Pushing the limits of the B2601

[AJW]

Here's a couple pics of my B2601 running some rocks around. This is pretty much the largest rock it's capable of moving due to lift capacity. Just barely gets it off the ground. Rear tires are fluid-filled so there's no issues of lifting.

I recently received a load of stone veneer for the exterior of my house and found out the loader will "hold" a load of approximately 1200lbs, with the rear getting pretty light, but will not lift at all. Definitely a little sketchy.

All in all, a great little tractor, works well, perfect size for my needs.

 

[PorkBolt]

Nice shot; I picked up my 2601 last October after my 2620 "retired".


Love the upgrades; get yourself some ROPS LEDs and its just about the perfect set up!

 

[Kennyd4110]

... Rear tires are fluid-filled so there's no issues of lifting.
...

Fluid filled tires do little to nothing to ballast the machine properly to use the FEL safely, you need weight BEHIND the rear axle to do that-like on the 3PH, your box blade is most likely to light for proper ballast. The purpose of rear ballast is to transfer weight off of the front axle and onto the rear axle, so the weight needs to further back to do that. Filled tires are wonderful for traction and overall stability, but not as FEL ballast.

Those 2601's are great looking machines :thumbsup:

 

[grandall4]

Why stress the little machine when you've got the big yellow one?

 

[Grouse Feathers]

Kennyd should have given you the address of his recent thread on ballast. There is a good explanation of his comments:

http://www.orangetractortalks.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24859

 

[RyanS]

I have not received my pallet forks for my 2601 as of yet. I can't wait I have a dozen things to do with the forks when they come in. I have found it can pick up a full bucket of gravel, dirt or manure with proper ballast. I have loaded all four tires and use my box blade with weights to ballast my machine.

 

[Trex1200r]

I have the B2301 and only have about 20 hours on it so far. I have mostly been regrading the drainage swale around my house and filling in a pit the builder randomly left behind. I think I will have about 20 yds of dirt in it before I get it to level. Anyway, I had my tractor teetering on the front wheels a couple of times and that was a couple too many. When the bucket was full of dirt on any kind of ground that wasn't pretty darn level it was a scary proposition. It makes me wonder why Kubota doesn't require either a ballast box or some other heavy 3 pt implement be installed when using the loader?

Anyway, after about killing myself twice I purchased the titan ballast box. It is super sturdy although it looks like a kindergartner painted it. I only have about 150 lbs of gravel in the box (about a 1/3 full), but with the weight of the box and the gravel it has made a humongous difference.

So thumbs up to the titan ballast box and their QA forks. Both are a good value.

 

[Manvito]

I moved a few rocks around the other day too. I was amazed at what this machine could pick up. I moved most of them with a ratchet strap and the FEL. A few of them felt like I was almost at the limit of the FEL. As you can see, I picked one up with the carryall. It picked it up with no problem. I can't figure out how to add more than one picture to this post so I will make a new post for the others.

 

[Manvito]

One more.

 

[WFM]

I unload a lot of steel and other stuff I order for my business. Like cast iron grates. I have a rear ballast box I bought off craigs list already loaded with cement that weighs 720 lbs. But I soon learned my L3800 will lift 1000 lbs only. No more then that. My vendors/suppliers know to load the skids/pallets and weigh them on shipping scales before shipping. Most arrive 900 lbs or under. Tuesday I got a delivery of a new wood chipper for my tractor. 950 lbs was the ship weight. My L3800 would lift it off the tractor trailer only several inches. Just enough to unload it. When I brought my tractor back to the dealer for its first service. He worked in the hyd pump or valves to give me a little extra lifting power. I think my FEL is a model LA504, and without looking into the owners manuel. I think the cap was 1050 lbs lift capacity. The I had the pump worked on. Then add pallet forks at 200 lbs. And mine like I said will lift 950-1000 lbs max. So when I see folks moving 1200 lbs with smaller tractors and smaller FEL. I'm skeptical knowing what I'm unloading weighs.

 

[cerlawson]

All this commotion about ballast and weights with lever arms and such. What really is the basic principle about best places for given weights is moving the enter of gravity to such a place as it helps the job you are working on. Take all the components that have weight and lump hem all in one place is then resulting in one weight at that location, the center of gravity. Saying weight in tires is no good is really saying that if that weight were farther from the work area, it moves the center of gravity back farther then if it is located at the rear axle. Slide your seat back and that helps some also.

It's easily possible to determine where the center of gravity is. Take any point on the tractor and multiply the weight tending to tip it backwards by the distance from that point. Any weight forward has that product shown as negative. Add em all up and divide by the total weight and you them determine where that center of gravity is as distance from that reference point .

So yiu see that rear ballast results in a bigger product in that addition, meaning it is more helpful in moving that center of gravity back.

 

[Manvito]

WFM, I don't know how much the boulders I moved weigh. Maybe 700-800 pounds. I can tell you, a few of them were just about all I could move.