fill tires or not?

[urbandeere2520]

Fill tires or not?

I say NOT... but that decision depends entirely on your intended use of the tractor.

I elected to NOT fill my tires because my primary use is to cut lawn grass and the extra weight of filled tires compacts the lawn.

When I'm using the FEL, I have an over-sized ballast box with 1,000 lbs of weight which I keep low to the ground or about 1'. I'll run out of hydraulic lift capacity well before the back-end gets light...so no problems so far.

This configuration works well for me and when I remove the FEL and ballast box, the tractor is light and helps preserve the delicate lawn grass when mowing. Secondary benefit is I don't need to worry about leaks or rim corrosion.

However if you plan to use your tractor primarily for FEL work, not mowing the lawn, then by all means fill the tires or use wheel weights.

Your mileage will vary.

 

[ricklman]

Just got my Kioti CK30HST w/FEL 40 hours ago and my dealer forgot to fill the tires before delivery. I have had more "brown alerts" than I care to think of when I'm using the FEL without the BH on the rear. Moving any load around our small mountains/large hills causes 1 rear tire to be airborne with any type of turn or uneven ground most of the time.

I'm taking her in for the 50 hour checkup next week and I'll know more after she gets her beet juice injections, but my dealer told me he would not use calcium. I'm really looking forward to the extra weight in the a** end.

 

[greg_g]

my dealer told me he would not use calcium.

Respect that dealer

//greg//

 

[Sawdustsmb]

Loaded tires as previously stated puts the weight out to the sides and down. I've seen skid steers tip up on their nose - never a tractor but they do tend to tip over on their side. Get the tires loaded.
Bob

 

[Wyobuckaroo]

I filled the turfs on my tractor with a mix of anti freeze and wind shield washer fluid. Blended to be safe for my winters. (45 gallon total) This blend is the best option for my uses, availability, cost, and maintenance.

Wish I had done it 2nd day I got the tractor.

Good luck

 

[fuseboxer]

Dealers rules. Unless you question safety and have an adversion to a ballast box. I put two 60lb weights on each tire and reversed 180 degrees the tire/rims to increase stability. Neighbor had some used ford weights that bolt up nice to my 4410 deere. I gave them a fresh coat of paint after an acid bath. I do not use it much and I have very few hills. My loads are not very heavy. A load of wood or a 1/2 yd of dirt. --Fuse

Any use suitcase weights around for a ballast box? They look good.

 

[meburdick]

Clearly, as you see from the variety of the posts, there is a certain amount of "it depends" in the answer.

I have a basically level lot and use my tractor for snowblowing in the winter. Since I only have Turf tires and want to avoid chains if possible, my rears are filled with used antifreeze. I get absolutely no appreciable "packing down" of the grass when mowing. In fact, the only time I get any sort of tire tracks or anything is when the ground is very wet from winter melt (I move about 800-1000lbs of firewood on pallets when it's cold enough to burn but warm enough for the ground to be thawed). And, that clears up pretty quickly.

You need to look at how, when, and where you use your tractor today, how that could change in the future, and decide what options make sense for you.

As far as adding weight, filled tires provide a much more stable weighting of the machine than what you get from a BB. True that there's a longer moment arm, but that is also always applying torque to the tractor (meaning that it's not just counteracting weight on the front but also trying to lift the front when you're not carrying - think in between fills / dumps of the bucket).

 

[buickanddeere]

Absolutely. Plus liquid ballast is a helluva lot cheaper than are wheel weights. Tire ballast is a primarily a traction measure, secondarily a counter-balance measure. Conversely, a ballast box primarily counters front weight - and only secondarily assists traction. It goes to placement versus center of gravity

//greg//

On a 2WD tractor, 750lbs of weight on te three point hitch will provide more traction than 750's of tire ballast.

 

[FunnelWeb]

Filling the tyres of your tractor can be an advantage, even if you don't have a FEL, because it lowers the tractor's centre of gravity. The lower centre of gravity makes the tractor much more stable if you operate in hill country.

The tractors we used on my parent's rather hilly farm all had their tyres filled. None of the tractors had front end loaders.

In Australia there aren't many places where you have to worry about stuff freezing, and the tractors I'm talking about had tubed tyres, so we just filled them with water. Works out much cheaper than wheel weights.

 

[thomas9n]

sounds like filling the tires is the ay to go. since my dealer won't do it should i take the tires off myself and take them somewhere? (where to take them?) or should i have someone come out to the house and do it?(who does that?) or can i do it myself?