Towbar on counterweight on BX

   / Towbar on counterweight on BX #1  

bunyip

Elite Member
Joined
Sep 7, 2017
Messages
2,747
Location
Flynn Victoria Australia
Tractor
Kioti DK 5810 HST
I often have to shift a couple of trailers/boat/horsefloat around and to make it easier for myself I would like to weld a tongue onto the counterweight on the BX2370.
Removing the counterweight is a real PITA, well, more to the point, putting it back on is and if I can just lift the drawbars of the ground and shift the trailers where I need them would make life a lot easier.
SWMBO also wants something to pull her garden trailer around with a load of sand which the ride on mower struggles with.
It doesn't need to lock on, just get in the ball receiver, lift and move a few feet.
The downforce on all our trailers is way less than 250kg.
Is there any reason that this cannot be done?
 
   / Towbar on counterweight on BX #2  
Done all the time. Lots of various blades & ballast boxes have a hitch on the back. As long as you are towing within the capacity of your 3pt when factoring in ballast + any potential tongue weight. I'd also be negligent if I didn't remind you 3pts don't have downpressure. Less of an issue with ballast, but still a potential problem. If you end up with negative tongue pressure, the 3pt will lift up, change your center of gravity & quite likely roll your tractor. Not likely with ballast on the 3pt as long as you go slow on level ground. Any heavy or poorly balanced loads & hills or sudden stops could end badly though.
 
   / Towbar on counterweight on BX #3  
Fallon pretty much said it all in his reply, but FWIW, here's a photo of what I rigged. Seems to work just fine, but I don't move more than a 1500 lb trailer with it.



P1010909.jpg
 
   / Towbar on counterweight on BX #4  
Keep the 4wd engaged to have braking on all four wheels, particularly on any hills or slopes.
 
   / Towbar on counterweight on BX #5  
I thought I'd use a receiver often, so I mounted a 2" receiver on my kubota ballast box. I ran threaded rod into the box and held it with double nuts. The rods extend all the way into the box almost to the other side. Large washers with nuts to hold them at various points on the rod are in place. I mixed cement and filled he box to a few inches above the rods. The receiver is now effectively the mass of concrete, not pulling only on the rear wall of the box. The rest is sand, then a cap of concrete. Worked great, but I've never used it except as a tie-off when cutting trees down.
Oh, if you are setting up a box, add the vertical PVC pipes in it to hold your rake and shovels. Priceless.
 
   / Towbar on counterweight on BX #6  
varmint - got any specs, plans, link to a build thread for that box??? Looks kinda line what I was sorta imagining I was gonna build... so I’d love to steal / borrow your hard work and jumpstart mine! ;)
 
   / Towbar on counterweight on BX #7  
Fishpick, I just bought a 20' length of 2 x 2 x 1/4 steel angle, had them cut it into lenths for 50 cents a cut (perfect, carefully measured and using an industrial metal saw- much better than my messing with a hacksaw or whatever!) and some scrap 2 x 2 tubes (for the top, where the top link pins) AND, most importantly in your case, part of an old trailer hitch tube with the ends cut off a buddy gave me. The box walls are just some treated 1/2" plywood scraps I had. Since the tractor lives in a barn, I figure they will last longer than me. Rip rap rock gives me the weight, and it's easy to add or remove. I did buy the pins. I can measure it, if you want. I made it as wide as my 3 point arms would go, and in hindsight, I think I would have made it a bit narrower, just to make removal easier when it has all the rock in it. I may even have the steel supplier's cut list filed away?
 
   / Towbar on counterweight on BX #8  
I like that box!

Edit: You posted before me!

I got some fresh angle iron to make something like that too!
 
   / Towbar on counterweight on BX #9  
Fishpick, I just bought a 20' length of 2 x 2 x 1/4 steel angle, had them cut it into lenths for 50 cents a cut (perfect, carefully measured and using an industrial metal saw- much better than my messing with a hacksaw or whatever!) and some scrap 2 x 2 tubes (for the top, where the top link pins) AND, most importantly in your case, part of an old trailer hitch tube with the ends cut off a buddy gave me. The box walls are just some treated 1/2" plywood scraps I had. Since the tractor lives in a barn, I figure they will last longer than me. Rip rap rock gives me the weight, and it's easy to add or remove. I did buy the pins. I can measure it, if you want. I made it as wide as my 3 point arms would go, and in hindsight, I think I would have made it a bit narrower, just to make removal easier when it has all the rock in it. I may even have the steel supplier's cut list filed away? Used my little Lincoln wire welder, which took a while, since I wanted penetrating welds, and it was mostly maxed out. I had two more photos in my cache. The chain rails came later, (very handy when I am hauling firewood logs out of the woods) and the idea of implement tubes is a good one, too.


P1010910.jpg P1010743.JPG
 
   / Towbar on counterweight on BX
  • Thread Starter
#10  
Thanks for the collective responses and like the ( different language!!) ballast boxes.
We have the standard unit that came on the BX2370 with the FEL, fairly compact steel box that is already filled with concrete/cement and weighs approx. 180kg which makes drilling difficult which is why I wanted to weld.
Our place is almost dead flat and only want to shuffle trailers around and manoeuvre them in tight spots which is difficult with the 4WD, I have also thought about making up a bar to fit in the 4 in 1 bucket so I can push and see what I am doing, could just have a channel to locate on the front of the bucket and lock in with the jaws, will post a pic if that eventuates but pretty much a single short pallet fork in the centre of the bucket.
Will bear in mind the rollover aspect but I wouldn't even consider a hill on something so small and light, the boat weighs about 2 tonnes and the float 1.2 tonnes but just need a short flat tow and turn then pushed back in.
My welding skills are dubious and I do a better job with my little gasless MIG that I can with a stick welder, most of my welds look like a flock of ducks passed over but they are getting stronger, the other thing is I have no idea on what gauge the steel is on the supplied ballast, I have never seen it on the Kubota website and wonder if it is a local product.
The garden trailer is a light steel chassis with a polyethylene tipping bucket, weighs very little and holds about 1 scoop of the 4 in 1 which is a bit smaller than the standard bucket, about 2' square and 18" deep so I don't think it would pose and problems.
 
 
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