Ballast How much ballast?

[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