Ballast Box

[jorswift]

Wanting to make a ballast box for my JD4300. Going to use some old 3-point parts I have laying around. Thinking about just boxing in the 3 point hook-up and adding cement/wire/rebar etc. My question is, how big and how many bags of cement do i use? I am not the greatest mathematician, nor have I worked much with cement. I have seen some of the DIY cement boxes, and I think it will work great with what I need. Thanks.

 

[PEJ5]

I just built one. I bolted a cat 1 drawbar to a 24" long 2" hitch receiver along with some angle iron for the top link and for structure. Then I built concrete forms around it screwing the forms to a pallet. I took the forms to a Ready-mix place and they filled it with leftover concrete for a donation to their staff coffee fund!

Mine is over 8 cubic feet x 150lbs per cu.ft. about 1300lbs total for a 50 HP tractor that is rated at 2600lbs of loader lift. It feels like plenty of weight for what I expect to be lifting - logs, rock, gravel.

It measures 22" wide (quick hitch compatible), 24" deep, and 30" tall in the back. The top link angle iron is 22" above the drawbar but so far I drilled toplink holes at 18" (cat1). The drawbar pins are 8" above the bottom of the concrete and in 5" from the back.

If you built forms 22"x22"x22" that would give you 6.1 cu.ft. or 900+ lbs of concrete. Make sure to angle or notch down near the toplink bracket so the toplink does not hit the concrete when you lift the ballast.

Have fun.

 

[Thomas]

Over the years seen some nice ballast TBNer's have made...sleeves,chain hooks,top of ballast 6" square pocket with drain for chains etc.

 

[SmallChange]

I just bought a Titan box and put in 5 bags of concrete, 50 lbs each, plus two chunks of steel at 70 lbs each, plus topping off the concrete with some self leveling concrete to give me a perfectly smooth flat surface for chain storage (I kept the box on the tractor, and lifted, and used the top link and right side link adjustments to level the box first). The rim of the box is about 4" above this surface to keep things there. I wound up at 800 lbs. This is for a 25 hp tractor. It was pretty easy, except for the part about choosing the hottest day of the year to do all my manual concrete mixing and shoveling in the direct sun.

 

[WranglerX]

There is a couple of ballast box build threads on this site, lots of different concepts.... Mine is 2x2x1 Ft. (4 cubic feet) and should weigh in at about 600 pounds if 150lbs per cubic foot theory holds true... I uses about 8 - 60 lb bags of Sacrete at 60 lbs per bag so that calculates out to about 480 pounds so who knows.... Oh yeah, ballast box in on small SCUT in my case...



2" PVC pipe inserted as tool holders, spray can caps keep leaves and trash out while it "sits"...

Dale

 

[jorswift]

Thanks guy. I have searched the multiple threads on ballast boxes. Just trying to get an idea on how big and heavy for the 32hp tractor.

 

[WranglerX]

Thanks guy. I have searched the multiple threads on ballast boxes. Just trying to get an idea on how big and heavy for the 32hp tractor.

From my tractors owners manual...



Typical manual writers speak... Who has said scales available to work with...

Dale

 

[Deere Dude]

Thanks guy. I have searched the multiple threads on ballast boxes. Just trying to get an idea on how big and heavy for the 32hp tractor.

I made my own ballast box for the fun of it even though I had a brand new unfilled one. After measuring the case and throwing rocks and steel and concrete in it, it looked nice and worked nice. But, it was to heavy for my liking at 1500#. I gave it to my neighbor with a bigger tractor (60 HP).

I then filled my store bought one with a little extension on top for the prescribed weight. Now it is about 8-9 hundred pounds. That seems just right for my medium duty 40-45 HP tractor.