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Do It Yourself Rear Weight
I posted this on another forum in response to the question "Will chains tear up my
driveway?" and thought someone here might find it useful....
Having just spent over $5000 in September getting my asphalt driveway repaved, I had
similar concerns. My "shade-tree" solution was to make my own rear concrete
rear weight. I cut pieces from the angle iron of an old steel bed rail to make a 3-piece
box frame that mounted in the two lower hitch points on my tractor and extended back
18". I carefully bolted it together inside a heavy-duty cardboard box that I
carefully slit holes in for the angle iron to go through, leaving at least 2" of open
space all around this frame (for the concrete to flow into).
I bolted a piece of an old,
broken tow chain to the back of this 3-piece frame, wrapped it around a piece of rebar
that I stuck through the box up next to the top (leaving about 3" sticking out on
each side for handles), and then hooked it to my top, center hitch point. I stabilized the
cardboard box on cinder blocks, still attached to the tractor, and poured it full of Readi-mix concrete. A few days later I peeled the cardboard box off, and Presto! -- an
ugly but effective rear weight that weighs about 125 lbs and attaches in a couple of
minutes using only 2 hitch pins... for the out-of-pocket cost of two bags of Readi-mix
(less than $10). It's worked quite well, being so heavy that it doesn't
swing/shift on the hitch, and there's been minimal wheel spinning going up
my sloping driveway....
No, it's not the same color as my tractor, and it's a
bit ugly, but -- "Hey, if the neighbor wants to stand outside in the snow
and make fun of me while I use it -- then who's the smart one here?"
The thing I like best about the rear weight is that it
removes just as quickly, once the need is for additional weight is
over. In comparison, most people that I know who use wheel weights
leave them on all the time because of the hassles of putting them on and
taking them off. Installing the rear weight is a fraction of the
hassle of installing one wheel weight....
