The differential gears inside exploded. Took out the ring and pinion. Both times. The service manager told me that the front axle is only capable of 10% of the tractor weight; that is surprising to me because the front end loader is the heaviest thing I could be doing with the tractor.
He is pretty wrong here. His statement would indicate that the rear would then have 90% of the weight on it.
But he is right that the front end of a tractor is not meant to be the heavy end. This is why rear counterweight is so important. If we are picking up 1,000 lbs with the loader, ideally, we want a bunch more than that as counterweight, because the loader is further out and on a longer fulcrum that the rear arms. The more counterweight we have, the better it is for the tractor, as it will more evenly distribute the load between front and rear.
Let's say we have no counterweight and pick up our 1,000 lb load. The vast majority of that load will now be on the front axle. But if we add 1,500 lbs of counterweight, then the effective load on the tractor is pushed further back and more evenly distributed.
Additionally, re: 4x4 and tire speeds. In our machines, the front wheels spin less than the rear wheels when in 4x4 mode. If working on dirt or other loose surface, the difference is not impactful to the machine. But if working on blacktop or concrete or whatever, it is a lot harder on the machine. I'm not saying this is what happened, I am just pointing out how this works.
