[Farmall] Couple more newbie questions

[Roger Moffat]

On Oct 1, 2008, at 11:59 AM, Mike Sloane wrote:

> I have to say that the idea that a wide front end is safer than a  
> narrow
> front end is a fallacy. To make a long story short, the wide front
> pivots freely at a point a foot or so higher than the narrow front,  
> but
> there is otherwise no difference whatsoever in the the tendency to  
> tip:
> once a rear  tire leaves the ground, the tractor is going over,  
> whether
> the front end is narrow or wide.

With a wide front axle though, the line a tipping tractor pivots about  
changes once the available pivot from the axle has been used up - ie  
it's up against the stop. At that point the tractor then has to tip  
over a line that extends along the line of the wheels from back to  
front, not along the line from the back wheel to the center front of  
the tractor. At this point all of the weight of the tractor is inside  
the tipping line and some distance from it, whereas with a narrow  
front end the weight is all much closer to the tipping line

So while I don't intend to test this out, I'd say that it's likely  
that once a rear wheel leaves the ground, a wide front end tractor  
will continue to tip "easily" until the front axle reaches the pivot  
stop, and then it will be harder to tip it further. How much harder  
will be a function of the weight of the front axle that now has to be  
lifted off the ground plus how far away from centre the front wheel  
still on the ground is.

But in practice it's quite likely that if a rear wheel leaves the  
ground at speed, then it will still be "over she goes Trev'".

Roger