Ballast box question-size/weight?

[rockingclawhammer]

I need to build a ballast box and I have found many ideas to work off of here searching the forum. I want to be in the 1500lb range and it seems I should have paid more attention in math class. How do you figure the volume/weight/size need when using the plywood form and concrete method? The redneck in me says buy 19 bags of concrete and stack them up in the shape I want and go from there.

 

[Oldoak]

To give you an idea and starting point of what it takes and your own calculations:

Just last month I poured a concrete ballast block. The inside dimensions of the box was 2'x 2'x 2' = 8 cubic feet. I used (12) 80# bags of Quikrete.

12 x 80 = 960# of Quikrete + the steel for the 3Pt hitch and the 2" receiver for a ball hitch I incorporated in the block, I estimate total of around a 1000#.

 

[4570Man]

Concrete weighs about 150 pounds per cubic foot so you’d need 10 cubic feet to weigh 1500 pounds. Figuring the volume of a rectangle is pretty straight forward.

 

[Oldoak]

Concrete weighs about 150 pounds per cubic foot so you’d need 10 cubic feet to weigh 1500 pounds. Figuring the volume of a rectangle is pretty straight forward.

It can, but it depends upon the concrete mix (ratio of cement, sand and aggregate).

 

[4570Man]

It can, but it depends upon the concrete mix (ratio of cement, sand and aggregate).

That’s what google says. It’s probably close enough for the intended use.

 

[TomIre]

Don't mean to hijack the thread but anyone know how many bags of 80lb concrete fill a 55 barrel?

 

[4570Man]

Using the 150 pound number it’s going to take 13.75 bags.

 

[Oldoak]

That’s what google says. It’s probably close enough for the intended use.

So does google say that is the weight of wet or cured concrete? I do not believe a 30# per cubic foot difference is close enough to be overlooked.

My real life experience, not armchair research on a computer, resulted being the dry 4000# PSI concrete mix to equal 120# per cubic foot.