Loading the tires - too much?

I saw this in another thread about weight.

I don't like to put too much weight out back or fluid in the tires. Too hard on the tractor frame. Every now and then you will see someone that has broken their rig in two.

Click to expand...

My tires are loaded and have no qualms about putting weight out the back. I'm curious about the splitting. I've put my tractor in situations that could have broken it in 1/2 (driving, actually teetering on the front 2 tires which were running flat) but I never had a problem. Should I be concerned or is this unique to certain tractors or ???

The neighbors who contract to operate my orchard have never had ROPS (because it's an orchard) but they say to load all the weight you can find on a tractor, with all tires loaded plus wheel weights, to prevent a rollover on steep ground. They seem to get normal life out of their tractors. Half their stuff is old gear like several MF 135's which have loader forks front and rear, each carrying a 1600 lb harvest bin.

They used to disc this part every year back when it had some nice apple trees.

I wouldn't even go down there before I added the ROPS!



(Couple more pix in the same area)

Here's the more normal 90% of the orchard.

bczoom said:

I saw this in another thread about weight.

My tires are loaded and have no qualms about putting weight out the back. I'm curious about the splitting. I've put my tractor in situations that could have broken it in 1/2 (driving, actually teetering on the front 2 tires which were running flat) but I never had a problem. Should I be concerned or is this unique to certain tractors or ???

Click to expand...

Loading tires will not split anything. The weight is on the ground, not on the tractor. I've doe some serious hauling with my 7275 Cub Cadet and have yet to have any problems with it breaking in half. That includes driivng on the two front wheels with the ass end just about floating off the ground as mentioned in the other post.

Loaded tires I wheel weights is only adding a little strain on ther driveline & is far better than adding weight to the frame. Keeps low center of gravity & adds NO vertical load to the bearings or front. Especially helpful not to load front frame if you have no power steering.

California's a brave man. I get spooked on half as much slope, and my tires are loaded.