Narrow Front Question

Don't know much about narrow front (tryke) style tractors. We had a 49 JD narrow front on the far growing up and dad would never let me drive it, I had to drive all the newer Fords. Are those stable tractors? Can a man farm gentle rolling hills with them? Looking at them I would guess they are for flat land.

You should have wide front for loader work. But i you keep enough weight on the back to keep the back tires on the ground you will be fine.

I hay some pretty steep "gently rolling hills" My mowwing tractor is a D-17 narrow front. Like Floyd said, I set my rears fairly wide and it has a full set of wheel weights on the rears. I always have the mower on the high side of the hill. The problem with the wide front on steep grades is the false sence of security. If you get in trouble its the back end that will come over on you, the front is going to rock or pivot you past the point of no return. If you have a bad grade I've had good results with going up and down at a 45 angle to the grade. Know your field and avoid the holes on the low side tire and the rocks and humps on the high side. If you don't feel comfotable then by all means, trim it with a weed wacker! This old tractor, weekend farmer thing is suposed to be fun  not life threatning. Go slow get a feel for it and make sure both brakes work well, this will get you out of a tight spot. I try to head down hill if it gets a little to ustable for my liking. The last thing is try to do this without the wife watching, they tend to get a little

Thanks DIY Dave I spit diet pepsi all over my screen lol. Playgun I absolutely have had my wd and 17 III and c [all nfe] on very steep hills and although I have never rolled one I have excercised those s muscles Dave speaks about. But then again those muscles have been exercised on all my wfe too!

As others have said its the back not the front.Used to spray weeds with a JD A narrow front with a 55 gallon barrel on each side of engine about a foot off the ground used to go on some very steppe pastures and never tipped it .But am not nearly as brave(stupid) as I used to be.A baler is one of the more dangerous things on steppe ground,the plunger give a little extra push ever time it makes a stroke. But also we make 16x23 bales with 3 strings so the baler is a bit heavier.Much better to have to much rather than just almost enough tractor for the job.
Ray 

All good choices. A WD is a bit hard on a bad back.

PlayGun wrote: Don't know much about narrow front (tryke) style tractors. We had a 49 JD narrow front on the far growing up and dad would never let me drive it, I had to drive all the newer Fords. Are those stable tractors? Can a man farm gentle rolling hills with them? Looking at them I would guess they are for flat land.

I'll second Bill's note about the importance of enthusiasts.

The physics behind wide vs. narrow front tractors pivots on (oh, bad pun) something called 'roll center'.

On a wide-front tractor, there's a pivot that the axle allows the rear end of the tractor to 'roll' on... at least, up to a certain limit.  Once you hit that limit, the axle stops swinging, and then, the tractor must 'lift' or 'roll' upon the next axle support point... which is... the wheel located far out on the end of the axle.

On a narrow-front tractor, there is no front pivot... the 'roll' of the tractor occurs on a point where the tires contact the ground.

Draw a triangle, where one corner exists at each contact point... one at each rear wheel, and one at the point where the front wheels of a NF contact the ground. 

Now, locate the center of gravity of the tractor... and draw an X on the drawing where the center of gravity is located.  Imagine that the center-of gravity point is ABOVE the paper... because, in real life, the tractor's CG is usually around where the transmission is located... well above the ground.  Now, place an imaginary plumb-bob on the imaginary point, so that the imaginary bob point touches the paper.  It will point to your 'x' on the paper.

Now, tilt the paper, until the imaginary plumb-bob swings OUTSIDE of the triangle.

Now, you have a rollover.

The propensity for a roll starts with some event, which as has already been noted above, could be anything simple, but there's a set of factors, and all are involved.  In ALL cases, what's happened, is that the tractor's center-of-gravity has extended OUTSIDE of the support triangle.

Now, let's try the same thing with a wide front tractor:

Imagine two tire contact points, AND the front axle pivot point.
KEEP IN MIND... the front axle pivot point is substantially ABOVE the ground.  That means your plumb-bob LENGTH will be shorter.  Try tilting the triangle, and you'll find that the plumb-bob is so short, that it takes quite a bit more angle, before that plumb-bob swings outside the support triangle.

BUT... even though it eventually does go outside the triangle, that means the tractor starts to tilt.  BUT... the axle eventually reaches it's stop limit, and then something interesting happens...

The triangle changes radically.  It now consists of the rear wheels, and the DOWNHILL SIDE of the front wheel.  When this happens, the plumb-bob remains INSIDE the 'NEW' triangle... hence, it takes much more for the tractor to continue a roll.

WHY does adding wheel weights change stability?
--Because, by adding wheel weights, you move the tractor's center-of-gravity towards the rear... and slightly lower.

WHY does spreading out the tires change stability?
--Because spreading the tires, spreads out the WIDTH of the triangle.

WHAT About adding fluid?
--Adding fluid to rear tires will do the same as adding iron weights, with the exception that adding fluid only to HALF the tires, will force the center-of-gravity even lower, because you're NOT putting weight ABOVE the CG.

What about additional ballast?
--Adding additional ballast BELOW the tractor's CG, will drive the CG lower... hence, making the imaginary plumb-bob line SHORTER, hence, increasing stability.  Adding additional ballast higher, drives it higher, making it more unstable.


The note about flipping over backwards... this happens when the imaginary plumb-bob is too close to the rear of the tractor... like climbing a grade... and a little too much torque on the axles does the rest.

It's all about the triangle.

But that being the case, I still wouldn't turn down a tractor based on it having an inappropriate frontend... changing the frontend is only two jackstands and a couple wrenches away.

Impressive explanation!