Ballast Rear ballast to offset FEL

corwin5 · Jul 9, 2001

Folks,
My TC21D is rather light in the rear when I am carrying a full bucket of sand/dirt with the FEL. Even with the Bush Hog attached to offset the front end load, the rear tires are very light and "bouncy" and I now have a reduced area to work around (with Bush Hog attached). I'm thinking that there should be some type of rear ballast that I can attach to the 3-point hitch other than the Bush Hog that still gives the needed rear weight, but doesn't protrude ~6' out the back. Does anyone have suggestions? A 30-gal drum attached to the hitch and filled w/concrete comes to mind?! Thanks for the replys.

Bird · Jul 9, 2001

corwin5, this topic has been discussed a lot in the past (don't remember just where to find the discussions), but your idea of the drum and concrete is exactly what a lot of people have done. Get a steel rod of proper size to fit into your lower links, drill a couple of holes through the drum to run the rod through, preferably make a top link attachment that you can stick in the concrete before it sets, and of course, you can throw in scrap metal, rocks, etc. when you pour the concrete in.

Bird

Anonymous Poster · Jul 9, 2001

To make repair of flat tires easier and reduce problems down the road, don't go the calcium filled tires route. It's nice because theres nothing protruding from any where and doesn't need to be removed to mow, but get a leak, it'll rot your rims and make a mess.

RSeymour · Jul 10, 2001

corwin5, If you do not want to make one, you can get a ballast box from your John Deere dealer. It holds 600-700 lbs of concrete and costs about 180.00 without the concrete. Now all I have to do is paint mine blue.

jinman · Jul 10, 2001

Let me duplicate your caution. The tires on my TC45D are empty. I don't think I will ever fill them...not even with antifreeze and water. I had a bad experience on an old tractor where the water (calcium chloride, I think) leaked on the insides of the wheels. As I was mowing, the rim cracked and the innertube exploded. I wasn't hurt, but it was a very caustic, stinky shower./w3tcompact/icons/tongue.gif/w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif/w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif If I had been beside the tire instead of in the seat, I might have been hurt. I would recommend ballast weights and the 3-pt weights, but I just can't bring myself to put liquid in my tires. It's just not worth the mess if you get a flat. ...just my opinion.

JimI

MikeBurr · Jul 10, 2001

I had problems with the light rear end and was using the mower for balance. Talked to my dealer and he came up with a 3 point bar that you can hang weights from. The bar fits in the 3pt hitch and currently I have 8 60+ weights in it, works great. The weights are like the ones used on the front of tractors. Whole thing cost arount $200. It's blue, so it might be a NH accessory.

TC33D

dieselpwr · Jul 11, 2001

JimI brings up a good point about the calcium solution. It is hard on everything. I had it in the tires on my last machine & had to replace my valve cores about once a year. Eventually it actually started to eat through the valve stem & leaking out. I am pretty sure that it is also considered reportable if you loose it on your field do to a hole in your tire according to the DNR. It also makes the tire heavy enough to be dangerouse when removing the wheel yourself. So there are some real drawbacks to using it. I opted for the steel wheel weights myself. I can put them on & take them off as I need. Just my opinion though.

Troy