tire ballast

[budepps3760]

Question concerning tire ballast. I have 80 acres that I will be having clear cut this year and replanted next. Timber has not been cut in 100+ years and so I am going to be going over terrain with the tractor that I never had. I will be building a house there in 2017 and so I want to get in there and clear up sections, plant food plots, put in a pond, etc., in general just get out there and enjoy my land. Gentle rolling hills but nothing extreme. I own a 4wd Mahindra 2810 and so would loading liquid ballast help as I bush hog, auger fence posts, use landscape rake, disk harrow and other implements. I hate to show my ignorance of the use of liquid ballast but under what conditions is ballast used for? I do not have a loader on the tractor unfortunately and so I am not heavy on the front end of the tractor. I guess with that being said do I need weights on front end?

 

[oosik]

I have 1500 pounds of Rimguard in my rear tires. It provides additional traction when I plow snow and stability/counter weight when I use the FEL. Along with 4WD it will aide in traction when I use any ground engagement implements. In your situation, it may not be necessary. I would suggest trying without loaded rear tires and see how it goes. If you experience a lot of loss of traction in the rear tires then additional ballast could help.

Weight on the front - lifting/using heavy implements with the 3-point hitch is a reason for weight on the front. Keeping the front down & in contact with the ground obviously will help when using 4WD. Again, give it a try and see if the front gets "light". This is the best indicator.

 

[Trials]

Unfortunately you'll know the minute you start working it hard and find that you are running out of traction to do things. If that never happens, run it as it is.
… and for goodness sakes be careful! Rubber tired tractors don't work so good on rough terrain.

 

[GPintheMitten]

How are you going to deal with stumps in the area you are clearing?

 

[ovrszd]

My question first would be how wide are your rear wheels/tires set?? Not being familiar with the tractor model, are they adjustable?? If yes, then I'd set them as wide as you can and still cover your tracks with your attachments. In other words, if I have a 72" brush cutter I'd want my tires set just inside that measurement. Doing this will give you a lot of stability and the tractor will ride better.

Since you don't have an FEL you aren't going to be as worried about adding rear tire weight to keep them on the ground. So your primary consideration would be the total weight of the tractor.

I run fluid and cast iron weight ballast on my Kubota with FEL. I don't run any rear tire ballast weight on my Ford. Reason being I want it to remain lightweight. I am working in the timber now with a tree puller removing small Cedars. The Ford easily moves around in the soft timber terrain. It weighs around 5500lbs. When I take the Kubota into the same area to haul off the pulled trees I have to be cautious about going into the softer areas to prevent severe rutting. The Kubota weighs around 11,000lbs.

 

[FTG-05]

For Montgomery, AL, a couple gallons of RV antifreeze the rest being water will suffice. The nearest Rimguard dealer to you is north of the KY-TN border.

I live just north of the AL-TN border and used 4 gallons of RV antifreeze in my 55 gallon tires. I sued 2 gallons of RV antifreeze in my 12 gallon front tires.

I've widened the rear tires in my L4330 as wide as possible and added concrete, steel and lead wheel weights. I added 275 lbs to the front end that added to the FEL weight upfront. Traction is everything and to get traction, you need weight.

Good luck.

 

[Soundguy]

ballast will help with ground engagement type implements.

Of the things you mentioned.. raking, mowing, augering, and discing.. ONLY discing will benefit from ballast.

If your machine can pull the disc without ballast, then you gain nothing.

PS.. if you havn't augered around roots before.. use low rpm, and shallow cuts, and clean often... if not.. buy one of those 4' long aluminum handled pipe wrenches and good gloves...

 

[sd455dan]

Question concerning tire ballast. I have 80 acres that I will be having clear cut this year and replanted next. Timber has not been cut in 100+ years and so I am going to be going over terrain with the tractor that I never had. I will be building a house there in 2017 and so I want to get in there and clear up sections, plant food plots, put in a pond, etc., in general just get out there and enjoy my land. Gentle rolling hills but nothing extreme. I own a 4wd Mahindra 2810 and so would loading liquid ballast help as I bush hog, auger fence posts, use landscape rake, disk harrow and other implements. I hate to show my ignorance of the use of liquid ballast but under what conditions is ballast used for? I do not have a loader on the tractor unfortunately and so I am not heavy on the front end of the tractor. I guess with that being said do I need weights on front end?

First Congrats on the new tractor.
After reading your post a couple questions /thoughts.

Since it sounds as if you want to disc after tree clearing, I would suggest (if not done yet) having the trees pushed over with an excavator- this way most of the roots near the surface will be removed with the tree.

If they are chainsaw cut - the roots /stump can be dug out later but imo is just more work in general.
The excavator method will require having some top soil on hand for the stump holes but it will go a lot quicker than digging out the stumps afterwards and be a great job for your new tractor along with discing.

If you are taking on the stumps yourself with a backhoe on the 2810, depending on the size of trees being cleared could take a fair amount of time.

On the front end weighting question if an FEL is on, generally most tractors can get by without any extra weighting, without an FEL and something heavy on the 3 point then it may become necessary.
Once again- congrats on the New Mahindra- tractors can make work fun:thumbsup:

 

[Soundguy]

deffinately stump and possibly get the contractor to root rake before going at it with a cut/ut sized tractor.

 

[budepps3760]

Thanks everyone for your comments. I have learned greatly from them. The few times I have used the disc harrow I have had no problem with traction even after putting an 18"x6' I-Beam and 6 double cinder blocks on the disc to get as much weight on it for maximum depth. Based on those results I guess I don't need ballast. Information from TractorData.com lists a weight of almost 3100 pounds so it is a pretty light tractor.

Dealing with the stumps I will have to get a dozer in there to clear a road to where we wish to build and the home site itself. Logging company will push up and burn some but mainly will not do a lot with them since I plan on replanting timber the following year.

Reading my manuals I have not seen anything that would indicate an ability to expand my wheel base. Is there any specific configuration on the axle that would indicate that it is capable? From what I can remember I believe that there were a series of may u-bolts on each side of the axle maybe halfway down the length.