Rear Ballast for Loader Work

   / Rear Ballast for Loader Work #1  

Catchthedig

New member
Joined
Nov 20, 2021
Messages
16
Location
Hudson Valley NY
Tractor
John Deere 950
Generally I've used my 72-inch JD deck mower as rear ballast when doing medium-duty JD950 loader work. It attaches to the 3-pt hitch and I park it in the raised position. But it's awkward to attach/detach when not doing anything else useful. Now my son left behind his boyhood weightlifting equipment, including quite a few 50-lb barbell plates (strong boy!). Is there some way I can bundle these plates so they're easy to attach ? Your suggestions greatly appreciated.
 
   / Rear Ballast for Loader Work #3  
It they are round weight plates they generally have a 1” hole in them, you just need to attach a vertical 3/4-1” round bar to something and stack them up on it.
 
   / Rear Ballast for Loader Work #4  
You can run that round bar through a hole near the middle of a cross drawbar, and attach it to your top link. Both drawbar and top link end will be rotated 90 degrees to make this work.
 
   / Rear Ballast for Loader Work #5  
Just remember that something attached closer on the lift arms won't have the same counterbalance of your mower that sticks way out behind your tractor . if you're using approximately the same amount of weight..

Some of the best ballast counterweights I've seen is a simple 3pt frame (like the top of a cultivator frame) with a concrete block/slab that's either set there or poured in place..

Here's an image of what I'm describing, once it sets you remove the plywood and you've got an easy 3pt ballast that can be removed easily
 

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   / Rear Ballast for Loader Work #7  
Generally I've used my 72-inch JD deck mower as rear ballast when doing medium-duty JD950 loader work. It attaches to the 3-pt hitch and I park it in the raised position. But it's awkward to attach/detach when not doing anything else useful. Now my son left behind his boyhood weightlifting equipment, including quite a few 50-lb barbell plates (strong boy!). Is there some way I can bundle these plates so they're easy to attach ? Your suggestions greatly appreciated.
Just get a ballast box, put all them barbell weights in it.
 
   / Rear Ballast for Loader Work #8  
I have a Rhino rear blade on the 3-point as ballast. It's 1100#. That plus the 1550# of Rim Guard in the rear tires keeps me grounded when I do heavy lifting with the grapple.

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   / Rear Ballast for Loader Work #9  
A "few" 50# weights isnt gonna be near enough in comparison to a 400-500 pound mower deck.

Probably at least 8 plates to equal the mower weight, but it will still be less effective unless you mount those weights a ways back like the mower deck.
 
   / Rear Ballast for Loader Work #10  
I attempted a wooden ballast box. It worked but it was going to fall apart eventually. I also attempted to bolt them to a draw bar, it also worked but not well. Do yourself a favor and get a ballast box. It has more weight in it and I don’t have to keep looking back to see if one of my weights is about to fall off.
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