Front end goes out again!!!

[Rustyiron]

You can do what ever you want with your compact tractor, but I'm NOT the guy with a compact tractor broken front end...

SR

Easy Rob. No need for all that. Some folks here have stuff big enough to call your tractor a tinker toy.
The OP has a 7/16" wrench (his tractor) with a 7/16 bucket. It should turn 7/16 nuts (loads) all day long, in fact it wont even fit a 1/2, 9/16, 5/8" nut. I've read very few story's about front axle failure so he's got a POS so the MF'ers at MF could make an extra $100. As I advanced acreage/tractor size wise over the years I've spent plenty of time on 3 wheels on various little tractors (both fronts & 1 rear) moving any thing/amount of what ever would fit on the forks or in the bucket and never grenade'd a front end.

 

[hawkeye08]

The op was tossing loose rocks in his bucket, the bucket is proportionally sized to the smaller tractor, think motorized wheel barrow. It should be up to this task and I don't think it's abuse or a poor decision to use it in this fashion at all. It seems MF shorted their customers with a smaller (lighter) front axle to save a few bucks. Accountants vs. the engineers at MF, and the engineers and now the marketing dept. (and those that purchased one) were the loser's.
He also said the the rear was not "light" and adding rear ballast does not unload the front, it equalizes the back (load). The weight in the bucket will not magically skip over the front axle with more weight on the rear.

Sorry about your situation Phillip.

Agree to disagree, with the right setup for ballast (weigh hanging off 3pt on rear), the rear axle becomes pivot point, reducing load on front axle.

 

[aczlan]

Agree to disagree, with the right setup for ballast (weigh hanging off 3pt on rear), the rear axle becomes pivot point, reducing load on front axle.

This is correct. When I put the 2,000 pound front snowblower on our L3830, you can see the difference in the front tires when the snow blower is off the ground and you pick up the weight barrel with the 3 point hitch.

Aaron Z

 

[SteveM70]

I would get out from under that thing and move on. Nothing worse than a piece of junk anything, constantly breaking down, and usually at the worst possible time.

I think you probably know already, but your experience with your tractor is not normal regardless of size.

 

[ovrszd]

Until you try to back it up hill. Then the front axel drive component have a lot more load than without the ballast.

Yep. Rear ballast is often misunderstood. Until you reach the max lifting capability of the FEL it adds stress to the front axle assembly.

 

[ovrszd]

First of all, I didn't say anything about Philip, I said MY tractor... and I stand by what I said...

THAT remark was referring to ME NOT having chosen "one size smaller tractor" because one size smaller has a lighter front end... MEANING that I knew I was going to be lifting HEAVY loads, so I knew enough to get a STRONGER front end...

As for your other remark... The problem could be the tractor, or it could be the owner or?? I have seen enough front end problems with compacts that I personally wouldn't take a chance on moving buckets FULL of rock or anything else that's heavy, for any distance or over rough ground...

IF, I have those kinds of loads to move I'm going to get something bigger/stronger to move it. It's a no brainer!

SR

It's my uneducated belief that all tractors regardless of size category use factory equipped FELs that are capacity matched to the tractor. If that assumption is correct YOUR larger tractor is just as likely to suffer front axle failure when the FEL is used to it's capacity as the OP's much smaller CUT tractor. Am I missing something?

Friend of mine has a JD 7410 (I believe?) with factory JD FEL. The front axle failed.

Sounds like the OP's tractor is prone to front axle failure. Even admitted by a MF rep. I see nothing about that as being tractor size related?

 

[ovrszd]

Agree to disagree, with the right setup for ballast (weigh hanging off 3pt on rear), the rear axle becomes pivot point, reducing load on front axle.

This gets discussed a lot here on TBN. A member once used a toy loader and small scales to prove a point about ballast. Wish I could remember who it was and the thread he posted his results in.

Anyway. Let's say you are trying to lift a load with the FEL but when you do the rear tires come off the ground rather than the load being lifted? So you add weight to the rear of the tractor until the rear tires touch the ground and the FEL load is lifted off the ground. Is the weight now on the front axle more or less?? Think about it a second.....

Very few tractors can max out their FEL lifting capability without rear weight of some kind. Any time weight is added to a tractor to increase it's performance stress is also added. Where that stress is applied varies.

 

[edgarrian]

The point I think he's trying to make is that it takes a bit of common sense. If your getting a full bucket of dirt or rocks and your rear tires are off the ground then one should consider some ballast or just not filling your bucket as full with material. No ballast and all the weight on the front axel is going to be problematic and its unsafe. Only the owner of the tractor knows if he was carrying to much material. I typically use my box blade for ballast. Its not a lot of weight but it helps.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

How big does a tractor have to be not to be called a compact tractor, 40 50 60 90 200 5000 hp......

You have a Kubota, so let's use that brand for an example.

Why do you think Kubota makes a "M" series?? I mean they have "L's" with just as much hp as the small "M's"...

There use to be a guy here that shelled out his pto drive line, balling small squares. Kubota didn't warr. it because THEY said he should have bought an "M" series, the "L's" weren't made for baling hay. Why is that, they have just as much hp? It's because ONE is a FARM tractor and the other isn't!

I use to know a guy that had an L2850 with a loader. He used it for digging and moving bucket loads of soil/sod and guess what? Yup, he blew the ring/pinion in the front end! Bad part for him was, Kubota quit making those ring/pinions and he never got it fixed. He could have had one spl. made, but the cost out weighed what the tractor was worth, so he sold it as a 2wd tractor.

That's one of several stories I know about... So much for the, "if it didn't happen on TBN, it didn't happen".

SR

 

[Sawyer Rob]

Some folks here have stuff big enough to call your tractor a tinker toy.

AGREED and they are welcome to do so... I don't now nor have I ever needed a "safe space"... I promise not to cover my ears and start whineing on here about it... lol

I myself, owned for many years, equipment that made what I have now look like a tinker toy... lol

SR