Is there any way to determine the proper amount of counter weight?

[Roger66]

RE: Titan Ballast Box in Post #26.

If you cost your vehicle travel at 60 cents per mile for a car and 75 cents per mile for a truck, I do not see how you could build a ballast box much cheaper than the $259 Titan price, unless freight is high. Running about to assemble the materials would run up some miles.

It's Free shipping too! I would really prefer a more compact version, but bang for the buck this is hard to beat!

 

[BMan2005]

OP, looking at your loader specs and wanting to keep your rear tires unloaded (air only) I would say a rear ballast of 1000lbs should about cover you for max front loads and not going fast.

I added a picture of my tractor with 1200 lbs of fluid added to my rear tires loaded & a 1100 lbs round bale of hay on my hay spear. I can travel like this safely (not lifted in the air of course) at slow speeds and flat ground. So say you shift that weight (my loaded rears) back another 4' on your 3pt hitch it will shift the weight back farther adding for stability. I did build a ballast box for my tractor also that weighs around 1000lbs for most all of my task and be fairly compact. Granted different tractors and weigh differently, but before the loaded rear the rear was light with just the loader bucket.

 

[mike69440]

I want to build a compact 3 point ballast box for my Mahindra 1526. I want to keep it close to the 3 point attachment points and not protrude far back. I may use large steel plates or lead to get the weight in a compact package. Cement would be way cheaper, so that's still in the running. It's just a matter of how much weight I need and how large would a cement block need to be to accomplish the need. This brings me to the question how much ballast do I need? If I go too heavy I'm potentially overloading my axles adding extra wear and tare. I want maximum lift for my front end loader. Any ideas, is there a formula?

Thanks!

This worked for me, Steel filled concrete block, 700 Lbs It is a lot more than a counter weight. Was tough to design an build.

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/327912-custom-3-point-attachment-2-a.html?highlight=

 

[Roger66]

This worked for me, Steel filled concrete block, 700 Lbs It is a lot more than a counter weight. Was tough to design an build.

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/327912-custom-3-point-attachment-2-a.html?highlight=

Hi Mike,

That's a beautiful design! Great Job! I might just need to dust off the plasma table and make something like this. The beauty of your design is I can have a super compact weight for "normal" use, but if I need to lift something really heavy I can always add another conventional box like the Titan off the 3 point hitch still. Would you by any chance be willing to share the CAD files? I use Fusion 360, but I can import solid works files.


Thanks!

Roger