Got tractor bounce? Can’t hold the steering wheel? Unable to read the messages on your smart phone while trying to work in the field? You’ve got power hop.
I have seen tires lift off the ground as much as a foot. You are not on a bumpy field. It feels different from what you get when you are going too fast on a bumpy road.
Here’s the scenario: You have tried everything. You have taken weights off and put weights on and you aren’t sure if you gained anything. You have slowed down to a lower gear and that seemed to help, but then you are wasting fuel.
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What is the answer?
The reason your tractor bounces is that one axle is pulling more than the other because it turns faster or has better traction. You can get better traction by lowering the tire air pressure or adding weight, but the solution to the problem is different on the four-wheel drive tractor compared to the smaller front-wheel assist tractor.
On the four-wheel drive tractor, both axles turn the same speed so you want to give them the same traction. Because the front end on these tractors usually weighs a lot more than the back end, you might want to add weight to the back.
If you already have fluid in the tires, don’t add more than the recommended level, up to the top of the rim, because the tire becomes hard and you will lose traction. Instead, remove fluid from the front.
When you add weights, be careful you don’t exceed the maximum weight as advised in the operator’s manual. And don’t end up with less than 10 percent slippage.
A quick read for slippage is that the lug should move about its own width of dirt.
Less slippage or too much weight will give you a dead engine and result in using more fuel than necessary.
Sometimes you can accomplish the same thing by moving the clevis higher on the cultivator and pulling from the hammer strap on the tractor. You would be surprised how much weight you can transfer from the front to the back by doing this.
You can also get a power hop by having too much pressure differential between the outside dual and the inside. The outside one should be no more than three pounds less than the inside one.
Another thing that can create a bounce, although it may be better described as a rumble, is when the lugs on the tread of the duals line up with each other. A simple solution is to stagger them.
The front-wheel assist tractor will also bounce around just like the four-wheel drive tractor, but the solution is different.
Because the front turns faster than the back wheels, you need to make the front slip before the back wheels do.
The simplest way is to raise the air pressure to the maximum in front and lower the air pressure to the minimum in the rear tires.
The same rules apply for maximum weight and slippage.
Henry Guenter is a former service manager for Massey Ferguson.
