Homemade Front or Rear Ballast Box

[GPintheMitten]

I needed some weight on the front of my Kubota B6200 to counter the rear snow blower. But I'm going to build a fel one of these days so I may want rear ballast too.

So I built a frame that I can hang on the front and put homemade concrete weights in. I put lower lift pins on it for when I want to put it on the rear. Also included a 2 inch receiver. I haven't put the top link on yet, but have the steel to do it later.

The steel box weighs 80 lbs empty and each concrete cube weighs 40 pounds. I also have an old battery that I can strap on top that weighs another 40 pounds and if that isn't enough, I can put my portable winch on a 2 inch insert bar which would add about another 80 pounds.

So I can configure it as 240 lbs or 280 or 360 lbs. When I made the forms, I put in small blocks inside the forms to make space for the receiver and the lower lift pins. Here's a few pics.

More pics in next post.

 

[GPintheMitten]

More pics.

 

[chuck diesel]

Nice work. Well thought out.

 

[GE222]

My B7200 has manual steering.
Does yours as well?

I was curious how it steers with the load.

 

[Thomas]

Two for the price of one..nice job.
No power steering??but you can +- the weight factor for easier steering.

 

[ModMech]

WOW!!!!!

NICE WORK!

 

[glc24]

Very nicely done

Greg

 

[GPintheMitten]

Thanks for the positive feedback guys.

I don't have power steering. I had it in low and 4 wd to move it around and load it on my trailer. It was noticeably harder to steer but there was no snow either. So I think it will work fine. As mentioned I might take a block or two out. We haven't got any snow to blow since I finished this.

It was a fun and rewarding project, although a bit cold in the garage doing this, especially for painting. But the kerosene heater helped.

 

[LD1]

Just a couple of questions.

1. Are you sure those blocks only weigh 40lbs??? A concrete cinder block weighs that and it looks like you have way more volume of concrete. What are the dimensions of each block??

2. Not really a question but more of an observation/suggestion.
In its current configuration it won't work on the 3PH. You need some sort of upright to tie into the toplink, otherwise the back/reciever end will either be pointing down or dragging the ground.

But nice work though. Looks Awesome

 

[GPintheMitten]

LD1,

You're right the 3rd (top) link is missing. I'm going to add that later. I needed to finish up and take it up north to our cabin this past weekend and didn't have time to fab the top link. I will need it when I put it on the rear for the fel counterweight.

Regarding the weights, yes, I used 2 bags of 80 pound redi-mix. I also calculated the weight before I built the forms. Here's a handy formula:

An 80 pound bag of redi-mix has .66 cubic feet of volume. By the way, that is the same as a 5 gallon bucket, but I digress. 0.66 cubic feet is 1140 cubic inches. Each form was 11.5" tall by 9.26" wide x 5.5" deep which is 585 cubic inches and weighs in at 41 pounds, but the blocks I put in to create voids for the receiver and the bottom links offset the extra 4 pounds, plus when I filled the forms, the concrete only filled to 11" tall. So they are very very close to 40 pounds each.

I think blocks with voids are 16" x 8" x 8".

 

[LD1]

They just looked bigger than that. The beauty of pics

I could have swore they were at least 16 x 16 x 8 or so.

Have you put them on the scales??? I bet there still closer to 50-60 lbs each cause concrete retains a lot of water. Cured concrete i think has like a 40-50% moisture content.

 

[GPintheMitten]

I haven't scaled them yet. Maybe later when my wife leaves for the day so I can take the bathroom scale to the garage. They do feel pretty heavy, especially at the end of a busy day.

Speaking of my wife, when I was in the middle of the project she asked me how I was going to make concrete in the middle of winter in Michigan. Before I could answer she said "And don't even think about doing it in the basement."
I asked her when was the next day she was going to be gone for the day.

But I ended up mixing it in the garage with hot water from the house and had the kerosene heater on.

 

[GPintheMitten]

LD1, you're right. I weighed one on the bathroom scale and it is 44 pounds. So it does retain moisture. And there is a small amount of re-rod in it.

GE222, Regarding steering. I was out today and moved it off my trailer and drove it back to the barn to park it. I put it in 4wd Hi Range. There was a dusting of snow on the drive and yard. It steered very easily with the 4 blocks in (250 pounds total on the front).

This is so much better with the extra weight on the front. It was too light before and I was having trouble getting it to behave and steer where I told it with the heavy 3pt blower on the back. I was kidding my wife about just building a seat up front for her to sit on and then I would also have a 'wench' on the front. But she didn't like that idea much.

Also I used the receiver mount with a trailer hitch on it and moved my boat into the recently completed barn. That trailer hitch will be a handy thing to have.

 

[jas67]

Nice work. Well thought out.

What he said!

 

[Roger270]

That sure is nice work GP.
Everything is clean, and well thought.

Roger270

 

[GPintheMitten]

Thanks again, guys. It was fun. Went through a few changes on paper before I built it. Next project....(after fluid/filter changes that I'm doing now) ......... Front End Loader!

 

[seriousfreedom]

what size of steel did you use?? i need to fab something up for the rear to have ballast for when i use my fel. any suggestions would be helpful

 

[creekbend]

Well done.Innovative. :thumbsup:

 

[DABSGT]

Nice job I was just listening to the weather and snow Saturday and thinking I need weight in the rear of my 855 reading your post I remembered I had some cement blocks I can run the draw bar through lift the hitch and off I can go. Thanks for thr inspiration

 

[pak7819]

I also recently made the discovery of how well ballast can improve the capability of a small utility tractor. I run a FEL on my New Holland TC40DA so am already running weight on the front axle. I needed ballast on the rear so I fabbed a similar concrete 3pt ballast box. I used some 3/4 plywood that had been laying around to frame it, plenty of screws, and some ingenuity to hold my top link mounting and bottom link mounts with steel I grabbed from the scrap pile.

Turned out really nice, I built it to give 1,800 pounds of ballast using just a hair under 1/2 yard of concrete. Only difference is I took my empty form on a trailer to a local concrete plant and got some left over mix at no charge. I had a cap premade for the ride home so it wouldn't slosh around. Re screeted the top as soon as I got home and let it set for a few days. Used it a few times already, and it's a world of difference. I recommend it to anyone with a FEL and some spare time to fab it up.