OP
PEJ5
Gold Member
Success. The ready-mix concrete place filled my forms with concrete. The forms worked and the ballast is attached! Again, thanks for the advice.
A few observations... Concrete truck drivers obviously do not carry a trowel so the top is quite rough - oh well. The ballast was build on a pallet, that was loaded on my trailer. It was quite far forward when I attempted to lift it with the tractor forks. The rear tires came off the ground - I need a ballast
. I had to drag the pallet to the rear of the trailer and hope the hitch did not pop off. I then tried again with the forks and was able to raise it a few inches. My wife quickly pulled the vehicle and trailer ahead and I set the ballast down without moving. Then I turned around and hooked up the 3 point hitch.
The tractor really settles when I raise the ballast and it certainly feels all the more stable. The garage door clearance increased an inch or more - go figure! There are still two 1x4 boards in the bottom. The plan is to remove them and replace them with 2x4's as pads to protect the garage floor. The pipe drains line up with them as well. There is a small conduit to run trailer lights to the inset section in the back - another day. Painting is another project.
As for the project, it took much more time than I anticipated. I used 3/8" angle iron and it was a pain to drill holes through it. A drill press would have helped there.
I should be more stable as I head down our hill for the first time. Any final advice??
A few observations... Concrete truck drivers obviously do not carry a trowel so the top is quite rough - oh well. The ballast was build on a pallet, that was loaded on my trailer. It was quite far forward when I attempted to lift it with the tractor forks. The rear tires came off the ground - I need a ballast
. I had to drag the pallet to the rear of the trailer and hope the hitch did not pop off. I then tried again with the forks and was able to raise it a few inches. My wife quickly pulled the vehicle and trailer ahead and I set the ballast down without moving. Then I turned around and hooked up the 3 point hitch. The tractor really settles when I raise the ballast and it certainly feels all the more stable. The garage door clearance increased an inch or more - go figure! There are still two 1x4 boards in the bottom. The plan is to remove them and replace them with 2x4's as pads to protect the garage floor. The pipe drains line up with them as well. There is a small conduit to run trailer lights to the inset section in the back - another day. Painting is another project.
As for the project, it took much more time than I anticipated. I used 3/8" angle iron and it was a pain to drill holes through it. A drill press would have helped there.
I should be more stable as I head down our hill for the first time. Any final advice??