Changing to a wide front end may give you a feeling of more stability, but it is a misconception by all too many. The front axle pivots and doesn't help at all with stability until the stop is met. At this point, you are well past a safe position with the tractor. Use the widest setting for your rear wheels to help the most and stay off the sidehill if you think it might tip.
Rollover
Protection
The best rollover protection advice I can give is to buy a
tractor with a low center of gravity, and then operate it safely (avoid
driving up or across steep slopes, slow down when turning, never turn
sharply with a raised front end loader, and never hitch anything
to the tractor other than at the drawbar).
In terms of the tractor's basic geometry and configuration,
the biggest factors in determining its resistance to rolling
over are the center of gravity and the rear wheel spacing.
The lower the center of gravity, and the wider the rear wheel
spacing, the less likely it is to roll over.
The configuration of the front end matters, but not nearly as
much as the center of gravity and the rear wheel spacing. A
"wide front end" is not rigid like the tractor's rear axle--it's
designed to rotate about the long axis of the tractor, up to a point,
so that the tractor can drive over uneven terrain and still keep both
front wheels on the ground. Until a tractor tips far enough that
the wide front end rotates all the way to its stopping point, the wide
front end doesn't provide any more resistance to overturning than does
a narrow tricycle configuration. My point isn't that narrow front
ends are safe--rather, it's that wide front ends don't make a
high-center-of-gravity tractor safe either. If you're buying a
tractor to use on hilly terrain, choose a utility tractor for its lower
center of gravity.
If rollover is a real concern for you, consider buying a
tractor with
a professionally-installed rollover protection system (ROPS).
That
pretty much rules out any tractor built before the early 60s or so,
when
ROPS first became available and when tractors began to be designed for
them.
------------- http://www.ae-ta.com" rel="nofollow - http://www.ae-ta.com Lena 1935 WC12xxx, Willie 1951 CA6xx Dad bought new, 1954WD45 PS, 1960 D17 NF
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