Mike_Dumond
Gold Member
I have seen alot of posts asking whether or not to keep the rear weight on when using the fel. Well, my opinion is to keep it on, and my reasoning follows.
If you're running a two wheel drive machine, you'll notice a whole bunch of rear tire spinning when you have a full bucket, or when you're trying to fill the bucket. Also holds true if you have a 4 W/D running in Two. We All know this and with that in mind, we put on the rear weight.
The problem comes when you have 4W/D, and you run in 4W/D without the rear weight. Seems to run OK, so we take it easy and keep on tractoring. However, the front drive is doing 90% of the work in that situation. With a full load on, the back tires become very light on the ground. The front drive was never designed to do that much work. It's there for an assist, and it works fine in that capacity. But, using it without the rear weights, will cause a premature failure in the front drive.
I've seen a few tractors in the shop because of this very reason. Up here, it's because of front mounted snow-blowers more than FELs, but the theory is the same. Need more proof? Look under your 4x4 pickup. Notice the size difference in the drive trains? Same holds for tractors.
Also remember, that when the rears are light on the ground, your brakes are that much more useless.
If you're running a two wheel drive machine, you'll notice a whole bunch of rear tire spinning when you have a full bucket, or when you're trying to fill the bucket. Also holds true if you have a 4 W/D running in Two. We All know this and with that in mind, we put on the rear weight.
The problem comes when you have 4W/D, and you run in 4W/D without the rear weight. Seems to run OK, so we take it easy and keep on tractoring. However, the front drive is doing 90% of the work in that situation. With a full load on, the back tires become very light on the ground. The front drive was never designed to do that much work. It's there for an assist, and it works fine in that capacity. But, using it without the rear weights, will cause a premature failure in the front drive.
I've seen a few tractors in the shop because of this very reason. Up here, it's because of front mounted snow-blowers more than FELs, but the theory is the same. Need more proof? Look under your 4x4 pickup. Notice the size difference in the drive trains? Same holds for tractors.
Also remember, that when the rears are light on the ground, your brakes are that much more useless.
