The Home Machinist!

I want to put a Titan ballast box on my Kubota L3710. I am tired of using a big clangy bush hog for ballast.

Question: sand or concrete to fill the box? Concrete is neat and final, but sand can be dumped if I need to put the box on a truck, and it makes a better place to put tools and so forth because it's soft. As long as I don't let sand get into the tools, it would work better.

I figure I need about 850 pounds of weight added to the box (132 pounds empty).

I assume sand and concrete have about the same density. I hope so, anyway.

I will need 17 50-lb. bags of sand or about 10 80-lb. bags of concrete.

Sand, depending on the flavor, and if it's dry or wet, is 2,700 to 3,100 lbs per cu/yd. We generally used 3,000 lbs per cu/yd to design to.
Concrete, depending on the gravel content & mix, is 3,700 to 4,100 lbs per cu/yd. We generally used 4,000 lbs per cu/yd to design to.

Seems to me, sand makes more sense. If you change your mind later....easy to adjust. (the ballast, not your mind)
Concrete....not so much. (more like your mind)


Bill

If you are using a box anyway fill it with sand. The only advantage of a concrete counterweight is that it needs no box and you can leave it out in the rain. Think of all the ways that you would not be able to use such a box were it irreversibly filled with concrete.

I think I'll try sand. As warmstrong says, if I don't like it, I can start over with concrete. I'm wondering if this box will hold 850 pounds of sand, now that I have seen the density figures.

Thanks for the help.

A lot of my friends use old sections of logging tower tubes filled with concrete with a through bar to use on the three point. They leave about 6-8" of free area on top of the concrete and can store chains etc there.

Do you have filled rear tires on the tractor?

Supposedly the rear tires are filled. The seller said they were "full of water." I don't have any logging tower tubes on hand, however.

The FEL will lift 1559 lbs. to full height, and it has a "breakout" lift, whatever that is, of 2557 lbs. I have tried to lift one or two trees that wouldn't budge, but for the most part, the FEL and forks do what I want.

If the rears are filled you could check by opening the valve to the tire when the valve is low. Fluid will come out if they are filled. Just in case it is a calcium filled tire rinse the valve stem with water and then roll the tire so the valve is at the top of the tire rotation and let it drain then recap it.

Also if you ever check the tire pressure on a filled tire roll the tire to where the stem is in the high position and prior to putting your pressure gauge on it depress the core and blow out any liquid then put the gauge on it. A filled tire will never be 100% filled as there must be air to absorb hard hits to the tire.

I have had to do a lot of gusset building on the loader arms of my little L2550DT. I found the weak points. Same with the backhoe on it. Not at all the lifting ability of my IH 584 4WD.

Gregg

I use rocks in the box! Rocks are easier to remove or add.

When we bought the L3940, we thought about adding Calcium Chloride to each tire, but Kubota advises against that.

Ye olde IH 300U had 400 pounds of Calcium Chloride in each tire. (Sold it for $400 shortly after the photo)

Don't have a photo of the box, just the tractor with a grader, I like the box for weight - takes up less room than other impiliments.

Would wheel weights work for you?

Wheel weights aren't going to do it. I want something that will pull the front wheels up, so the weight has to be behind the back wheels.

I ordered a Titan box, and Fedex delivered it upside-down, outside my gate, 50 yards from the house. I made them take it back. They delivered another one the same way, only without as much damage. I decided to keep it, and Titan refunded me $30 to cover paint and primer.

It's really annoying, the way delivery drivers beat things up. They don't realize they're doing jobs monkeys could do. They are not hard people to replace.

I'm going to use sand to fill it.

Now I have to get the bush hog off the tractor. I have never removed it. The hitch was very stubborn the only time I tried.

fed ex has chewed up several furnace cores for me. 92% tubes that were devastated in shipping. Finely formed faces and plates that were mashed wont hold o rings and sealing gaskets. I collared the delivery guy about the damage and he said he only delivers what he gets, the damage comes from the loading and handling departments before it hits the trucks.

"It was like that when I got here."