Ballast Rear weight ballast

[tglass]

How much weight do I need to put on the rear of my 3320 to keep it stable without adding to much. Until I started to use it to load full buckets of dirt it felt good, so I'm going to make a 3-pt. to lighten it up when mowing. Any ideas or pictures?

 

[RoyJackson]

If you didn't get a ballast box with your tractor....you might want to ask your dealer about that...

As far as how much ballast...read your tractor and loader manuals...the answer will be there.

I've a 790 with a 419 Loader. Since my machine was used, I didn't get a ballast box. I did buy a used one from an acquaintance of mine...made a heck of a difference. I don't know exactly how much weight (sand) was in it, but my acquaintance said it was 600-650 lbs.

 

[Bird]

Asking your dealer is good advice, but just a very general "rule of thumb" some use is to have the same amount of counterweight on the 3-point as the weight you're lifting with the front end loader.

 

[rk246]

Fluid in the rear tires is a good start, then I add my BB and have no trouble...

 

[RoyJackson]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Fluid in the rear tires is a good start, then I add my BB and have no trouble... )</font>

I agree with the fluid in the tires...but that's more for stability then ballast...IMHO.

And, unless your back blade goes 500 plus pounds...it's not going to be as much help as you'd like. I used a very old and very heavy rear blade...heavier then most of the blades I've seen. That didn't really help much for ballast.
rk246 is discussing a Box Blade, of course, but I think you'll find you really need more weight then that.

When I used the blade described above, normally I'd just spin tires when going into a dried out, clumpy pile of gravel. When I used my ballast box (in conjunction with a tooth bar), I dove right into the pile.

I think you'll find you'll want a considerable amount of ballast. My opinion is a ballast box will work better then most implements. You'll know what you need when you try digging...

 

[Thorndike]

Here is what I'm planning on using for a counterweight soon as I get time to fab up a mount, I also plan on fab a TPH type on it, so I can leave it on, and use it for ballest when using BB or backblade. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[RoyJackson]

What is that thing...and what does it weigh?

 

[TOMLESCOEQUIP]

Here's the one I made in this thread I think thorny might be copying my idea with a few modifications..........

 

[Thorndike]

Tom; Very observant of you, LOL! By the way, the truck rode very nicely with that added ballst in the rearend. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Thorndike]

Roy, that's a counterweight from a forktruck, I picked up from Tom about a week ago. The thread he started gave me the idea. I had no intention of hijacking his thread though. We think it weighs somewhere between 800-1000#. My loader had no trouble picking it up at an idle, and hanging out in the bucket a ways. My loader is rated at 1860#, and the TPH is much more than that, whatever the rating is for a TC35DA, so theoretically my idea of a TPH mount attached to it "should" work. I don't care to be wrestling with this much weight everytime I need to go to a different attachment. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Soundguy]

Here's one I made for about 15$ worth of materials and hardware, including an old cattle feed tub, and spare drawbar. Just had to buy the cement, some bolt/nut fasteners, and then drill holes in the toplink 'flat' stock metal I used.

Soundguy

 

[schole]

I made Soundguy's concrete ballast (previous post) this spring in about 20-30 min. What a difference!! Shawn

 

[BobG_in_VA]

"spare drawbar..."?? Up here they go for $30 a piece or more. I bought a Cat 2 and it ran me over $40. Send all your spares north....bobg in va

 

[scott_vt]

Right on Soundguy, I did the same thing with a 35 gal drum and a bunch of rocks and concrete. I think its close to 700lbs.

scotty

 

[nobull1]

Made one up myself out of a 55 gallon drum, filled with concrete. I already had my tires loaded and found with the thousand pound round bales up front it just didn't feel right. Now with loaded tires as well as the counterweight it feels safe.

 

[oldgoat2]

Just slapped this together this weekend. It is 2 John Deere D wheel weights and a bailer flywheel bolted together. The shaft is reduced down twice to 7/8ths for the arms with the shoulders of the reducer forming the inside stop. A couple pipe collars hold the weights in the middle. It is balanced so it is easy to drop off in the shop and roll around out of the way. Another nice thing is if I forget to pick it up, it will just roll along behind until I notice it. It weighs 500# total. I think 300-400 would have been best but this is what I had. Ag tractor dealers have weights like these in piles with nowhere to go if anyone is looking.

 

[Dale_TB]

I have a Kioti DK 35 and wanted at least as much weight as the scraper box purchased with the tractor. I used a fiberglass container about 3 ft. high, 1.5 Ft. wide and 1.5 ft. deep. Placed a three point hitch bar horizontally about mid-hight with some rebar to add unit strength and a heavy flat bar protruding through the box to serve as a ball hitch for towing. Filled with concrete this weighs about 700 lbs. and works great and allows working in tight spaces without the bulk of the stock box. I'd send a picture but I'm a novice at this stuff and am not sure how to handle it.

 

[KubotainNH]

I need to make 1 also, thinking of filling an old washer drum with concrete. How do you know how much concrete will make a certain weight? Will it be close to the weight of the bag of mix or a certain percentage heavier?

 

[RFB]

Concrete weighs 140 - 150 per cubic foot depending on mix...145 is a good average to use for calcs.

For cube type container, multiply your container's L x W x H in inches, then divide by 1728 to get the number of cubic feet.

For a round tank the formula is 3.1417 x Radius² x Depth
= Cubic Feet

 

[Stew]

First post after a couple of months absorbing as much as I can.

I calculated for a buddy the other day a 55 gallon drum of concrete came in right around a 1000 lbs. Concrete weighs about 19 lbs per gallon.

Hope this helps.