L3901 Rear Wheel Spacers?

[dnorm]

Hi OTT - new L3901 owner here! Have read many posts on here in my decision making to purchase this machine. Really useful and helpful information and community on this forum.

Our property is on the ridgeline of a mountain and it's quickly become apparent to me that the 3901 can be a bit tippy horizontally. The machine has R4 filled tires, does not have a rear implement, mainly moving logs, firewood, moderately sized rocks and land with bucket and grapple.

We are operating the machine as recommended, loaders loads low as possible, straight up and down any hills and never side to side...even with the recommended operating modes, the terrain is still mountainous and not a pasture, or a flat field otherwise.

I would really like to increase stability with some rear wheel spacers...Likely going to go with Bora as BroTek only seem to come in up to 2" widths for my model.

What is the recommendation on suggested width to provide a significant increase in horizontal stability (decreasing that feeling of tippiness)? I'm thinking 4" per wheel is the answer here, but wanted to get some feedback from this community. The additional 8" of overall wheel base width does not impact our ability to use the tractor (parking storage, access to narrow gated areas etc). Are there any other upsides or downsides to going wider or less wide?

Any and all thoughts appreciated!

Thanks!

dave

 

[jimh406]

It’s hard to quantify how wide to go before you feel it. I think you’d get a lot of stabilty with a low and wide implement as well. I have the factory 1” spacers on my L2501. I noticed a significant difference with a wide rear implement compared to having nothing, and I have loaded rear R4s as well.

 

[dnorm]

Thanks for the reply and info Jim! Hope to procure something like a box blade for the back soon...these aren't the widest implements but should add around 300 lbs or so and hang nice and low...this would be in addition to the spacers.

Have been doing some additional research online, and am waiting for an email from my dealer...does anyone know definitively if installing wheel spacers impacts the Kubota warranty at all? Interestingly enough, I've seen a few folks talk about buying Bora spacers directly from their Kubota dealer, so I'm hopeful it does not void the warranty.

Thoughts? Word on this one way or another?

 

[old and tired]

Never heard of a problem with spacers since 2005 from this or TBN forum.

I would also say that areas that I thought I would tip over (several years ago) now seem so easy to transverse without spacers... I bought 1" spacers but have yet to install them.

Farmers near me harvest hay on slopes that I would never dream of driving on... also, 4" seem pretty excessive.

 

[BigG]

You state that you are using the bucket and grapple without anything, ballast, hanging off the back of the tractor. This needs to stop! The stability of the tractor results from a properly ballasted tractor. Traveling down hill with a loader full of dirt or a log in the grapple makes the rear wheels very light and gives very poor braking. Sideways without the ballast is not a good practice either.

The use of the FEL with out ballast may cause damage to the front axle. This will not be covered by your warranty. Also without the rear ballast there is addition weight transferred to the front tires. This will add stress to the sidewalls of the tires as you transvers the slopes.

I urge you to properly ballast your tractor before you have a serious accident.

 

[TheOldHokie]

Hi OTT - new L3901 owner here! Have read many posts on here in my decision making to purchase this machine. Really useful and helpful information and community on this forum.

Our property is on the ridgeline of a mountain and it's quickly become apparent to me that the 3901 can be a bit tippy horizontally. The machine has R4 filled tires, does not have a rear implement, mainly moving logs, firewood, moderately sized rocks and land with bucket and grapple.

We are operating the machine as recommended, loaders loads low as possible, straight up and down any hills and never side to side...even with the recommended operating modes, the terrain is still mountainous and not a pasture, or a flat field otherwise.

I would really like to increase stability with some rear wheel spacers...Likely going to go with Bora as BroTek only seem to come in up to 2" widths for my model.

What is the recommendation on suggested width to provide a significant increase in horizontal stability (decreasing that feeling of tippiness)? I'm thinking 4" per wheel is the answer here, but wanted to get some feedback from this community. The additional 8" of overall wheel base width does not impact our ability to use the tractor (parking storage, access to narrow gated areas etc). Are there any other upsides or downsides to going wider or less wide?

Any and all thoughts appreciated!

Thanks!

dave

I am travelling the same road. As O&T observed some but not all of the tipsy concern goes away after some usage. I have a several months in the seat, loaded R4 tires, and 700# on the rear and the tractor still lacks the stability I am accustomed to with my other tractors. I can set the old Ford so wide its like it has outriggers. I hate the fact the R4s are not adjustable and if it were not for the lead times being quoted I would have added spacers months ago. The R4s are a good bit wider cross section than R1s and 2" spacers with R4s will get you roughly the same out to out as R1s set to the max track. Thats my plan and I'm sticking to it.

Dan

 

[dnorm]

You state that you are using the bucket and grapple without anything, ballast, hanging off the back of the tractor. This needs to stop! The stability of the tractor results from a properly ballasted tractor. Traveling down hill with a loader full of dirt or a log in the grapple makes the rear wheels very light and gives very poor braking. Sideways without the ballast is not a good practice either.

The use of the FEL with out ballast may cause damage to the front axle. This will not be covered by your warranty. Also without the rear ballast there is addition weight transferred to the front tires. This will add stress to the sidewalls of the tires as you transvers the slopes.

I urge you to properly ballast your tractor before you have a serious accident.

Appreciate the concern, and message received. As suggested, working on procuring rear ballast...we do have rear tires filled, which was the dealer recommended rear weight after discussing use cases. Sooner than later we will procure a rear implement to add weight.

 

[Cindylou]

Hi OTT - new L3901 owner here! Have read many posts on here in my decision making to purchase this machine. Really useful and helpful information and community on this forum.

Our property is on the ridgeline of a mountain and it's quickly become apparent to me that the 3901 can be a bit tippy horizontally. The machine has R4 filled tires, does not have a rear implement, mainly moving logs, firewood, moderately sized rocks and land with bucket and grapple.

We are operating the machine as recommended, loaders loads low as possible, straight up and down any hills and never side to side...even with the recommended operating modes, the terrain is still mountainous and not a pasture, or a flat field otherwise.

I would really like to increase stability with some rear wheel spacers...Likely going to go with Bora as BroTek only seem to come in up to 2" widths for my model.

What is the recommendation on suggested width to provide a significant increase in horizontal stability (decreasing that feeling of tippiness)? I'm thinking 4" per wheel is the answer here, but wanted to get some feedback from this community. The additional 8" of overall wheel base width does not impact our ability to use the tractor (parking storage, access to narrow gated areas etc). Are there any other upsides or downsides to going wider or less wide?

Any and all thoughts appreciated!

Thanks!and it was a big improvement

dave

I have Bora 5" spacers for 10" of width increase on my LX2610 and it was a big improvement for mowing with 72" woods rear finish mower on the sidehills.

 

[nbking]

I too took awhile before I had any rear ballast. Wow the difference, I got a box blade, it's like night and day.

 

[Goz63]

Thanks for the reply and info Jim! Hope to procure something like a box blade for the back soon...these aren't the widest implements but should add around 300 lbs or so and hang nice and low...this would be in addition to the spacers.

Have been doing some additional research online, and am waiting for an email from my dealer...does anyone know definitively if installing wheel spacers impacts the Kubota warranty at all? Interestingly enough, I've seen a few folks talk about buying Bora spacers directly from their Kubota dealer, so I'm hopeful it does not void the warranty.

Thoughts? Word on this one way or another?

With a decent box blade you should be pushing 500lbs. For the L3901 I would recommend the LP BB2560. It comes in at 480lbs.
I have a question to those running spacers. Does it push your rear tires out so far they don’t track well when loading on a trailer? You need to have the rears follow the fronts fairly close obviously so you travel up the ramps.

 

[69 SS]

I put my Taylor Way 41104 tandem disc's on the back approx. 930 lbs according to the manual,really makes a huge difference when using FEL on the sides of my 1/2 mile long driveway, with the Hardee T-52 LT bushog, approx 825 lbs, My L 3901 "feels " more stable on the sides of the driveway using the disc's because it's footprint is 7 ft 11in vs the 52 in footprint of the bush hog. Been doing the same driveway for 20 yrs and this is just my opinion. BTW rear R4 tires are filled. Good luck on all your projects.

 

[Henro]

My take on it is that rear ballast is helpful for loader work, and for side slope stability as well, depending on where the rear ballast is located with respect to the tractor's center of gravity.

Wheel spacers do almost nothing to help stability when lifting with the loader but are enormously helpful on side slopes.

If I add spacers to my B2910, I decided I would go with at least, and probably, 4" spacers. Nothing less, and maybe more, since the incremental cost of adding thickness seems to get smaller.

 

[ctfjr]

I went with 3" BroTeks. If I were to do it again I would go 4". They do make a difference.
Not to beat a dead horse here but you will find rear ballast will greatly improve your braking and stability. I use a 700lb ballast box when I don't have an implement mounted.

 

[dnorm]

Hi Everyone -

We ended up getting the 4" Aluminum spacers from BORA. They make a world of difference in terms of lateral stability on the tractor! We are very happy with the results!

I was not able to find a video of the install process for an L3901 anywhere, so I did a walkthrough video of the installation.

For those interested it can be found here:

 

[P301]

Hi Everyone -

We ended up getting the 4" Aluminum spacers from BORA. They make a world of difference in terms of lateral stability on the tractor! We are very happy with the results!

I was not able to find a video of the install process for an L3901 anywhere, so I did a walkthrough video of the installation.

For those interested it can be found here:

Hi just started a thread on spacers last week. Are you still happy with the 4” any concerns or problems did you get wider implements to cover your wider tracks. Struggling with 3 or 4”