L3301 concrete rear tire weights

[Texasl3301]

I'm not sure I get the reasoning. My guess is standard Ls don't have wheel weights available because Kubota doesn't want you to use them. Are you tires loaded, too?

I don't think you can really torque them to anything meaningful with eyebolts. Just tight with lock washers and maybe locktite.

tired not loaded, much cheaper and more weight than the standard metal weights

 

[Texasl3301]

When I made concrete wheel weights for a garden tractor (12" rims) I did it basically the same way. But, instead of embedding the bolts in concrete, I embedded lengths of copper tubing that the mounting bolts could slip through and tighten against. I used four 1/2x8-inch Grade 5 bolts to mount them.

I also embedded a handle to use to assist mounting and dismounting the weights.

I used a plastic bucket for a form and assembled the tubing/bolts on the wheel so that everything was perfectly positioned before the pour. Bolts punched through the bottom of the plastic bucket, of course. I did not use any rebar.

-Paul

PS, I have encountered applications where a Grade 5 bolt will outperform a Grade 8 bolt. Grade 8 bolts can be brittle in some situations and fail. A Grade 5 can take a tension shock and stretch a bit without breaking. As long as you don't exceed the bolt's 'modulus of elasticity', it will retain its strength. Also, a shear load or a bending moment is probably as well accommodated by a Grade 5 as by a Grade 8. Where i noticed this most is bolts that secure an automotive transmission mount to its crossmember. YMMV

how long ago did you do your weights, do you still use them?

 

[Texasl3301]

Well somebody already posted a link to a chart but basically it just comes down to the thread diameter and pitch with some wiggle for other factors.

But i will bring up what i think is a relevant anecdote. Sometimes lug nuts on cars do not get tightened adequately. How tight does something need to be to remove lash/clearance/slack? Not very! The difference in torque between using a fastener to 'make 2 things touch' and the actual torque spec, is largely so that the fastener STAYS torqued throughout all the dynamic loading. So that is one function of 'proper' torque, whatever the number may be.

But the other lug nut analogy is that when lug nuts do come loose and a wheel ends up falling off the vehicle in motion, the lug nuts usually don't just gradually spin themselves all the way off and fall off. What typically happens is that as the lugs become loose the wheel is allowed to 'wobble' and in doing so it actually flexes the studs back and forth repeatedly until the metal fatigues and the studs snap off with the loose nut still on them!

So you need to get the nuts tight enough to not let the assembly move while the wheel is spinning, and if it doesn't move the nuts shouldn't work themselves loose either. If you tighten the nuts as far as you're comfortable with and the weight still shifts in the wheel as it's spinning, you need to stabilize it some other way. If you wanted to check if the weight moves while the wheel is spinning you could do something like jam some playdough type stuff in some gaps between the weight and the wheel and squeeze it until it's touching both wheel and weight, and then spin the wheel and see if any of the playdoughs get 'loose'.

My tire has an inner and outer rim that can be switched to widen the stance, on one of the pictures you can see about a 16th of an inch clearance between the concrete and that bolt frame, all 4 bolts have that same clearance, they cant flop much because of that, I will keep an eye out, thanks

 

[Texasl3301]

Now that they are in, how tight can I torque them?

I moved a few yards of road base today, not tippy at all, was able to overfill the bucket instead of keeping it only half full as in the past, so nice, should have added weights a long time ago.
I considered the brittleness of concrete to being hit/jarred vs metal, have seen many posts of concrete weights being made but no comments years later with updates on how long the concrete lasted.

 

[Texasl3301]

Update,
I now have about 100 hrs with the concrete weights, no cracks in the concrete, I torqued them to 30lbs, they did seem to loosen a bit after an hour or so of driving I retorqued and as some recommended I added loctite and locking washers.
What I would do different,
1. More bubble removal, 1 min per rim removing bubbles with a reciprocating saw banging in the rim is not enough.
2. More lug bolts, should have used 6 instead of 3,
3. Taken more time to tighten the wire more that connected the rebar to each other.
4. Embedded a design in the surface, just for looks

 

[Runs With Scissors]

Update,
I now have about 100 hrs with the concrete weights, no cracks in the concrete, I torqued them to 30lbs, they did seem to loosen a bit after an hour or so of driving I retorqued and as some recommended I added loctite and locking washers.
What I would do different,
1. More bubble removal, 1 min per rim removing bubbles with a reciprocating saw banging in the rim is not enough.
2. More lug bolts, should have used 6 instead of 3,
3. Taken more time to tighten the wire more that connected the rebar to each other.
4. Embedded a design in the surface, just for looks

Thanks for the update. Glad to hear its working so far.

It's always nice to hear how things turn out.

I agree whole heartedly with #2

 

[FTG-05]

When I made concrete wheel weights for a garden tractor (12" rims) I did it basically the same way. But, instead of embedding the bolts in concrete, I embedded lengths of copper tubing that the mounting bolts could slip through and tighten against. I used four 1/2x8-inch Grade 5 bolts to mount them.

I also embedded a handle to use to assist mounting and dismounting the weights.

I used a plastic bucket for a form and assembled the tubing/bolts on the wheel so that everything was perfectly positioned before the pour. Bolts punched through the bottom of the plastic bucket, of course. I did not use any rebar.

-Paul

PS, I have encountered applications where a Grade 5 bolt will outperform a Grade 8 bolt. Grade 8 bolts can be brittle in some situations and fail. A Grade 5 can take a tension shock and stretch a bit without breaking. As long as you don't exceed the bolt's 'modulus of elasticity', it will retain its strength. Also, a shear load or a bending moment is probably as well accommodated by a Grade 5 as by a Grade 8. Where i noticed this most is bolts that secure an automotive transmission mount to its crossmember. YMMV

When I made my concrete, lead and steel wheel weights, I wish I had done it this way; it would have made it far easier to install/deinstall them.

Pics. I used 6 5/8"x 8" Gr8 bolts, prewelded them to fit, the used the bottom third of a 30 gallon plastic barrel as the form:

I used my Atlas 12k lift with a special bracket to lift them into place. I could use the lift to rotate move the weights in two directions, then spin the tractor tire for the final direction to line the bolt holes up.

Two 5/8" (outer) and one 1" bolt hole with blind nuts in case I ever want to bolt cheap Walmart lifting weights to the outside:

One came out at 240 lbs, the other at 260 lbs for a total weight of 500 lbs.