Bucket Tractor Seat

Wondering if anybody has applied their watoosie to a Hesston BS100RD basket seat.

Seems to be a compression spring supported apparatus. Adjustable tension one would assume......yes? Wondering just what to expect if sitting in one. What would make them feel different? What kind of support would one expect for installing one in a 1800# compact tractor with rears rated a combined 5600# of load at 30 psig. that loves to toss you around, side to side, up and down. I run the pressure so low that the tire slips on the rim and still boing boing boint. Just about at wits end trying to get a soft ride from my Branson 2400. Got about $1k invested over the cost of the thing just for ride improvement and still no realistic solution. Problem not unique to it. All the little guys have the same problem just to a varying degree depending on tire size and weight of machine. I hear complaint's from others all the time. What are the designers thinking about when they spec tires? Ok. They build for a backhoe. Fine. How many buy their compact tractor with a back hoe? Betcha not many.

The major brands have lots of tire options and most dealers have several options on hand to suit the customers needs. The off brand dealers sell what came on the tractor and are unwilling to provide any options.
Loren

You have a small tractor. They all ride rough. If you want a good ride you need weight, width and length. A seat is not going to help much if the tractor is bouncing around.

Question If the rear tires are rated at 5600 lbs. and your tractor only weights 1800 why in the world are you running 30 PSI in the tires???? I would say 15 PSI would be more normal. Also what pressure are you running in the front tires??? If you have the R-4 style tires they are going to have a stiffer side wall. IF you want a softer ride then you need to switch the rear tires to softer tires, fewer plys and softer side wall. Now if your going on banks and pulling things hard your need the tires you have and are going to have to live with the ride.

Ballast/weight would properly help as much as anything. Not fluid in the tires but wheel weights. They will defiantly help the ride.

Here where I am, I betcha it's lots. Saw a trailer load of them, loaders and backhoes attached going in to the dealer's today. Ontario Canada, just outside Toronto. Estate people love to pretend with them.

I have to wonder if at some point suspension won't be an option. I mow a neighbor's large yard (2 acres thereabouts) it's rough as can be on a JD 345 garden tractor. But I can ride across that lawn with the atv with its suspension and it's a smooth ride.

We had a compact JD with industrial tires, rode rough. Let the air down to 5psi. Traded it for another one with ag tires and a air ride seat. 100 percent improvement. Don't know anything about Hesston seat.

From memory:

Tractor came with R4s, 4 ply fronts, 6 ply rears.12x16.5. The 16.5 put it in the skid steer tire size range and finding a 6 ply, even with a stiff sidewall must have been a special order by Kukje since most SSs are 10 plies up.

Initially I had to grab my OTR trucker air cushion to provide air circulation for the posteria....vinyl seats sweat as you all surely know. and start my soft(er) ride crusade that I didn't know was coming. Has an air valve and you blow it up orally to suit you. $85 there.

First change was changing seat springs to a pair of 732-01582As which is a soft spring used on Toro and Cub Cadet ZTs. I accidentally stumbled across them one day at TSC on a mower sitting outside and since have equipped all my lawn tractor type mowers with them. Beats the heck out of the "engine valve return" springs you find on most mowers.

Next was a couple of air suspension seat kits that motorcycles use in lieu of seat springs. Set the air pressure (no compressor system) to your desired comfort level. Problem bladder too small for tractor type shocks; no dynamic range. $100 for kits.

Replaced them with a mechanical suspension seat I bought from DR for that ZT mower it and didn't do what I wanted on it. Didn't do on this one either. We're up $200 more on this part.

Next was an air compressor installed, air compression seat system (using my original seat, this sits between the seat bottom and the tractor frame), like OTR truckers have in their rigs. Was able to find just the system for another $400 on ebay. Ran that till yesterday when I started my search anew.

Then I was able to find a couple of Titan 33x12.5x16.5 that had the right OD to match my front tires for the 4wd. $520 more. These were 4 plies but still stiff sidewall and to get any kind of relief, pressures below 10 psig were necessary......I never even thought about running them at their rated pressure. For the record I run some of my lawn mowers with ATV tires rated for 5 max. Problem here is that the wheels are new, like the tractor, nice and shiny, easy for the tubeless tires to slip on the rim, which they do if less than 10 psig and applying any load requiring traction. After yesterday, I just might let them slip.

Then comes 150#/wheel weights that were made for other brand tractors which I modified to fit mine, another $300.

We are doing reasonably well at this point but the problem now is that you are sitting above the steering wheel. It's about at the location where you'd have a large bowl between your legs while you were snapping green beans! Makes it awkward to mount and dismount the tractor. Good news is that you are sitting higher and the controls don't get hit with your elbows and are easily reached as are the clutch pedals as compared to the height of the original seat. Something about half way between the two extremes is where I am headed today.

So I go to my new Ferris IS700Z, 5' which I bought in frustration with this thing go be able to mow my pastures and pool and outlying yard without killing my back and all, and pulled the seat off it to try. It fits, plenty of room, controls at a good position and all and is soft, but they only come from Ferris as an assy and would be another $333. That is where I am today. I'm going to spray the fence line this morning while it's cool and the wind is down and then it goes back on the Ferris and I get to the bucket seat question or whatever comes up.

Thanks for the replies.

Still open on the original question about the bucket seat. I had a pair of MF 35s years ago, one Continental gasser with PS and the other Perkins diesel, no ps, that I picked up used. One of them had a bucket seat as I recall. I took it off because it was too restrictive. I really liked my MF 35 with the Perkins diesel but the clutch was real heavily sprung and the operator's station was restrictive; having the PS on it would have mitigated some of the other dislikes. I think I'll go out in the barn this morning after it gets how and see if I can find it. If I do maybe that will provide some answers.