Ballast On the subject of ballast

[oosik]

I completely understand about not wanting a big 'ol implement out back for counterweight. My 80 acres is open bunch grass and tight stands of old ancient Ponderosa pines. No way I can get my tractor into the pine stands - rear blade on the 3-point or not.

If your yard is that soft you might consider a gravel path dedicated to tractor use. In the spring there has to be a VERY pressing need for me to go out most anywhere on the 80. I will make ruts that must later be "troweled" smooth. The rest of the summer - you can hardly see where I've been. The ground dries out and becomes concrete.

The picture is looking across my high pasture( ~ 25 acres ). View attachment 635258

 

[WinterDeere]

Hey WinterDeere,

Rimguard recommends filling tires to 75% - 80% full, and Rimguard weighs about 11 pounds per gallon.

On my SCUT the front tires are small (18 x 8.50 -10) and the 4 gallons of Rimguard adds about 44 pounds per tire. The reason I filled the front tires was to lower the center of gravity of the tractor for some slight side hill operations, even though it does not make much difference to the center of gravity.

If your old ballast box ends up working with your new tractor, modifying it to add a surface mounted hitch should not be very hard. If your steel box material is strong enough, you could weld on a thick plate with drilled and tapped holes that match another thick plate (this second plate has a hitch welded to it) plus the mounting holes to install the first plate to the ballast box, and this will allow you to install/remove the hitch as needed.

And if the steel ballast box material is not very thick, you could drill a little larger hole in the steel and then drill and install concrete anchors, size that you choose and bolt the plate to the box blade that has a hitch welded to it.

B.T.W. A steel plate 3/4" thick and sized 30" x 30" (unknown what your ballast box size is) mounted on the rear of your box blade would weigh about 200 pounds, if you only need to add a little more weight.

Good luck, KC

Thank you for the idea on the hitch! I like that. A little extra weight at the aft end of that ballast box can help, too. If I end up keeping this box, I’m definitely going to follow this advice.

But your idea on front tire ballast is incorrect, I think. The front axle is on a free pivot, at least on all of my tractors, so they’re essentially a tricycle. That weight in the front tires does absolutely zero for side-hill stability until the tractor has tipped to a point where the uphill front wheel lifts off the ground. Given the amount of travel in the front axle pivot, that will not happen until the tractor is already well past the point of no return.

If your tractor has some sort of suspension or shock absorber to limit the force or rate of front axle pivot, then the physics are different, but mine do not. They pivot completely freely, until they hit a stop, but that stop is likely too far past the tipping point to save me on a side-hill scenario.

 

[WinterDeere]

Oh... and I’m no closer to a decision on how to ballast this machine for my purposes.

The opinions are very varied and inconsistent, on this subject, and apparently not only because of variations in use!

 

[ovrszd]

Oh... and I’m no closer to a decision on how to ballast this machine for my purposes.

The opinions are very varied and inconsistent, on this subject, and apparently not only because of variations in use!

Not sure what you expected???

 

[bigtiller]

I would try it for a year with no added weight on the tractor so that you can get into the yard during the "soft" season and see how it workes out. But I would also get the big ballast box and fill it to about 3/4 full and as heavy as possible. When you need more ballast, fill the remaining 1/4 of the box with steel.

The ballast box for my 2720 weighs 600 lbs or 800 lbs, depending on the job and ground condition.

 

[TheMan419]

I don't think you can ever underestimate the need for ballast. Is the cost of the larger box prohibitive? Try the smaller box. If it is not sufficient, get the bigger one, but fill with sand. Then you can find the sweet spot of how much ballast works for you to balance the need for ballast vs the need not to rut up your yard. Then once you know that limit, remove sand and put in the same weight of concrete if you feel the need.

 

[jjp8182]

Given the flat sides of the ballast box you already have, I'd be tempted to bolt 2" receiver hitches to the left, right and rear sides and either use one of Heavy Hitch's 2" receiver weight brackets or use the 2" receiver to add some other form of modifiable weight/ballast.

That would allow for tailoring the weight of the ballast for the conditions/work --- as well as providing additional tool mounting locations. Given the number of accessories for 2" receivers that just leverage the interface as a mounting method for vices, baskets, and other handy devices/contraptions it'd seem like a convenient way to also reuse the current ballast (assuming you don't want to get rid of the current one for other reasons).

Lots of options, though personally it'd seem like starting with the wheel weights and the current ballast box and adjusting as needed would seem the most straight forward path.

...after all it's almost always easier to add more weight than it is to take it off (which seems to the the case no matter if it's tractors, aircraft or people).

 

[WranglerX]

I would start out with ballast you have and go from there.... Tractor will tell you if it wants more....

Dale

 

[WinterDeere]

Given the flat sides of the ballast box you already have, I'd be tempted to bolt 2" receiver hitches to the left, right and rear sides and either use one of Heavy Hitch's 2" receiver weight brackets or use the 2" receiver to add some other form of modifiable weight/ballast.

That would allow for tailoring the weight of the ballast for the conditions/work --- as well as providing additional tool mounting locations.

This is a very cool idea. I had been thinking down the path of just buying one or two more ballast boxes, to load at different weights, but that creates a little storage headache. Your solution solves that, but is harder on the back than just backing up to a different box with a quick hitch. Both options to consider...

Not sure what you expected???

I sort of expected the range of opinions I'm seeing, I know this is not a new subject here. Just fishing for more opinions, keep 'em coming, I've gotten some great ideas from this crowd already.

I would try it for a year with no added weight on the tractor so that you can get into the yard during the "soft" season and see how it workes out. But I would also get the big ballast box and fill it to about 3/4 full and as heavy as possible. When you need more ballast, fill the remaining 1/4 of the box with steel.

The ballast box for my 2720 weighs 600 lbs or 800 lbs, depending on the job and ground condition.

I don't think you can ever underestimate the need for ballast. Is the cost of the larger box prohibitive? Try the smaller box. If it is not sufficient, get the bigger one, but fill with sand. Then you can find the sweet spot of how much ballast works for you to balance the need for ballast vs the need not to rut up your yard. Then once you know that limit, remove sand and put in the same weight of concrete if you feel the need.

Both of these posts echo similar advice, skip weight in the wheels for now, and put what I need on the hitch. I'd be looking at a 2000 lb. ballast box to hit the capacity of this loader, and it could work fine on flat land, my only concern with this plan would be side-hill stability. I have to traverse side hill quite a bit on this machine, sometimes with a load of mulch in the bucket (albeit, not the heaviest load...).

... and no, the cost of a larger box is less than 1% of the cost of this tractor! I'd be fine with the cost of multiple ballast boxes, which might be the direction I'm headed here. Just gotta figure out a good way to store them out of the weather, and keep them accessible.

I would start out with ballast you have and go from there.... Tractor will tell you if it wants more....

I'm trying to avoid that very situation! My wife has told me I'm not a great listener, what if I don't hear the tractor until she screams? :laughing:

Seriously, I got the rear of my 855 so light once that it went freewheeling down a hill with me on it. A mistake I won't repeat, but I've also had logs roll in unexpected ways once or twice, pulling the rear tires off the ground. The capacity and reach of this loader versus the wheelbase and weight of the tractor is such that this new rig will be 2.3x more "tippy" than the old 855, using a simple length*weight see-saw equation with the front axle as the fulcrum.

 

[Imold]

I only have a scut but realized I needed some weight in the back when moving class 5 gravel so I built this box with a removable 30 gal plastic barrel that I can add water to or sand for weight plus I can haul tools and without the barrel in there is a lot of room for other things even different types of weight(s) to customize it.