Front End Weights

S10Vette

Member
I have to weight the front end of my 8N to counterbalance the "Earthcavator" as the original sales receipt refers to my Gannon Box Scraper.

I was going to make a bracket to hold suitcase weights but the price for those even used is ridiculous, around here anyway. Funny, I found a guy locally that has probably a couple of tons of suitcase weights. He wants 80 cents a pound because he claims that is "what they are worth" but in reality he has not sold any in 2 years ! Guess he is a classic horder.

At any rate I am going to use one of my military surplus 40 or 50 cal ammunition boxes and fill it with wheel weights that I got for free from a local tire place. These boxes are readily available on eBay for $20 to $40.

Would be great to see photos from other perhaps more clever approaches to front end weights.
 
Around here 80 cents a lb isn't too far off
for suitcase weights. They do go pretty
high.
If you can find them, front wheel weights
are nice. Kind of a 'stealth' way to add
weight. But those can be hard to find.
What does the ammo box full of lead weigh?
A couple hundred lbs on the front is nice.
Some guys put a front bumper on their
tractor and load it down with chains.
Ford did build bumper weights for the later
tractors, again, if you can find them -
about 100 lbs ea.
And Ford also built what I call pillow
weights. Those are nice as they are curved
to kinda wrap around the front - about 80
lbs ea. I know you're probably just looking
for functionality but these are a couple of
options you can watch for in your travels.
I like original Ford stuff even if it is not
"correct" for this or that particular model.
100_2079.jpg

100_2097.jpg
 
Gotta agree with UD here. 80 cents a pound seems to be the going rate unless it's something like a weight with a logo cast into it. Then like with IH weights they jump up to about a buck a pound. I'm buying suitcase IH logo weights with a bracket from a guy here as soon as he digs em out. Going to pay a buck a pound.

Gotta remember, a pile of those weights on a pallet only look like scrap. They are made for specific applications (like the Ford pie weights) or for specific brands like with the IH logo suitcase weights. They are not making some of them anymore.

Rick
 
(quoted from post at 07:06:33 12/17/16) Gotta agree with UD here. 80 cents a pound seems to be the going rate unless it's something like a weight with a logo cast into it. Then like with IH weights they jump up to about a buck a pound. I'm buying suitcase IH logo weights with a bracket from a guy here as soon as he digs em out. Going to pay a buck a pound.

Gotta remember, a pile of those weights on a pallet only look like scrap. They are made for specific applications (like the Ford pie weights) or for specific brands like with the IH logo suitcase weights. They are not making some of them anymore.

Rick

I guess I am being cheap. The price just seemed high to me. I see that some folks pay not only $1 per lb but then almost that again to ship. So something like $400 for 200 lbs of weight. One 40 cal Ammo Box ~6x10x17 with weights is approximately 120 lbs. I could get the weight up a bit by filling the voids with resin or something or packing the weights more efficiently.
 
(quoted from post at 08:50:52 12/17/16)
(quoted from post at 07:06:33 12/17/16) Gotta agree with UD here. 80 cents a pound seems to be the going rate unless it's something like a weight with a logo cast into it. Then like with IH weights they jump up to about a buck a pound. I'm buying suitcase IH logo weights with a bracket from a guy here as soon as he digs em out. Going to pay a buck a pound.

Gotta remember, a pile of those weights on a pallet only look like scrap. They are made for specific applications (like the Ford pie weights) or for specific brands like with the IH logo suitcase weights. They are not making some of them anymore.

Rick

I guess I am being cheap. The price just seemed high to me. I see that some folks pay not only $1 per lb but then almost that again to ship. So something like $400 for 200 lbs of weight. One 40 cal Ammo Box ~6x10x17 with weights is approximately 120 lbs. I could get the weight up a bit by filling the voids with resin or something or packing the weights more efficiently.

I completely agree. I wouldn't buy the weights I'm waiting on if I 1. didn't need them and 2. didn't want the convenience of just putting them on or taking them off easily. Yea, I'd be real happy to find them cheaper but it is what it is. My other option is to fab something up or buy yet another loader to get a little more weight on the one tractor front end. It's a little lite on the front when that 8' blower is lifted. Don't really need another loader.

Rick
 
I picked up the grandson weights (muscle building) when they moved. Just need a good idea how to mount them to the front bumper, maybe weld them, re-bar ?
 


Weight lifting weights on mine.

If you want the details of how I bolted them together and clamped each side to the bumper with a single long bolt per side . . . just ask.

43292.jpg
 
Front bumper is attached to the front axle, hanging weight out front puts a lot of leverage on the radious rods and the mounting bolts. Best to make a bracket that goes underneath and connects to the front mount.
 
That's a lot of weight on the front axle -N's weren't made to hold a whole lot so be careful what you wish for. I bought a set of 16" Ford rims at my local boneyard for $300/pair, blasted and painted them, then found a set of the original front wheel weights, 2 sections each wheel. that adds 90# per side on the front but you can add even more by liquid filling tires with a solution too.


FORD TRACTOR 2-PIECE FRONT 16 INCH WHEEL WEIGHTS:
FORD%202-PIECE%20FRONT%20WHEEL%20WEIGHTS%20FOR%2016%20WHEEL_zpsd7xdb103.jpg



Tim *PloughNman* Daley(MI)
 
(quoted from post at 10:41:21 12/17/16) I picked up the grandson weights (muscle building) when they moved. Just need a good idea how to mount them to the front bumper, maybe weld them, re-bar ?

Great idea, you can actually get them shipped free (aka included in price) from most sellers on eBay for about half the price of suitcase weights with shipping. I would think the 40# would be the easiest to work with.

I am continuing to try to work with what I have on hand. I mounted up two 25 pound steel plates, and they work pretty well at minimizing "wheelies" with the rollover box, but that's without the teeth installed on the box. I think I'll look for more plates at the local metal yard scrap pile (where I got these). Not happy with the way the ammo box worked. Tried wrap around 1/8 metal straps with it laying on its side, but several problems with that including that it looked silly.

43301.jpg
 
If you want to use what you have, I would find a place to mount
the ammo box empty that suits you aesthetically. Then melt the
wheel weights down, remove the metal parts and pour the lead
into the box. You'd get a lot more weight out of them that way.

Grandpa and I used to make our fishing sinkers out of them.
We melted them in a metal coffee can with a propane torch.
Then poured it into home made molds and added a wire loop
that we also made before they cooled to attach to the line.

Never gave a thought to lead poisoning.
 

Although I should add probably not as odd looking as the Studebaker "Big 6" Flathead cylinder head that I had hanging by some chain before I started the rebuild on this tractor. Worked pretty good for about 20 years.
 

Yeah, the good old days before we knew better. I spent a summer when I was a teenager, painting fences with creosote and had my arms covered up to my elbows with it. Also had mercury rolling around in my desk drawer left over from my dad's gold mining days, then there was chlorinated hydrocarbons and asbestos and life long chromium 6 exposure.

Back to your suggestion, very few of the wheel weights are real lead, but melting point of the new alloys might be similar so that's perhaps a good plan, thanks.
 
As to the comments about adding that much weight to a bumper;
I wouldn't worry too much about it.
They are built pretty robust there and should easily handle a couple hundred lbs.
Consider how much weight a loader adds to a front end, especially with a load in the bucket.
Yes I understand the loader is attached to the bolster/engine mount and not cantilevered out front of the bumper.
And yes I understand the twisting effect on the axle and thus the radius rods and center pin bumper weights would have.
But I don't think it will hurt an N to add a couple 100 lbs..
The bumpers they made for the Hundred Series Fords were able to carry 4 of those 100 lb weights with no ill effects and those front ends aren't much stouter than an N
 

Thanks all for the ideas, here is what I ended up with and close to 100 lbs now. This seems to be enough to keep the front end planted even stopping and starting on a uphill section of our driveway.

43334.jpg
 
(quoted from post at 19:30:12 12/18/16) If you have your front tires foam filled, that will add at least 40#/tire and you'll never have a flat again.

Great idea except no local source and fairly expensive. I added another chain and put lead wheel weights 360 deg around inside and outside of both rims, so now up to my 120 lb goal and using what I had on hand or free. Rest of the zinc alloy and steel wheel weights going to recycling tomorrow.
 
(quoted from post at 22:41:43 12/19/16)
(quoted from post at 19:30:12 12/18/16) If you have your front tires foam filled, that will add at least 40#/tire and you'll never have a flat again.

Great idea except no local source and fairly expensive. I added another chain and put lead wheel weights 360 deg around inside and outside of both rims, so now up to my 120 lb goal and using what I had on hand or free. Rest of the zinc alloy and steel wheel weights going to recycling tomorrow.
The foam filling lasts pretty much forever, but the tires don't
always make it that long. Then you get to try cutting them off
or buying new rims. They sure are heavy, and they don't go flat.
I don't care for the stiff ride so I'd rather fill them with liquid.

43370.jpg
 
(quoted from post at 21:03:07 12/16/16) I have to weight the front end of my 8N to counterbalance the "Earthcavator" as the original sales receipt refers to my Gannon Box Scraper.......

Ha! , so after all this and my final result, talking to a neighbor today and he says "oh I have over 200 lbs of those "suitcase weights" that came with my current and previous JD tractors. I'll never use them and love to get rid of them if you want them you can have them"

Well at least now I have a another option : )
 

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