HP For Snow Blower

[WinterDeere]

Will check, but theft is low on my list of concerns, because:

1. We live in an area with nearly zero crime
2. All of my neighbors have similar machines, I'm not a standout target
3. I have a monitored alarm system on my house, barn, shed. Many of my neighbors don't even lock their houses or barns, so I'm not the easiest target.
4. The police are known to respond very quickly to alarms our neighborhood, when an alarm does sound.
5. I have cloud-based motion detecting hi-definition cameras with integrated motion lights over barn and driveway, so anyone who comes through is on camera, usually both face and vehicle ID.

In the unlikely event we had a break-in, I don't think the tractor is ever going to be anyone's first target. We have things that cost more, and weigh 1000x less, than that tractor! No one makes a quick and easy escape on a tractor, with alarms and cameras blaring, and police already on their way.

 

[Yogi05]

Just pulled the trigger on a new TYM t25 (comes with FEL and added a grapple, and ballast box)

Any opinions on if a ballast box is better/worse than loaded tires?
Dealer says more weight with loaded tires, but a couple hundred more dollars.
I figure, and a friend agrees, a box has advantages of being a little further behind the
machine instead of right over the axle, and removable.
And no extra fooling around if you have to get a tire repaired or replaced.

Thoughts?

 

[K5lwq]

Congratulations on the new tractor! Wheel weight is good for traction and helps some with stability but doesn’t help at all offsetting loader weight. Something on the 3pt for that purpose for sure.

Don’t know about the TYM version but does it have a place for wheel weights? A lot of people like cast iron weights over loaded tires.

 

[JJT]

I'm old school and have loaded tires. In 25 years I've only had one rear tire issue - a tube change due to a puncture, (of course helping a neighbor, no good deed goes unpunished....).

If I'm doing serious loader work I'll have a rear implement mounted, most often an 800 # box scraper.

 

[Yogi05]

Congratulations on the new tractor! Wheel weight is good for traction and helps some with stability but doesn’t help at all offsetting loader weight. Something on the 3pt for that purpose for sure.

Don’t know about the TYM version but does it have a place for wheel weights? A lot of people like cast iron weights over loaded tires.

My thinking exactly. And maybe even better weight distribution on inclines etc.
Thanks

 

[Yogi05]

I'm old school and have loaded tires. In 25 years I've only had one rear tire issue - a tube change due to a puncture, (of course helping a neighbor, no good deed goes unpunished....).

If I'm doing serious loader work I'll have a rear implement mounted, most often an 800 # box scraper.

Excellent. Thanks.
My broken Foton has a piece of tree stuck in between a rear rim and tire. While it's still holding air, another
knock on that piece of wood might flatten the tire.
I'm picturing all that beet juice or whatever running out. (those tires are not loaded, but if they were ,.......)

 

[WinterDeere]

Any opinions on if a ballast box is better/worse than loaded tires?

Oh jeez, did you just re-open one of the perennial cans of worms.

The answer is, “it depends on your intended usage”. The ballast box can do more for directly offsetting weight in the loader, with less weight in the box than the tires, since it’s further aft. If you don’t understand that, google “leverage”. Also, a ballast box is removable and reconfigurable, whereas loaded tires are not.

More importantly, any ballast put on your 3-point, whether ballast box or other, take load OFF of your front axle. In some cases, the capacity limits of a given loader on a given tractor may even depend on this. Loaded tires do nothing to reduce stress on the front axle.

The advantage of loaded tires is that they’re lower to the ground, and offer better side/side stability than a ballast box ever can. It’s also easy to carry more weight in the tires, without creating the bucking bronco effect of having all your ballast fore and aft of the axles.

The solution for most is a combination of the two. I have my tires loaded, but I also have a ballast box, and I also welded carriers onto that ballast box to carry an additional 17 suitcase weights. Between these three forms of ballast, I can configure the tractor for any task. When doing light lawn chores, the ballast box is left in the barn, and I’m only running my loaded tires. For moderate loader work, I add the ballast box. If I’m lifting something that’s really putting the tractor at its limits, then I start adding the suitcase weights to the ballast box.

 

[Yogi05]

Oh jeez, did you just re-open one of the perennial cans of worms.

The answer is, “it depends on your intended usage”. The ballast box can do more for directly offsetting weight in the loader, with less weight in the box than the tires, since it’s further aft. If you don’t understand that, google “leverage”. Also, a ballast box is removable and reconfigurable, whereas loaded tires are not.

More importantly, any ballast put on your 3-point, whether ballast box or other, take load OFF of your front axle. In some cases, the capacity limits of a given loader on a given tractor may even depend on this. Loaded tires do nothing to reduce stress on the front axle.

The advantage of loaded tires is that they’re lower to the ground, and offer better side/side stability than a ballast box ever can. It’s also easy to carry more weight in the tires, without creating the bucking bronco effect of having all your ballast fore and aft of the axles.

The solution for most is a combination of the two. I have my tires loaded, but I also have a ballast box, and I also welded carriers onto that ballast box to carry an additional 17 suitcase weights. Between these three forms of ballast, I can configure the tractor for any task. When doing light lawn chores, the ballast box is left in the barn, and I’m only running my loaded tires. For moderate loader work, I add the ballast box. If I’m lifting something that’s really putting the tractor at its limits, then I start adding the suitcase weights to the ballast box.

Are you one of those psychos.....psychics ........what do call them?
Psychic sounds right.
Whatever you call it. have you been reading my thoughts??
All that you mention went through my mind when I was rationalizing. Right down to the leverage idea. I am just doing light stuff.
Landscaping would be the closest description. I do have some clear cutting to do to give me more open space here, hence the grapple.
It didn't read back to see if I mentioned it, but I told the dealer to give me a bit of time to consider loaded tires or box.
I called him back after and said ballast box only. And I went for a grapple as well. (Now that I'm typing it I think I mentioned all
this before. Sorry.)

I am impressed with this small dealer I'm buying from. Closes early on Saturdays but gave me his personal cell number so I could
call with my decision. And he had his finance guy call me on a Saturday as well to get things rolling. He did.
To top it off, it's a holiday weekend here so everything is closed on Monday, but the money guy says he will call me Monday about
the financing approval. And the dealer had said he can do up the tractor for pickup on Wednesday if I want.
Talking yesterday the dealer was telling me has to find a bigger building, more salesmen, and a mechanic or two. Apparently, as small
as he is (3 guys) he's the biggest volume dealer around.
When I was there a month ago he had several T25 in stock, yesterday they only had 2 that had just arrived the night before.

I commented on the nice sawmill he had last time I was in. He was telling me he ordered a couple of those a while back to gauge interest.
Says he can't get them fast enough. He was willing to work one of those into the whole agreement, but as much as I would like a new one
I can't justify the cost. I don't cut enough wood.

 

[WinterDeere]

I brought mine home and just used it with the old ballast box for a week or three, while deciding what would be best. Seat time on a new machine can give you a better sense of what it's going to need, for your applications, than anything else. I had a 750 lb. ballast box from my old tractor (Deere 855, predecessor of modern 2025), so I just ran that at first.

I ended up loading my tires to 60% with bio ballast, a beet-juice product that's supposed to be non-corrosive. I guess we'll find out, as I have the worst-case scenario of the top of the wheel being right at the water line, rather than 100% submerged. But this gives me a better ride (more compressible air in the tire), and keeps the machine from being too awfully heavy when I drop the loader and zoom around the lawn with my fertilizer spreader on the back.

I kept the 750 lb. ballast box, but welded carrier bars onto it to carry an extra 17 suitcase weights, either 42 lb. or 70 lb. So, between all of that, I have a pretty flexible variable-ballast system, to suit any need. For moving garden mulch, I just run with the 750 lb. box. For moving medium logs, I throw a few 42 lb. suitcase weights onto the ballast box hangers. For big logs, I load all 17 of my suitcases onto the box, bringing it up to 1500 lb. + the tires.

Some will ask why I even bothered with loading the tires, and I can tell you it's for side stability. A ballast box, especially if raised high for operating on hilly terrain, doesn't give as much side stability. The 3033R is a fairly tall and narrow machine, and a sideways rollover seems more likely on it, than some other tractors I've owned of similar width but much less height. Some weight in the tires offers a lot more sideways stability, which makes me more comfortable using the machine on our hilly property.

 

[Yogi05]

I brought mine home and just used it with the old ballast box for a week or three, while deciding what would be best. Seat time on a new machine can give you a better sense of what it's going to need, for your applications, than anything else. I had a 750 lb. ballast box from my old tractor (Deere 855, predecessor of modern 2025), so I just ran that at first.

I ended up loading my tires to 60% with bio ballast, a beat-juice product that's supposed to be non-corrosive. I guess we'll find out, as I have the worst-case scenario of the top of the wheel being right at the water line, rather than 100% submerged. But this gives me a better ride (more compressible air in the tire), and keeps the machine from being too awfully heavy when I drop the loader and zoom around the lawn with my fertilizer spreader on the back.

I kept the 750 lb. ballast box, but welded carrier bars onto it to carry an extra 17 suitcase weights, either 42 lb. or 70 lb. So, between all of that, I have a pretty flexible variable-ballast system, to suit any need. For moving garden mulch, I just run with the 750 lb. box. For moving medium logs, I throw a few 42 lb. suitcase weights onto the ballast box hangers. For big logs, I load all 17 of my suitcases onto the box, bringing it up to 1500 lb. + the tires.

Some will ask why I even bothered with loading the tires, and I can tell you it's for side stability. A ballast box, especially if raised high for operating on hilly terrain, doesn't give as much side stability. The 3033R is a fairly tall and narrow machine, and a sideways rollover seems more likely on it, than some other tractors I've owned of similar width but much less height. Some weight in the tires offers a lot more sideways stability, which makes me more comfortable using the machine on our hilly property.

All good considerations.
Thanks.