Rear Ballast Weight

[George2615]

Since I clear snow mostly on gravel driveways and got tired of spending more time changing shear pins than blowing snow I sold my 64" Puma 3 pt snow blower. Another lucky member here got a good deal. I mainly used it for weight on back anyway so now I needed to build a rear ballast weight.

I used a plastic 55 gallon barrel
some 2 1/2" x 3/8" thick flat steel
some 2 1/2" x 1 1/2" rectangle tubing
some 1" round solid bar.
I also added a lift hoop on top for moving it around if needed. Once I fitted the rectangle steel through the barrel and welded it all up I filled it 3/4 full with 12 - 60 lb bags of redimix. (I chose 60 lb bags because they are lighter than 80 lb bags and less chance of me hurting something since I'm not as young as I used to be). I left some space on the top 1/4 of the barrel for extra tools or whatever I might need to put in there. Then drilled some drainage holes just above the cement level in the barrel for water to run out.

I figure my quick hitch weighs 40 lb. plus 30 lb of steel, and 720 lb. of redimix for a total of 790 lb. Hope this helps some others who might want to build their own ballast.

 

[mbohuntr]

Looks good George. Thanks by the way, I am going to enjoy watching 4' of snow going bye-bye in a hurry.

 

[jimmer2880]

Looks nice. I like that you left some empty for carrying tools, etc. i'm sure the lifting ring will come in handy also.

 

[rtdiggr]

Good project, i like the idea of the lift ring it will save time not having to hook it up just to move it.

Shane