How much weight

[GManBart]

My FEL has a max capacity of #1130. So here is the plan, tires get fluid and give me #660. Then off the Heavy Hitch I can get around 650-700. Total around #1300 of ballast. The other thing is I rarely am lifting to capacity. Most commonly firewood, mulch, and the like. This has been a helpful discussion. Thanks.

Something not already mentioned is that loading the rear tires does nothing to take weight off the front axle. Adding weight to the rear tires is primarily intended to increase traction. Yes, it helps keep the rear tires on the ground during loader operations, but what it's really doing is allowing you to more heavily load the front axle, which isn't necessarily a good thing. Weight behind the rear axle is the only way to take weight off the front axle during loader operations...so that realistically means it needs to be on the 3pt.

I can't recall how Kubota specs counterweight, but it should give you some figures in the FEL manual...worth checking. If you aren't worried about size/length issues, the more weight on the 3pt, the better (generally). I built a 1,400lb counterweight for my LS and it made all the difference in the world. A little too heavy is better than a little too light as far as I'm concerned.

 

[gladehound]

Something not already mentioned is that loading the rear tires does nothing to take weight off the front axle. Adding weight to the rear tires is primarily intended to increase traction. Yes, it helps keep the rear tires on the ground during loader operations, but what it's really doing is allowing you to more heavily load the front axle, which isn't necessarily a good thing. Weight behind the rear axle is the only way to take weight off the front axle during loader operations...so that realistically means it needs to be on the 3pt.

I can't recall how Kubota specs counterweight, but it should give you some figures in the FEL manual...worth checking. If you aren't worried about size/length issues, the more weight on the 3pt, the better (generally). I built a 1,400lb counterweight for my LS and it made all the difference in the world. A little too heavy is better than a little too light as far as I'm concerned.

Great point about the front axle. I'm always worrying about the front axle when lifting heavy. I finally decided that when I lift heavy that I'm going to use my rear blade which sticks out over 4 ft behind the eyes and then I add a pipe behind the blade and stack weights on the back of it. That really gets some weight off the front which at least gives me piece of mind.

 

[gladehound]

i have been using a small kubota b1750 sub compact tractor ( 20 hp ) for a while. i drive it two miles from my house, to my 15 acres for doing work on it. i needed a way to haul tools with me, chainsaw, oil, fuel, water, oil, nails, and other assorted stuff i needed, i made up a combination counterweight / tool carrier / logging hitch. i love the **** thing. its great. i can carry a cooler, chainsaw, chains, tools, etc... plus its a counterweight. ( it weights 250 empty), but i could have easily doubled or tripled that with adding lead or concrete and filled the tubing. i just bought a like new, 2014 kubota L3901, ( with 29 hours on it)... and im finding my tool rack does not quite fit the bigger tractor, so im about to start building a larger one, that sets back approx 6 inches more ( to prevent accidently hitting the tail lights)... ill make it a foot wider, and probably build a winch mount into it, and add a 3000-5000 elec winch, to do my logging stuff. anyway heres my logging hitch / counterweight / tool carrier i have now.... the new one will weigh at least 500lbs... possibly even more. iv learned a few things while using this one, that i will implement in the new one. i cannot state how much i love this thing. if fencing, you can add a receiver hitch barbed wire carrier......or any kind of receiver hitch type tool / carrier etc. my next one will be a bit wider.. and have a lot more weight to it. probably put a blade and a 45* angle on the bottom 4 inches, to allow it to dig into the ground when im winching something from the rear... and use a electric winch..... if i was going to be using it a lot, ifd get the pto driven winch.

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Now that's super cool! :thumbsup: I'm sure you could sell that easily if you decide to build a larger one for the bigger tractor!

 

[LD1]

Something not already mentioned is that loading the rear tires does nothing to take weight off the front axle. Adding weight to the rear tires is primarily intended to increase traction. Yes, it helps keep the rear tires on the ground during loader operations, but what it's really doing is allowing you to more heavily load the front axle, which isn't necessarily a good thing. Weight behind the rear axle is the only way to take weight off the front axle during loader operations...so that realistically means it needs to be on the 3pt.

I can't recall how Kubota specs counterweight, but it should give you some figures in the FEL manual...worth checking. If you aren't worried about size/length issues, the more weight on the 3pt, the better (generally). I built a 1,400lb counterweight for my LS and it made all the difference in the world. A little too heavy is better than a little too light as far as I'm concerned.

Loading tires does indeed allow you to load the front axle heavier.

SO DOES putting ballast on the 3PH. UP to a point where you can actually keep the rears planted. Actually, loaded tires and 3PH ballast that is too light puts the MOST weight on the front axle.

Example: Keeping nice even numbers here, tractor/loader weighs 5k, and can lift 2k.

With no ballast or tire fluid, the loader might only be able to pick 1k before the rears lift. So 5k tractor + 1k load is 6k on the front axle.

Lets load the tires with 500# fluid, so now tractor is 5.5k, and the loader can now lift more, say 1.2k before the rear lifts. So now thats now 6.7k over the front axle.

Lets add 500# on the 3PH, so tractor combo is now 6k and now the loader can lift 1.8k but still the rear comes up. So thats the whole 7.8k over the front axle.

Adding more weight on the 3PH to "just" keep the rears planted is worst case scenerio. Cause nearly the entire weight of everything is on the front axle. You have to go sufficiently beyond that point to have any countering effect to unload the front axle.

 

[CDN Farm Boy]

Excellent point LD.

To the OPs questions of "how much weight?" : for max loader lift, you basically want as much weight on the 3pt as it will lift in my mind.