Ballast Front Ballast for B5100

[Baby Grand]

On Friday I built a counterweight for the front after having little luck keeping the fronts on the ground while tilling. Drilled four holes in a section of channel and got some longer bolts to replace the metric front PTO bolts and mount the channel. Two 5/8" bolt heads welded to the channel attach a strange 100# weight that we found in the shed, out back. The difference is like night and day - now the front stays down and turning the steering wheel has the desired effect!





The Plant Manager approves:

 

[j t huskins]

That looks like it will do the job. Nice tiller. Mine is a early 80s Bushog brand with a lot of hours on it. It has worn out one set of tines and looks like a bomb went off under it but has never failed.

 

[Baby Grand]

Thanks, JT. The tiller is a Phoenix (Sicma?) 40". It's surprisingly heavy duty for it's size. At 310 lbs, it's right at the published limit for the 3 pt, which doesn't seem to have any trouble lifting it.

Now that I know the ballast is enough to keep the front down with the tiller attached, I'll have to get some orange paint and primer and try to make it look a little less junkyard.

-Jim

 

[Thomas]

By the looks if more weight needed easy to add on...sure save lot $$'s also looks neat/clean.

 

[Baby Grand]

By the looks if more weight needed easy to add on...sure save lot $$'s also looks neat/clean.

Thanks, Thomas. If only I could find a few more of those weights - I could use a similar arrangement, but more like 200-300#, on the front of the L for field mowing with the FEL removed. No idea what it's from, though. The previous owner of our place was a JD and Ford 4000 owner, so maybe old iron from one of those?

 

[Rickben1080]

Jim,

That is just about the coolest thing EVER!!!!!

I've been trying to figure out how to get weight on my front because the back hoe I have attached makes steering on our asphalt near impossible. Even with the FEL attached. Right now I have 4 large pieces of concrete strapped down on the hood. But I'm trying figure out how to put a horn on the front to put my large free weights on there... This is a good idea.

Thanks,
Rick

 

[Baby Grand]

Rick,

Welcome to TBN - I love this place. It has saved my bacon so many times.

About the weight - glad you liked it! I looked for free weights for months and gave up as folks wanted insane money for the iron kind. I was all set to cut up an 8 foot Lally column into 24" lengths and weld up a bracket to hold the sections, but discovered that the column was so corroded that I couldn't get the pipe cutter to track right and wound up making lots of threads and no cuts. What you see in the picture was the result of desperation and the need to get something hung on the front that day so we could till with the small tractor.

I think you could make a very nice (and very adjustable) front ballast attachment with the free weights. I also wanted free weights to hang on my subsoiler/potato plow to help it dig down at the beginning of a row.

Good luck and don't forget to take some pictures and show us how you did it.

-Jim