aftermarket wide front for a WD

Edited by IBWD MIke - 04 Jun 2019 at 8:50am

DrAllis has it right. There are plenty of factory ones at reasonable prices why would you consider one of those. Tom

Thanks for the info.

They turn like lumber wagons..... or at least that what I was told but I've never driven a lumber wagon.  I have driven a WD with a Schwartz front end and I prefer the factory wide front purely for the maneuverability..... and looks!

This is a Schwartz front end:But it's not installed the 'normal' way.

Normally, a Schwartz frontend of this flavor, would mount in such a way that the existing narrow-front steering pedestal was still in place, but with the wheels removed, and replaced with a steering arm that acts on rods to the steering knuckles.

The Schwartz company did NOT make front ends with the intention of being able to turn as tight as a factory WF.  They didn't even CONSIDER that as a concern... they built their front ends to make tractors strong enough to survive under the load of the Schwartz fully-hydraulic front-end loader... and be 'EASILY' installed and replaced from a NF farm tractor to change from wide-front manure-moving, to narrow-front picking corn... which AC, and virtually any other manufacturer, could NOT do.

While the factory wide front and narrow front may turn tighter, turning radius is a moot point when the nose of the tractor is on the ground with a broken steering knuckle, and a bucket of wet pooh  holding it down...  but I can assure anyone with no doubt, that the Schwartz (the one I own, at least) is substantially stronger than ANY of the OEM wide fronts prior to the D17...