A box blade is a nice choice if you are not working in tight spaces AND if the box blade you own is a HEAVY blade. 2 problems I see with box blades is that they are typically as wide as your tractor and they stick out about 3' or 4' behind your tractor. . . IF you work in open areas, this presents NO problem. But if you work in tight areas, then a ballast box is much smaller and offers an advantage.
The other issue with weight boxes is they are really heavy if you load them up, that is also true IF you have a quality built heavy box blade, but often a box blade, particularly smaller ones are lightly built to make them less expensive. For ballast when using the FEL, you want as much weight as possible on the back end, given the choice of a 350# box blade or a 400# ballast box, I'd take the ballast box every day. Given the choice between a 500# box blade and a 400# ballast box, I'd take the box blade MOST of the time but not always.
Another option is fluid fill in the tires. Fluid fill in a typical small frame 21hp to 24hp tractor is going to put approximately 175# in each rear tire assuming R4 industrial tires. Turfs will hold more, Ags will hold less. Fluid weight can vary so this is an approximate. I have never seen a CUT where fluid fill ONLY was enough ballast effectively counter balance the FEL capacity. Understand that ballast farther back (on the 3pt hitch) is more effective than ballast in the tires.
