Front ballast / Suitcase weights - DIY or cheap

[mud roller]

I went to the scrap yard and got 6"x2" 1 foot lengths of square tubing.
Then to the local tire shop and got left over weights.
Welded some angle on the bottom and part of the top and filled it up.
Weighs in about 75 lbs. Finished with hydraulic cement on top and was done. Had green paint left over.
I use them on the rear of my BX 25 in loader operation.
Cost about 25$ and a case of beer for five weights and lightened the scrap pile a bit.

 

[FTG-05]

I used those heavy railroad pieces that tie rail together, I *think* they're called fishplates. I have a 6 or 8 of them. I bolted them to the grill where they not only provide weight up front, but also some protection for the radiator and the front of the engine.

You can just barely see them in the two pics below.

 

[Xfaxman]

This front weight and brush guard was on the tractor when I bought it 16 years ago. It was bolted onto the frame at the sides.

I welded on a receiver hitch:

 

[Big Barn]

A couple of pieces of angle iron bolted to the frame one each side with a board on them and a hefty friend to sit on the board, your all set just don't dump them off and run over em. or a couple of sacks full of sand or gravel.

..or whatever is handy and nearby. MIL comes to mind...

 

[LouNY]

..or whatever is handy and nearby. MIL comes to mind...

Aw, but I did say not to dump them off and accidently run over them :confused3: whoops what happened :drink:

 

[SkunkWerX]

The B7100 has some factory holes in the front and on the sides of the frame near the front. If the OP can't weld, he can bolt up some brackets/plates, then go from there.
To get 300# up front it's probably going to have to be steel. ( or lead, but lead's becoming tougher to find).

300# of concrete is going to be bulky. A 5 gallon bucket of cured concrete is roughly 100#. SO you'd be looking at 3 of them up front, gives an idea how bulky concrete might be.

So your left with steel from scrap yards and weightlifting weights. If you can find someone selling a universal gym machine, with those flat weights that are lifted by a steel cable they already have holes in them. You could fabricate the front bracket to hold a bunch of them?

Suitcase weights are handy, If you sell the tractor they will add to the overall value. DO a search for places that may have piles of old tractor weights. Buying them old, used and rusty might save you some $$. For example, I know a place that has 10 to 20 pallets of tractor weights lying around. They still aren't cheap, but they aren't "new" prices, either.

Just a question, how did you come up with 300# as a number? My old Ford 1210 (very similar size and geometry to the B7100) had 3 suitcase weights up front, and I think they were 33 lbs. apiece. Those were enough to counter balance a rear PTO finish mower hanging out back. Maybe you could get away with 200#? or 150#?

That's all I've got. good luck.

 

[Fuddy1952]

I just took this picture out of a back window of my well house that has a heavy hinged top. I made a counterweight out of iron plumbing pipe using barbell weights.
You can open top easily now.
Around here cheapest place to buy weights are the Goodwill stores.
I'm thinking for a tractor using pipe, crossways like that, 90 bends and flanges.
Right now the one small tractor I tied weights on with rope (Not a good idea).

 

[BukitCase]

Travelrider - just a few points to consider, then if you're like me you'll probably do it anyway :laughing:

1 - When you get your bigger tractor, are you gonna sell the B7100 FOR PARTS??!? Your whole tractor weighs around 1200 pounds, how happy is your poor little front axle/drive gonna be with that much extra weight on it? I know a FEL would add too, but I'd still be worried about hitting anything bigger than a marble with the whole tractor overloaded like that. (shock loads can and WILL catch you offguard)

2 - Your rear lift is supposedly capable of over 1000 lbs;

TractorData.com Kubota B71HST tractor information

I have to assume that's WITH a FEL, or simply what the LIFT can do (NOT what will let the front tires stay on the ground) - if your 650 lb. chipper lets you pick up the front of the tractor with one hand it WOULD make it a bit tricky to steer - but...

It appears from the few pics available at the above link that your tractor (hopefully) has SEPARATE REAR BRAKES - if so, maybe another option (til the bigger tractor happens) might be to practice what us old farts with 2-wheel drive tractors have been doing for decades -

"Left turn, LEFT BRAKE - Right turn, RIGHT BRAKE" - When you're doing THAT, LESS weight on the front is actually an ADVANTAGE... But be careful doing that unless you're CRAWLING, it's possible to PIVOT on one wheel, and if you're moving very fast it can really GET AWAY FROM YOU - MOST of the time, a light touch on the individual brake will STEER you instead of FLIP you (AND the tractor)

As per my first comment in this post, I too do "Krazy Krap" - sometimes it's the only way we can get something done with what we have available. But over the years, I've found that starting out SLOWLY CRAZY usually lets me learn AND survive

73 and STILL too stubborn for my own good... Steve

 

[Big Barn]

Maybe adding wheelie bar would be safer and easier.

 

[travelrider73]

Just a question, how did you come up with 300# as a number? My old Ford 1210 (very similar size and geometry to the B7100) had 3 suitcase weights up front, and I think they were 33 lbs. apiece. Those were enough to counter balance a rear PTO finish mower hanging out back. Maybe you could get away with 200#? or 150#?

I made up that number to be honest with a little of my own logic. The implement weighs over 600 pounds. I figured hanging 300# off the front would shift enough of the weight back to the front axle to make steering easy and the tractor more balanced. I am sure I could get away with less since I'm just moving it around on flat land.

Your whole tractor weighs around 1200 pounds, how happy is your poor little front axle/drive gonna be with that much extra weight on it? I know a FEL would add too, but I'd still be worried about hitting anything bigger than a marble with the whole tractor overloaded like that. (shock loads can and WILL catch you offguard)

It appears from the few pics available at the above link that your tractor (hopefully) has SEPARATE REAR BRAKES - if so, maybe another option (til the bigger tractor happens) might be to practice what us old farts with 2-wheel drive tractors have been doing for decades -

"Left turn, LEFT BRAKE - Right turn, RIGHT BRAKE" - When you're doing THAT, LESS weight on the front is actually an ADVANTAGE... But be careful doing that unless you're CRAWLING, it's possible to PIVOT on one wheel, and if you're moving very fast it can really GET AWAY FROM YOU - MOST of the time, a light touch on the individual brake will STEER you instead of FLIP you (AND the tractor)

I like your braking idea. I wish I had thought of that when I was trying to move this thing from the original owner's house! That would have helped a lot actually.

As for the overloaded tractor, if I'm thinking about my physics lessons correctly, the fact that I can pick up the front of the tractor with one hand means that the entire weight of the implement AND the entire weight of the tractor is currently on the rear axle. The front axle is happy as can be right now -- no weight up there. So, putting weight on the front, in my thinking, actually shifts some weight back off of the back axles. I don't know the exact math here but in my thinking, putting 300 pounds of weight on the front moves the weight balance of the whole thing forward and relieves some pressure off the rear axles too... Maybe I'm wrong about that, but it just seems that if you pull the front back down, you're shifting some of the weight of the engine and tractor back to the front axle too, thereby relieving the rear axle. It may not immediately make sense, but adding 300 pounds up front should put more than 300 pounds of weight on the front axle because you're shifting the weight distribution forward. Someone tell me if I'm nuts or if I'm right.