Homemaid Weight Ballast done

[RobR]

Here are some photos of the weight ballast I made.

I added:

• 2 1/2" PVC to slide the draw bar in and out.
• 2 pvc pipes for holding shovel/rake.
• 2" reciever
• And a piece of metal for a hitch to pull our lawn trailer below the reciever.

4 1/2 bags of Concrete
20w X 14d X 18H

Lessons learned: Don't use a bag of old concrete that was partially ok.
I ran out of concrete and was looking around for some more in the shed and found one that was partially hard on one end. So I thought I would use the other half - mistake. The little bit on top falls apart but the overall weight is ok. I may need to remove some add add more on top later if it becomes a problem. Otherwise it works good... Just thought I would share.

 

[gordyy]

how much did it end up weighing
I like been thinking about doing the same thing for mine

 

[RobR]

It weighs around 350lbs. It definitely helps when using the Loader.

 

[Soundguy]

Sweet.

soundguy

 

[wftree]

We used a 30 gallon drum and found out that concrete ways about 20lbs per gallon.

In case you were curious

wftree

 

[JB4310]

Looks good, never seen one in the raw like that, must be deceiving cause it looks like it would weigh more than 350 lbs.

 

[carpenter383]

effective and cheap, Cool!! You should paint it orange!!

 

[flusher]

Looks good, never seen one in the raw like that, must be deceiving cause it looks like it would weigh more than 350 lbs.

At the nominal 140 lb/cu ft, the concrete weight should be about 408 lb plus whatever the steel weighs. Which turns out about right for 4-1/2 90 lb sacks of concrete mix.

 

[JB4310]

We used a 30 gallon drum and found out that concrete ways about 20lbs per gallon.

In case you were curious

wftree

Sounds about right, we usually figure concrete at ~150 lbs per cubic ft so there ~7.5 gallons in a cubic foot x 20 = ~150 lbs.

JB.

 

[radioman]

very nice. now you need to paint it orange. One thing that did concern me though is that I hope you have some sort of a drainage hole in the bottom of the pvc pipe for tool holder otherwise you might end up with a wet handle everything you use it . During the cold months if the hole is filled with water, it could weaken the pipe holder over time from freeze and thaw of ice in there.