Ballast box opinions

[doneill127]

I have a similar box. I drilled some drainage holes then put pvc pipe in the 4 corners to hold shovel, rakes etc and filled with 500 lbs pea gravel for total of about 600lbs.

 

[EddieWalker]

I agree with those suggesting you fill it with sand. If moisture is a concern, I might put a heavy duty garbage bag in their first. That might protect the threads on the pins too.

 

[Oaktree]

If that box were mine..........
and because this is an open forum.
And I wished to fill the box with concrete......

I would Remove the supplied pins and fit a standard 3pth tool bar by bolt or bracket.

View attachment 849136

Not really answering the OP's question, but when I need ballast I'll use a drawbar like you pictured and hang a bunch of old brake rotors on it. Maybe wrap a chain around them to keep 'em from shifting. You can fit quite a few on there.

 

[bearthebruce]

Anybody have opinions here?

We have a similar box. We filled it with rock. We took a sledge hammer and broke the rock into pieces to get good fill.

Ours does not sit outside but our box had drainage holes. If the pins would fail and need replacing, we can pull out the rock, replace the pins, and move on.

We considered concrete and for the reasons you have mentioned, we went with rock. We considered sand but for the reasons some have mentioned about the sand retaining moisture - again, we decided rock was better. We considered stone and decided we have stone - it is just big! As it is in the way, use those! 3-4 hours of hard work filled the box. Our guestimate is 800lbs - maybe a bit more.

The ballast box remains on our tractor most of the time coming off only when changing to brush hog or grader blade. Working in the woods, in trees, this simple box was the best investment we made to stabilize the tractor for lifting down logs and such. Having a heavy weight close in beats having big implements on the back when working in trees.

 

[DonRybak]

Thanks for all the suggestions. Went to Lowes and looked at both the solid concrete blocks and gravel. Have kind of made up my mind to go with gravel. I plan on covering the lift pin threads with PVC end caps to protect them from the gravel being dumped in. Thanks again for all the responses.

 

[CH4Ohio]

Not really answering the OP's question, but when I need ballast I'll use a drawbar like you pictured and hang a bunch of old brake rotors on it. Maybe wrap a chain around them to keep 'em from shifting. You can fit quite a few on there.

I knew there was some reason that I was hanging on to all those old brake rotors . . . Great idea! Thanks!!

 

[Soloz2]

Fill the box with bricks or gravel that way you can empty it if needed. You can always add cement later.
Mine is filled with bricks simply because they were on sale making them cheaper than other options at the time. Spring BF is right around the corner and .25 bricks ftw.

 

[FDMTech]

I think there is a little bit of over-thinking here. The box is only ever going to support it's own weight. It's unlikely to need the pins replaced and they could easily be cut off and new ones welded on, instead of being through-bolted.

 

[Elviscaretaker]

I tried a bunch of different things for weight on the back, MY solution is a tad different. I found a front frame mount weight bracket with 1500 pds on it. Fit other weights I found on the property when I bought it. The frame mount fit cat 2 pins perfectly. This was low profile and didn't hang up in tight spots. Nothing has fallen off of it and I can adjust my weight as needed. Just a thought, it also only ran me 70 bucks, think it was off an old MF or Farmall.

 

[Page2]

Photo of my ballast "box". 30 Gal. barrel with the top 1/3 cut off. Drilled and bolted lift pins on the side, then put angle iron across the center and welded to the pins on inside, angle iron from bottom to top link attachment, welded to the cross piece. I then welded several cross pieces of angle iron to the vertical bars for support, and filled with concrete. It cost me the price of the two pins and six bags of concrete. Been using this for about tens years now. You can make about any size or weight you want, a friend cut up an old boiler to make a much larger box for his tractor.