Front Suitcase Weights on L3800

[gpreuss]

I have a 600lb cutter that hangs out 100" from the arms and do not have an issue keeping the front end of the 3800 on the ground with the FEL removed. The brush guard on the front of the machine weighs 220# (4 weights worth) or so, keep that in mind. I'm willing to bet you'd have to pop the clutch rather hard to get it to lift with 680lb consuming no more than 24" of space behind the arms, if you can even get it to lift the front up. The 4wd 3800 w/ that front guard and FEL brackets weighs about 3200lbs. Placing 700lb 3' behind the rear axle won't phase it.

To counter balance just the FEL when installed, you'd need a tiller weighing 3,000lbs. Add 1,000lb of whatever in the bucket of the FEL and you'd need a counter weight of 7,000lb+ just to keep the same weight on the front axle.

A 1,000lb ballast on the back when using the FEL doesn't really amount to much when using it @ capacity. It might lighten the front axle by 125lbs or so. It's raining out or I'd go measure the distance between the center of the bucket and the rear axle for more accurate calculations, but I'm willing to bet the numbers are not too far off.

I think you see where this is going.

Each axle acts as a fulcrum for a lever. When you put 1000 lbs in the loader bucket, you effectively put 2000 lbs on the front axle, but are lifting the rear wheels by 600 lbs or so. When you put rear ballast on, you really are not trying to lessen the load on the front axle, although with enough weight back there you are doing so - as you said, maybe a couple of hundred lbs. What the ballast is really doing is giving you back your traction on the rear axle.

In the same way, the 700 lb tiller is trying to pick up the front end by maybe about 350 lbs. Adding front weights just tries to bring it back to an even stance. Just a couple hundred lbs up front made a big difference to me, particularly in uphill turns.