with your profile as "Star" .

Al

 

[Harv]

Al -

I noticed the same thing about both Thomas and Wen this morning. If you look closely, though, both posts are from quite some time ago. /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif

 

[Bird]

Jim, I most frequently use my box blade for a counterweight, and actually wish it were a little heavier at times if I'm picking up heavy loads with the front end loader. I would think your weights should work pretty well on your tractor.

Bird