Chris, on side slopes where the real tractor anxiety comes, I quite frankly did not feel any more or less secure ballasted or unballasted. I don't know what my slope is, suffice it to say, with R4's, I will slip down the hill. I am always extra cautious and have my hand on the wheel ready to turn downhill if I feel the slightest uphill tires lift. I also slow down to prevent a jounce or bounce from accelerating my tilt momentum. All I can say is that with unballasted tires, I feel a whole lot more nimble. Perhaps it's my soil conditions, but when pulling my 1000lb boxscraper loaded, in low, I run out of power before I run out of traction, and that's with R4's. I'd give unballasted tires a try. You can easily reballast them yourself. Of course where I live, we don't freeze so the antifreeze is not needed but even so, I added used antifreeze in my old tractor with a adapter for the fill valve, a hose and a funnel. It also requires a floor jack or equivalent.
