Ballast My New Kubota Tractors (pictures) and ballast question

[Timber]

Nice pic Timber. My grandad's was similar except... no lid, concrete wasn't all the way to the top like yours also. Most of the metal was rusted away so it looked more like a chunk of concrete shaped like a drum. I guess it was really only similar in idea. I wish I had a picture. It was a classic southern implement.

I guess we all have a little redneck in us LOL. I got very lucky with that drum. I rented warehouse space to a small company and they gave me that drum. It was new and never used for anything. Painted inside and out. That is actually mud on the bottom of it, I keep it inside when not in use

 

[ehchvac]

I have a similar setup to Timber but mine is a blue plastic barrel, and I use a toplink.
I put the drawbar thru higher than Timber because I wanted max clearance and knowing it would make it unstable I used the toplink.
You can use the toplink without cutting the barrel if you make a curved toplink mount coming out of the barrel, kind of like an upside down hockey stick.
I loaded the barrel with all kinds of old broken tire chain, rebar etc and tied it all to the drawbar, so all the weight is on the structure in the barrel so it could be a plastic, not rusting metal.
Also made a trailer hitch receiver to the drawbar, coming out the back of the barrel, so I dont have to take off the whole works to use a trailer hitch.
And a 3/8" chain around the drawbar and out the top so I can lift it with the loader if need be.
There is about 1100+ lbs in concrete and steel.
I made it after I tried to lift 6, 1/2" rubber stall mats and it lifted the rear of the L3400 off the ground.
That being said, I dont know if the loader would lift the barrel without a counter weight, or it might be the stall mat pucker all over again.

 

[RyanIL]

Nice machines!

I don't know about your M, but I have a L3240 as well. We use our machine with a 7' loader-mounted angle plow to clear downtown sidewalks and stack snow. We are operating in tight quarters so we didn't want a large implement hanging off the back to possibly snag obstacles. So we run a ballast box we made ourselves.

Our box is filled with 10 bags of portland cement (940#); combined with the weight of the metal (200#), we are at nearly 1,200 lbs. The machine handles very well. We have yet to lift the back wheels off the ground, and get excellent traction (usually 2WD operation is fine).

Here is a pic of ours just to give you another example. If you do not have access to a welder, you could get a quote from a shop to make you one.