Rim guard or not? Why a ballast box instead of boxblade?

[jedjoe]

'nuff said! I would MUCH prefer a bit of rutting to a toppled tractor (with a driver under it)....Even in Kansas and Iowa there are slopes that can get you into serious trouble...

 

[hognuts1960]

Ballast barrel here. Just some of the same reasons as given by others. Much easier to maneuver in my mostly wooded acreage. It also carries all of my hand implements in the 2 inch PVC tubes as well as several chains. Also has a 2 inch receiver on the back, and hooks on the sides for carrying things. But I can see the other side of using an implement on the back for weight. it is a useful thing on the tractor when you need it. But my rotary cutter sticks out far to much to use at my place. If I had open ground, that might be a different story.

Methanol mix in the tires, as I often need the extra weight for traction when using my rear blade to get up and down the hills and pull the blade. I would not be without the liquid in the tires. But each to their own and depending on what they do with their tractor. There is no best. There is only best for you and what you do. I have found MY best, but that might not be the greatest idea for your operation.

Could you post a picture please.

 

[WilliamBos]

Forget liquid ballast, bolt on cast iron wheel weights.

 

[bud70706]

I see a lot of people buying 3 point ballast boxes or making ballast containers out of drums to attach to their 3 point hitch.

I have never really grasped why not just keep a box blade on the back so you could have not just a weight, but something that can be used should you wish to drag something? I have seen some weld a section of railroad rail onto the top of a box blade to make it heavier.

Also, rimguard is something I have considered, but I am also not sure about this because it seems I can do everything I need to do without rimguard and it will just increase the amount of weight when I trailer the tractor or perhaps increase ruts when on soft lawns.. I have thought rimguard would be good when using my ditch bank flail mower, but so far, I haven't found myself in any situation I would consider to have been tippy.

So, is there anyone here that added rimguard to their tires and regretted it?

I use my Woodland Mills stump grinder. It's compact and I've never needed more ballast

 

[4570Man]

8 foot box blade usually does a good job if your tractor can handle it. If your loader has enough power to pickup rear of tractor with 8 ft box blade you may be overloading your front axle on a four wheel drive tractor. 8 ft box blade with loaded rear tires offsets front loader NH621 on Workmaster 50. When the rear wheels loose traction you are stressing equipment, as well as operator to the limit.
Eample: Forks loaded to maximum and going down a hill. You find out what your front axle is made of plus how much your britches will hold. You will only do that once in your life.

Most box blades are kinda dinky. If you had a commercial quality blade that weighed 2000 pounds it might be sufficient on it’s own without further ballast but most box blades aren’t that beefy. I wouldn’t want an 8’ box blade behind a compact tractor either. It would be ok for some stuff but it would stick off so far it would be a severe nuisance to just leave on.

 

[4570Man]

My BB weighs 1100-1200 lbs. I have 1500 lbs of rear tire fluid. I'm guessing the BB hanging off the 3pt adds more weight than the fluid. But I'm not going to take the time to mathematically prove it.

With that narrow of a difference in weight and percentage wise a fairly considerable difference in the pivot points I’m sure the box blade by itself would be more effective than the fluid by itself. Obviously using both at the same time is the best solution.

 

[ovrszd]

Forget liquid ballast, bolt on cast iron wheel weights.

I've got 1,500lbs of liquid weight at .15 cents per pound. $220.

What does an iron wheel weight cost per pound? Around here it's $1 per pound. So 1,500lb of cast iron wheel weights would have cost me $1,500.

 

[Tony H]

Although loading tires does take the strain off of the axle bearings and put weight right at the tires, Not a fan of weighting tires. Gooping up the rims, bothers me. A weight box gives you the benefit of a lot of weight close to the tires. Yes the fulcrum idea makes sense when lifting heavy weight on the FEL. It takes strain off the front axle bearings. But it works against you when snow plowing. Putting permanent weight on a box will hurt when using the box blade for its intended use. Too much weight= Digging in.

 

[k0ua]

Ok. lets see what I can com up with for pictures as requested.

 

[ovrszd]

Ok. lets see what I can com up with for pictures as requested.

View attachment 726772View attachment 726773View attachment 726774View attachment 726776

Who's that old man you got workin for ya????