3 point ballast box

[tris7194]

Has anyone bult a large ballast box out of steel maybe 1/2 inch thick?

 

[mjncad]

Welcome.

Why so thick? Most ballast boxes are 1/8" thick at best and are filled with sand (mine), concrete, or other heavy material.

There are plenty of home made ballast box threads that I suggest you do a search. I've seen some that look factory and then some to downright redneck solutions made out of concrete filled plastic barrels.

 

[tris7194]

Well I'm pretty new to this. I figured the weight of the box would be good enough to give me traction while I have saws and stuff in it so I can still use the FEL

 

[tris7194]

So it would be more like a overweight toolbox

 

[mjncad]

There are plenty of good ideas on how to combine a ballast box and a toolbox on this site. Besides, 1/2" steel is going to cost you some big bucks as sand or concrete is cheaper. I use sand as it's cheap, and on the rare occasions I remove snow, I have it available in the ballast box along with a folding army shovel to shovel under the tires for traction as I don't have chains.

 

[sandman2234]

If you don't have rear wheel weights, consider that before a ballast box, as it is dead weight, doesn't effect manuvering in tight places, and doesn't add a strain to the tractor as much as a rear ballast box. You can probably use the same 1/2 plate on the wheel weights if you happen to have it used...then use 1/8 on a ballast box and you will actually be able to move the ballast box out of your way when it is sitting somewhere, without having to hook it up to the tractor.
David from jax