Ballast How much ballast?

[KerryK]

I am going to be building a 3pt ballast box and need a little help in "how heavy" I should make it.

I have an '00 JD 4200 with 420 loader. The tires are not loaded - avoiding that if possible.

My plan is to build a form box and then fill w/concrete - a variation of some ideas I have found in the forums.

Depending on the needs - I can vary it from 500lbs on up. Due to design constraints my upper limit is around 1,100lbs. (I could always work around it if needed).

Any recommendations?

As a secondary question - I have calculated out that 1 lb of concrete is approximately 7.2 cubic inches - can anyone confirm I'm close?

Thanks all!

Kerry

 

[RalphVa]

For my 4010 with loaded tires, I need at least 300 # on the 3 pt to keep a rear wheel from tipping with 1,000 # on the loader. This is with tires loaded.

Ralph

 

[deere_x475guy]

I am going from memory here but I believe my loader manual said to have loaded tires and 733 lbs in the ballast box. This is what I am using. There was also a combination of loaded tires, rear wheel weights and weight in the balast box. I don't rememer what the weight was for wheel weights or ballast weight but I can look it up this evening for you when I get home. In all cases it wanted loaded tires.

 

[HappyCPE]

Kerry, 1 cubic foot of concrete weighs 150 pounds. With 1728 cubic inches in a CF then each CI would be .087 lbs or about 1.4 ounces.

The 150lb number is an estimator's standard. Don't use lightweight concrete! To get greater density to the concrete you could add many short lengths of rebar into the concrete as you fill the ballast box. Steel weighs about 480 lbs/cf or more than 3 times as much.

 

[JustGary]

I'm going from memory here, but I got exactly twice your number for cubic inches.

One 80 pound sack is 2/3 cubic foot as I recall, so

2/3 cf *12 *12 *12 = 1152 cubic inches

1152 ci / 80 lbs = 14.4 ci/lb

The density will change a bit due to sand/gravel/cement ratios, so as always, your mileage may vary. I've never actually weighed a sack before and after mixing, so I don't know just how much water it really retains. I suspect that it keeps most of it, so you could add a few pounds per sack for water. This number should do for tractor work, though.

Good luck, and post a photo when you get done!

- Just Gary

 

[California]

1) How much ballast? - I don't know.

2) </font><font color="blue" class="small">( secondary question - I have calculated out that 1 lb of concrete is approximately 7.2 cubic inches - can anyone confirm )</font>

That might be over-engineering it.

I would start from how many 80 lb sacks do you you need to make 500 lbs of ballast. Answer: 6 sacks plus water plus the weight of the mounting hardware.

Then figure how many cubic feet for the form, based on 2/3 cu ft per sack. 2/3 x 6 = 4 cubic feet.

This should be close enough. Or as one of my carpenter buddies used to say, 'Good enough for the girls I go with!'

 

[keeney]

I made a 900lb block for my 4100 /410 loader and it seems like plenty of ballast, but 500 lbs for a 4200 / 420 would seem a little low.

I made mine about 6 cubic feet, and used 10-1/2 80-lb sacs to fill it.

I designed mine with a tapered front to nestle in between the lift arms, tight to the tractor. I also made it with chamfered outer corners to help avoid backing into things in tight quarters. The overall shape ended up having 8 sides, but not symmetric front to back.

The form was made from scrap 1/2-inch plywood with duck tape holding the corners together - one strip on the inside, and another on the outside. Then I wrapped the whole thing with some nylon web tie-down straps to keep it from bursting apart when I filled it. You can still see the duck tape impression in the convrete iof you look hard.

I put a frame made out of a cat-1 drawbar with two 3/16" flats welded vertically in the middle, sticking out the top with holes for the top-link. Once the concrete was in, no other bracing needed.

I threw in some scraps of rebar to help hold it together should it crack.

In text-art, the top view looks like this:


^ Front ^

/---\
/ \
-| || |-
\-------/


I would definitely recommend making it quick-hitch compatible. The ballast block is the most pain-in-the-a$$ thing to connect up - its so heavy and I often drop it in less than ideal locations outside (everything else gets stored indoors).

- Rick

 

[daTeacha]

Depending on where you live, if you have some granite or other heavy igneous fieldstones around, you could save some volume by adding them to the box before you put the concrete in. They're more dense than concrete.

 

[jasonwdaniell]

Rick,
Could you post some pics of your ballast box. Sounds intriguing.

 

[keeney]

Its not a box - just a lump of concrete with a drawbar and top-link mount embedded in it.

The scrap plywood forms are long gone.

I will try and take some pics tomorrow.

Two things I would change if I did it again:

1. Make provisions to add casters underneath.

2. Slightly more clearance for the top link.

3. Slightly less weight for my 4100. Maybe down closer to 750 lbs.

- Rick

 

[PoleClimber]

Here's a photo of the ballast I made for my TC-35. I used 12-80LB bags of quikcrete concrete mix. I used an old cherry picker fiberglass bucket as the mold and welded my lift arms and pedistual all together and poured the concrete in the mold. When it was setup I took the loader and flipped it over and popped it out . After letting it set for a week I coated it with concrete sealer and painted it. I have no problems anymore with the tractor getting tippsy with a full bucket. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Bernie

 

[keeney]

Here is a link to my post in the Build-It-Yourself forum.


Ballast Block
- Rick

 

[roermo]

I was reading this post and it made me think, I only use my rear blade for back weight. Could this be why I do not seem to be to push though a lot of gravel or wood pile. it seem like I can pick up a load of gravel fine. Hard sevice is what I am on.

Hum green tractor owern. newbee. that is.

4110 jd and 410 loader. No weight in wheels.

Thanks

roge.r

 

[RoyJackson]

I also used my rear blade for ballast. Like you, I wasn't being too successful in clumped up dirt and gravel that had sat around too long.
I got a used Deere ballast box with 500-600 pounds of sand. That did the trick.
Your loader manual should list the amounts of ballast required and the weights of different materials used as ballast.

 

[daTeacha]

I saw a guy yesterday with a pretty good sized piece of steel hanging on the rear of a JD 4100. The thing was about 20" x 30" x 2". He said it made the tractor easier to maneuver than the ballast box did.

Of course this same guy had the top of his ROPS cut off at about shoulder height so he could get it in low places. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

 

[keeney]

Steel or iron will be about 1/3 to 1/4 the volume of concrete for the same weight, but 1200 cu-inches of steel is only 360 lbs or so. I'd use two of those plates.

Did he have it slung vertically, or horizontally? Horizontally, you could keep the CG real low as well.

- Rick

 

[daTeacha]

No, he had it vertical. He said his box was heavier, but he was working in a confined area (hence the chopped off ROPS) and wanted to keep things as short as possible.

 

[OkieG]

Like roermo and Roy, I use an implement (box blade) for FEL ballast. A home built rack welded to the boxblade to hang a few suitcase weights makes the boxblade an even better counterweight. The suitcase weights make the boxblade work better, too.

If you don't have a boxblade, you will find a use for one, and it might serve you well as a functional ballast box to boot.

This picture was taken to demonstrate range of motion with a hydraulic toplink, but the rack and weights are easily seen.

OkieG

 

[OkieG]

Loader fork lifting is what needs ballast the most for my tractor play. Although the boxblade is not real apparent in this picture (the red spot by the right side tires), it is working well as I try to move a tree around.

OkieG