Adding ballast, easy as pie!

fast*st

Member

Equipment
M7040, L2900, F550 ford, Yanmar vio70 excavator, Case 580, JD 350 dozer, JD 644E
Jun 26, 2012
172
4
18
Northern Mass
Must be molasses pie as it was a fresh batch of rimguard.

Situation, new to me L2900gst from my cousin who rarely used the loader end. I wanted the loader end. Hammer it into a pile of 3/4 stone and it lifts the rear wheels pretty much off the ground, hmm suck. picked up a decent sized rock with a chain and even with a low carry it was all tippy.

Ended up adding a piece of 2x4 angle to the bucket as a stiffner and chain hook spotting location and added a home made counterweight to the rear, I had some extra 2x2 steel plates, 2 inches thick, 2 should be 600 ish pounds, still felt tippy when in rough terrain and a bucket full.

It has the turf tires on it, they're in decent shape but a little dry, I'm on the hunt for a set of industrial wheels/tires but for now... Called around the orange and green dealers wanted $4 and change a gallon and $100 to $110 a tire for install, WTF...

I called an industrial tire supplier, $2 a gallon and I could get my drum filled if I wanted. Sweet, 55 gallons of Rim Guard, $7 adapter with air bleeder from Slime (napa) $35 12v water pump from Harbor Freight, and some clear hose from Home depot $20

The slime adapter hooks right onto the liquid stem once the air core is removed, then it attaches to a garden hose. I used clear, reinforced poly hose to be able to see the flow as the pump doesn't like to run dry. I used a small steel rod to keep the hose from curling as I stuffed it in the barrel. The pump also came with a 6' garden hose section, perfect to attach to the tire fill adapter.

Jack under the draw bar, lift both tires and put the valve stems in the 3 oclock position, wanted half a tire full. 25 versus 33 gallons per tire. after releasing the air and lowering the jack I started filling one tire, the little pump moved the rim guard really fast, after a minute, I reversed the leads to run the pump backwards to clear the line then let the pressure out again as I didn't want to overpressure the tire. the bleeder would have been too slow so just uncoupled the hose, Did this for both tires and the bleeder works great to determine the fluid level as you roll the tire a little.

It took under an hour to fill both tires, I'm not sure why the tractor stores were charging 2+ hours labor until I talked to the tire shop guys. After they filled my barrel they commented that usually they get the call from the tractor store to go fill tires for them and they send the service truck over to do it.

It suddenly made sense why the store was saying it took 2+ hours and tires would have to be left for a few days and they couldn't tell me how much RG they had on hand and that they usually don't sell it in bulk and I'd have to leave my barrel and maybe they could fill it later. Cause they call the tire shop service truck, same story from orange and green dealer.

After rinsing off the small amount spilled, washing out the barrel and pump and all, a test. pushing into the stone pile feels like its in 4wd already, a full bucket on some rough terrain and everything felt stable as can be, didn't even need 4wd to climb up a small hill and spread the stone. I guess that would be a total of about 1200 pounds ballast in the rear and I'm very happy with the loader operations now. turf tires aired up to 10 pounds.
 

David Page

Active member

Equipment
1974 L260, 6" bush hog, subsoiler, spring tooth harrow, boom pole, 2 bottom plow
Jun 25, 2013
381
66
28
Dexter, ME
Thats basically what I did. Don't own a trailer and didn't have to take the tires off. No regrets.
 

fast*st

Member

Equipment
M7040, L2900, F550 ford, Yanmar vio70 excavator, Case 580, JD 350 dozer, JD 644E
Jun 26, 2012
172
4
18
Northern Mass
Thats basically what I did. Don't own a trailer and didn't have to take the tires off. No regrets.
Indeed, it was certainly not 1.2 hours per tire even if I cooked a pizza in the middle. Even if I ditch the turf tires for R4 (eventually) it'll be easy to remove the goop and pump it into another tire. Thankfully the pump doesn't mind being reversed, rubber impeller
 

retired farmer

Active member

Equipment
tractor, loader, cutter, blade
May 25, 2020
167
86
28
sheridan
New guy here, I tried a search but not much or maybe I need to learn more about the way it works. But here goes the question. How to find out the amount of liquid ballast to add to rear tires on my L3301 R4 tires. The size is 15/15 X 19.5 ?

rf
 

Cglaza

Member

Equipment
L2500DT, BX2380, G6200H
Aug 30, 2015
170
2
18
Freeland, mi
New guy here, I tried a search but not much or maybe I need to learn more about the way it works. But here goes the question. How to find out the amount of liquid ballast to add to rear tires on my L3301 R4 tires. The size is 15/15 X 19.5 ?

rf
Here is a chart that might help you. Zoom in.


Sent from my moto z4 using Tapatalk
 

Cglaza

Member

Equipment
L2500DT, BX2380, G6200H
Aug 30, 2015
170
2
18
Freeland, mi
Ok I guess that didn't work. Sorry. But go to rimguard .com and pull up the PDF and you can get your answer there.

Sent from my moto z4 using Tapatalk
 

Dippybird

New member

Equipment
L2900
Jun 21, 2020
27
1
3
Ma
Fast*st
Where did you buy the rimgaurd? I live in MA and called around and couldn't find anyone that would fill a barrel for me. I ended up putting salt back in. I also have the L2900GST with filled turf tires and need to add more weight to the rear end for the loader.
 

Dippybird

New member

Equipment
L2900
Jun 21, 2020
27
1
3
Ma
Fast*st
Where did you buy the rimgaurd? I live in MA and called around and couldn't find anyone that would fill a barrel for me. I ended up putting salt back in. I also have the L2900GST with filled turf tires and need to add more weight to the rear end for the loader.
 

Retired in AK

New member
Lifetime Member

Equipment
B 2650 w/cab
Jul 6, 2020
1
1
3
Fox AK
Just purchased my first Kubota B2650
Ended up putting -60 windshield washer fluid in the tires. Rim Guard would be a better choice but in Alaska winter temps can easily drop to -50. Rim Guard good to -35.
 
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