Wheel Spacer Question: How Wide?

[Henro]

Hi,

I have a Kubota B2910, which has rear tires 54" wide at the outside.

My chains just clear the fender sides most of the time. Occasionally they hit. I want to add spacers to eliminate this issue and gain some side slope stability as well.

I have kind of settled on 3" spacers. That would put the tire width the same as my 60" box blade.

But I don't know what the optimum spacer width would be. OR how much adding 3" spacers would increase side slope stability.

The main purpose is to gain clearance for the chains, and a 1" spacer wold be enough for that. Does the extra 2" gain between the 1" and 3" spacers make much difference stability wise? If not maybe I should just buy the thinner ones which are cheaper.

What do you guys think?

 

[BAP]

Do you use a mid mount mower?

 

[Henro]

Do you use a mid mount mower?

No MMM. Backhoe sometimes and other rear implements, plus loader on all the time.

BX2200 is the mower...

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

Kubota does not recommend spacers with the BH use, it puts a huge strain on the Axle cases.

That said, I think 1.5" is about the max i would go.

 

[SidecarFlip]

No MMM. Backhoe sometimes and other rear implements, plus loader on all the time.

BX2200 is the mower...

Good grief, this is a small world...lol How are you and your wife doing? My old 5030 is long gone as in years. M9's now and just sold the 105X I bought. Too many gears for this old man...

I started running hay with the 5030 and soon realized that one, the tractor wasn't heavy enough and two, not enough PTO power so it went down the road. Bought an M9 HDCC3 with a Grand Cab and 540-1000 pto and then turned around and bought the 105X. Sold the 105X about a month ago and picked up a 2004 M9HD which is hydraulic shuttle (no dry clutch) with the 8x8. She has some hours on her (3500) but the M9 engines run forever. Now I have 2 that are almost exactly alike except the new one is open station. Loaders interchange, tires and wheels interchange, take the same filters and have the same quirks.

Still living on the hill? I think about you and the missus all the time and the blackout deal too.

Something I always wondered about, wheel spacers and the strain they put on axle housings.

No spacers needed on my units. The wheels offset to 6 different settings.

 

[Henro]

Kubota does not recommend spacers with the BH use, it puts a huge strain on the Axle cases.

That said, I think 1.5" is about the max i would go.

Hummm...I know there are a lot of things Kubota does not recommend, like filling tires possibly.

I do greatly respect you input Wolfman!

But the backhoe is not all that heavy I don't think. And with backhoe use, the rear tires are often off the ground so stress at that point would not be an issue. I keep coming back to comparing transporting my brush hog as compared to transporting the backhoe. Granted the brush hog is 60 inch, another thing Kubota does not recommend I am pretty sure. But it seems like the brush hog would cause similar stress on the tractor, since it sticks out further backwards. Yea, I know, two wrongs do not make a right! Both would have a negative affect when wheel spacers are added.

After thinking about it, I pretty much decided to go with 4 inch spacers. Mainly because the incremental cost is not that much and the added side hill stability would be a benefit to me.

What is the real risk? Do not know how to estimate that. Some years ago I did once put the tractor on its side. Using a box blade in a situation where you would never think tipping would happen. Had a 2 foot bank built up and I got too close and the tractor slowly slipped down it, and then when the bottom was reached there was a slow motion tip over. I mean REALLY slow motion. like 3 or 4 seconds from start to finish. So and increase in stability is important to me, just in case.

I do not have my backhoe on all the time, but more frequently than the brush hog.

More than this I do not know...hence the post here.

Before ordering the wheel spacers I will have to give this some more thought...

 

[Henro]

Good grief, this is a small world...lol How are you and your wife doing? ...

...Still living on the hill? I think about you and the missus all the time and the blackout deal too...

...Something I always wondered about, wheel spacers and the strain they put on axle housings.

Hi Flip,

Still living at the same place.

Will try to PM you...all is well here but age takes its toll to some degree...

Edit: looks like the PM went OK...

 

[bird dogger]

For the same reason (tire clearance for chains) I was wanting a set of spacers for the B2650. I decided to make a set that would put the outside rear tire tread at just shy of 60 inches. My 60" rear finish mower would still cover the tracks and the xtra 7 inches of wheel base would certainly help stability while mowing the ditches. Each spacer turned out to be about 3 1/2 inches wide.







Using a floor jack, jack stand, & tools makes the install or removal a matter of a few minutes per wheel. I take them off when working in the woods or doing backhoe work and put them back on while mowing ditches or the few times when I think I might be needing to install the tire chains. I will say that after spending all the time to make them....the price to buy some ready made looked quite reasonable. But I had the time and tools to make a set
and thought I better justify having them.

 

[Muzzy]

Dogger, those 3.5" spacers look great. Do you have a pic with wheels/tires on

 

[bird dogger]

Dogger, those 3.5" spacers look great. Do you have a pic with wheels/tires on

Thanks! I have some pics somewhere. If I can't find them quickly tonight, I'll find them tomorrow for you or I'll take some new ones for you.

 

[bird dogger]

Dogger, those 3.5" spacers look great. Do you have a pic with wheels/tires on

Here's two pics of the left wheel. One without a spacer and the other with the spacer on. Pretty easy to tell which is which. You can easily see the extra fender clearance. I think there's a pic of just the rear end of the tractor by itself with the spacers on but I can't find it at the moment. I can keep looking....

 

[Muzzy]

Well done, very nice set up

 

[WillyB1002]

I put a set of 3” spacers on my 2320 and it was a night and day difference. I have some pretty steep side hills including one in my yard that I mowed with the B2320 and it felt really stable with the spacers.
I just went to a L3901 and I’m looking at spacers for that also probably 2”-2.5”.
The 3” for the 2320 are for sale

 

[JerryJ]

Hi,

I have a Kubota B2910, which has rear tires 54" wide at the outside.

My chains just clear the fender sides most of the time. Occasionally they hit. I want to add spacers to eliminate this issue and gain some side slope stability as well.

I have kind of settled on 3" spacers. That would put the tire width the same as my 60" box blade.

But I don't know what the optimum spacer width would be. OR how much adding 3" spacers would increase side slope stability.

The main purpose is to gain clearance for the chains, and a 1" spacer wold be enough for that. Does the extra 2" gain between the 1" and 3" spacers make much difference stability wise? If not maybe I should just buy the thinner ones which are cheaper.

What do you guys think?

I have a bx23s and want to put 3" spacers on it. Where did you get your spacers from.

 

[Henro]

I will probably order mine for my B2910 from this place:

http://www.motorsport-tech.com/specialss/tractor/kubota_s

I can also tell you that I foam filled the front and rear tires on my BX and can’t imagine needing spacers on it for added stability. At least not while the MMM is mounted.

Perhaps without the weight of the MMM spacers along with filled tires would be advantageous. I had the tires foam filled after getting a puncture with liquid in the rears.

Curious as to your motivation for putting spacers on your BX. Granted they will add stability without adding much weight. Foam filling of my BX tires added about 450 lbs to the tractor’s weight.

 

[KYRidgeback]

How wide?

Great question... 6" ?

 

[KYRidgeback]

How wide?

Great question... 6" ?

 

[GreensvilleJay]

Why not go UP not OUT ? On two old, real garden tractors I raised the 'floor/fender' pans 2" with spacers to get clearence for chains. It might be an option depending on your machine.

 

[200mph]

Why not go UP not OUT ? On two old, real garden tractors I raised the 'floor/fender' pans 2" with spacers to get clearence for chains. It might be an option depending on your machine.

Many times the chains hit on the inner part of the fender not the top. Thus its necessary to move the tires outward to use chains.

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

Why didn't you just put duals on it?