My Kubota MX5100 has needed a bit more rear ballast since I picked it up in 2013. I loaded the rears with Rim Guard when I bought it. It helps a lot but always seemed to need a little bit more. I refuse to pay $2/# at the dealer. My scrapyard guy had a Farmall H come in a year or so ago. I paid $20.00 for the two rear weights. The only problem was they didn't have the same bolt circle and they barely fit inside the rim. While I have a full machine shop at home, my son is taking Precision machining and Engineering at our local Vo-Tech campus. The instructor said he could bring in a project from home at rhe end of the year. Bingo!!!! Of course they do things the right way. He had to make a fixture to mount the weights to a rotory table, machine about a 1/2" off the diameter, locate and drill four holes on 13.5" centers. He learned quite a bit about machining cast, to the dismay of a 5/8" carbide endmill. He finshed them Friday. I painted them today and we bolted them up tonight. I'm anxious to start moving logs and see how it works. And, yes...I know they are mounted with the backside out. The reason is that it sits deeper into the rim this way. Yeah, it's only a half inch deeper, but if I come across two more I can mount them conventionally and they won't stick out past the tire.
I will have to see if our local Vo Tec will cut down some IH wheel weights I have.. Like you I need more rear ballast and re3fuse the price they want for the made to fit weights. Al
Wow very clean job! Looks like factory fit and finish. Your boy did a nice job Casper! I'm not a fan of getting gouged by the dealer either 2 bucks a pound is ridiculous. When I eventually get my tractor I will be going the diy rout for rear ballast. Some great ideas out there:
Those ballast boxes are great, the only problem for me is that some of the woods I get in are a bit tight. If most of your time is in the open they're a great option. I have throw the brush hog on when working a tree or fence line. I'm hoping with about 900# of Rim Guard and 280ish pounds of cast, I should be good. There have been times that the rear just barely wants to raise, especially when loading logs into the dump and a heavy logs rolls towards the tips of the forks. There are a couple dents in the floor from a quick unload. I try to cut larger logs to a point they are not hard to handle but I've mis-judged the weight of green wood a few times.
Probably wouldn't work to well in our climate. Water would freeze solid. Tires (tyres) are loaded with Rim Guard, which is beet juice and more dense. Water weighs 8lbs to the gallon, beet juice is 11ish pounds per gallon. Some folks use washer fluid if they DYI. I had a cousin who worked at a tire dealership so I got a decent deal when I filled mine. I think it was under $200 for just over 900#'s of Rim Guard. Calcium was not an option. Growing up we use calcium in our tires and replaced rims several times, especially on the barnyard tractor.
Totally agree with what you've said. Loading the tires will be the first thing I do for sure. It should be the first thing any new tractor owner does. And the rim guard is a very good product. Although I don't currently have a tractor of my own, I spent a good deal of my youth on my grandpa's dairy farm. I'm sure you already know what I'm going to say because you seem to be pretty experienced, but for the uninitiated reading along with us I'll mention what my grandpa taught me. He explained it like this to me loaded tire ballast help balance the fel load and lower the center of gravity only. However, they do nothing to remove stress from the front axle. Three pt. hitch ballast turns the rear axle into a fulcrum and actually relieves stress on the front axle. You obviously knew this because you mentioned using the brushhog when you can. I can relate to your frustration in tight spots though. I spent some time running an old Case 580 tlb in the woods. Talk about I really began to question my sanity after awhile running that machine in that setting. Bomber rig otherwise.
Our barnyard tractor, was a John Deere 2440, with WWs, loaded tires. It needed front end service at least every other year. We scraped barnyard, fed silage (pre-feeder wagon), that meant we were constantly turning with a loaded bucket dumping in different spots in the feed bunk. We also used it to load the manure spreader. Again, lots of turning with a loaded bucket. We kept a box scraper on the back, but it wasn't enough to keep us from replacing axle pivot pins, wheel hubs and spindles.
Bad thing about the rear ballast box on the 3 point you have taken away the 3 point to do things with like mounting a logging winch. Might just as well bought a 1950's tractor with out the 3 point hitch and hung ther weight off the back. Better Idea is a quick hitch, a box blade and a little moding it and hang suit case weight on it. Easy and quick to drop and use full while on the tractor. Al
??? Not really that difficult to drop the ballast box and use whatever you want on the three pt hitch Al. In your example if I had a a logging winch I'd use that instead. Also not everyone needs a box blade. Too each his own I guess. Anyway the point I was trying to make about 3 point hitch ballast was moar is gooder.
Iirc it was a rant about my uncle not running 3 pt hitch ballast on the International 1086 and using the fel bale spear. It had dual loaded tires and weights. This would have been after a fresh front axel service and grandpa was "explaining" the finer points of barn talk and tractors I was 10 at the time and not sure why he wasn't running the 3 point hitch spear. I think the barn yard tractor was a IH 484 but I'd have to ask my dad. Those tractors have been gone a long time. The farm too sadly
