When is rear ballast needed with a FEL?

JohnMiller3 · May 14, 2003

...He did offer to give me a weight bar for the 3pt hitch and a few hundred pounds of weight, for free... 

Danny,

Grab this free weight and bar while the offer is on the table... like tomorrow pick it up...

Now, go home install all "his weights" and do your tractor/loader testing...

If the situation is only semi-better... here's the proof you need... call the BH rep back and renegotiate...

MikePA · May 14, 2003

What would you do? 
Well, now it's a case of making the best of a bad situation. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

Given the choice of being out $2,300 and no loader or having a loader I had to use rear weights with, I'd take the dealer up on the offer of the weight bar and weights.

Anonymous Poster · May 15, 2003

Well, I've read this from start to finish. I'm sorry you are in the situation youre in. Bushhog/Dealer should be able to make it right for you without you taking that loss. Being longwinded as I am, I have a story. I went a few weeks back to pick up a old used "Long" brand three point backhoe from a friend who said "it still worked" and "I could have it"! I went with nothing on the back of the tractor expecting to hook up the hoe to the three point. As it turned out, the hoe wasnt "quite usable at the moment" and I had to load it onto my trailer with the front loader and no rear ballast. I picked up this hoe (estimate 11 - 12 foot dig depth probably weighing 1300 - 1500 lbs) It was light in the rear end, but I carried it 50 - 100 yds to trailer and loaded. I have a Kubota Mx 5000 with a Kubota la 852 loader. There may be something to staying with the manufacturers loader as opposed to after market loaders. You will always know the loader will work, and the manufacture has to back it. Hind sight is 20/20. Wish I had some helpful advice. We could all boycott Bushhog until they fix your problem /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

Anonymous Poster · May 15, 2003

Remember, at the end of this, you do have a loader that cost less and will lift more. Apparently that involves a sacrifice in accessibility to service the engine and increased counter-balance weight. Is more weight such a bad thing on a tractor? Especially when you can do more work as a result? And save money?

I feel your disappointment. I know you went to a lot of trouble to do the right thing, and it hasn't turned out like you expected. If this happened to me, I'd also be feeling the steely eyes of my CFO. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

But, if it were me, I think I'd search out the positive things, try to ignore the disappointment, fib a little to the CFO (probably not necessary in your case), and try to adapt. When you're popping out a root that would stall my 12LA (once you get enough ballast and add some pressure to the front tires), you can laugh all the way to the bank...

jyoutz · May 15, 2003

Danny, I do exactly what you described by using my rear scoop as ballast for the loader. My loader doesn't really have much more capacity than my loader, so this works out OK.

Anonymous Poster · May 15, 2003

( IWhat would you do?
)

I'd take the free stuff and NEVER do business with either one again (the dealer and BH). A letter to both with copies to the corporate hq explaining my dissatisfaction would also be forthcoming.
/forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif

Hope you can make the best of this.

kensfarm · May 15, 2003

I keep banging on corporate's head.. tell them there are lots of consumers watching how they handle this. No return policy.. I'd check into the state law about this.. the dealer may have a no return policy.. but state law may demand some grace period. I wouldn't settle for having to lose $2300 bucks because they didn't know.. they should take the hit.. stick to your guns.. sorry for all the grief.. best of luck!

Anonymous Poster · May 15, 2003

Okeedon has some very good views on this, he wrote in words what I was thinking but couldn't say as well.

Is this dealer a New Holland dealer? Then you are set. Take the weights, and enjoy your machine.

My only concern with all of this is that you will overload your front axle. However, you are in a situation where both the NH & BH dealers have told you what to do, and that your combination of loader & tractor will work & are right. DOCUMENT this situation somehow very well, and enjoy using your machine as is.

Should it break, it will have to be on their dime, as you got the go-ahead from both of them. (I would really kick & scream at this point, and demand it your way!)

For now, you tried, they tried, you wanted a cheaper loader with more reach & greater lifting. Neither of you is quite where you want to be, but in the big picture, you have about what you were looking for, if not exactly to the letter what you had in your mind. But, nothing is ever perfect, to get more for less, you had to trade off something, didn't you?

Take the weights & run. All loaders need rear weight, you are kidding yourself to think you don't. You might need more than you thought you did. Dad had (I still have) an old IHC H tractor with no power steering, narrow front, single-acting 900lb hyd pressure, 27 hp tractor built in 1949. With a loader. Dad made concrete wheel weights & a rear shelf for more. We run that thing with 800+ lbs of weight on the rear. You need the weights with any loader.

I think their offer to buy it back at 1/3 of new is a crock, that would tick me off as well, I wouldn't do business there. It would be a start if they asked for $1000. But to ask for 2/3, that's just wrong of them.

However, here is where you are. Take the weights & move on.

Look at the positives.

What Don said.

--->Paul

Mosey · May 16, 2003

I called the dealer yesterday and said I'll try the weighs - 500 lbs. He's going to bring them out on Monday afternoon and we're going to load the bucket and see how it handles. When he was out on Wednesday, I had 8 55lb sandbags (440 lbs) in the bucket to show him how much weight that put on the front end and that I could barely even steer the tractor, he said that 500 lbs on the back would take care of that, I said I agreed. The 8 sandbags took up about half of the volume of the bucket. So, I said "but what will I need if I have a full bucket of dirt?" He said that "a full bucket of dirt wouldn't weigh much, if any, more than the 8 55lb sandbags." So, that's an example of the kind of crap those guys were feeding me that day!

CTyler · May 16, 2003

How many cubic feet does your bucket hold? Dirt weighs about #100 per cubic foot. Mud, rock etc, will weigh more.

8*55=440.... 440 pounds isn't that much but it will give you an idea on where you need to be for ballast.