Ballast Filling Tractor Tires

[KiotiJohn]

Hi and welcome Rox. yes, do fill the tires and yes, do add a seatbelt and use the rollover protection in its UP position. The rule is, no ROPS, no seat belt, ROPS, use seatbelt. For the reasons already mentioned. Jumping off a tractor with a roll bar on it at all could lead to serious injury or death, as the bar may be the culprit in keeping one from clearing out of the way. With the ROPS up, and a seatbelt on, there is a much better chance of avoiding injury. As already stated as well, it's better to go up and down hills, backing up to keep the front on the ground, and driving down forward, to keep the front on the ground! Check around with your neighbors to see how they are handling their hills, and maybe you'll get some ideas of what works best for them.
I wish you and your husband many happy years there and good health. John

 

[rcmike]

My only question is what do you do when you get up the hill? Looks like there is barely room to turn around up there withoug getting sideways on the slope and turning over.

 

[bczoom]

rox,

Very nice place!! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
Read through both your threads and looked at the pictures.
It seems time is of the essence but is getting a dozer in to cut trails to traverse the hills (to each terrace) an option? Long-term solution?

I have a very large hill also. There was no way my tractor (JD 770 4wd) nor my Kubota RTV (UTV) nor any of my ATV’s could make it up without me cutting trails to traverse the hill.

Depending on the weight of your sprayer, I don't know if the RTV could get up if your tractor can't. I’ve hauled a lot coming down the hill with the RTV but never up. If you were considering a RTV, I’d see if you could have a demo done on your hill before purchasing.

What kind/size tractor do you have? Is the sprayer mounted on the tractor (if so, where?) or does it tow behind?

Attached is a picture of the bottom of my hill. If you look closely, you can see the trail zigzag (back behind the dozer). The hill goes back about 1050’ but elevates about 300’.

 

[Varmintmist]

You can check by looking that the rear tires are turned out as far as they can go. Some you can only reverse the wheel and the convex side of the wheel is inside. Others, like most AG Deeres there is are extra bolt holes on the rim to set the rim out even farther on the wheel. If the tractor is 2wd and a wide front end, a lot of them will telescope, so that you can make your front wider also. That would give you a wider footpprint and really help stability. Loading the tires is a must. 4wd would help with weight AND traction. The only problem with 4wd on hills is you can get into situations where the tractor will roll faster. A 2wd front is more likely to slide downhill before rolling. Not saying you cant roll a 2wd tractor, just that on crossing a slope, the front is more likely to move down hill.

An ATV would do the job, you would haul less, and be able to do less, but it could work.

Those hills are pretty far from flat, but they dont look like anything worse than hills in West Virgina and people have been crawling around those for years with different machines.

Wheel link http://www.retiredtractors.com/Q/wheelhubs.html

 

[Degree]

Hey. Welcome!

I love France so much and hopefully ill get to visit one of these days!

I have to ask, what is the main purpose of your tractor?(to collect olives? as a sprayer?). A tractor in this case might not be the right tool for the job. Its hard to reccomend anything because the machinery here and in france are alot different and i dont know what your uses for them are, reply back soon!

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Welcome and what a beautiful farm!

1) A rollover bar is asbsolutely worthless without a good seatbelt.
2)Yes, load tires at least half full or up to the top of the rim.
3)Backing up the hill would be safer with a 3pt rear mounted sprayer.
4)Post more pictures!!! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif