This is a really good read “see link below” on the subject of weight for guys that don’t get their weight by adding salt and salting equipment. I will be making a few changes to my ballast bumper before this winter and will try and post a new picture.

http://www.letstalksnow.com/forums/showthread.php?p=48652#postid=48652

Bud

 

Very helpful Bud. There's a lot of good info on that post. Thanks. :waving

 

A divider behind the wheel wells and some sand works great!

 

The Fisher plow site recommends 400#'s of ballast in the back of my 2500HD ext cab SB. What does everyone else use for a ballast? A sander would be ideal, but that's not going to happen for me..$$$

I am just looking for a good, useful way to do this. Do you build a box for sand, use plastic tubs for your tools?

400# doesn’t sound like allot of ballast that’s almost a joke, it won’t do much. What size blade you have on the truck?

I have a Fisher 8' on a GM 2500 Ext cab short box and I have anywhere from 900 to 1000# in the back of 40kg salt bags. I have a pendaliner in the back and it has where the wheel wells are in front and in back a spot to put a 2x6. The 2x6 is braced against the Tailgate and in the front of the bed (behind rear window) side just so the load doesn’t shift around.


Dave.

 

I usually carry sand but am thinking of the cement blocks laying on the side of my house. I will put a board in the bed to keep them secure.

 

The amount of ballast that Fisher specs to your truck is the amount of weight it take to counterbalance the truck. But then you will also need to add more ballast to get better traction. I put about 900#-1000# of sand tubes in bed between the wheel wells.

 

dont put concrete blocks in the bed they can be dangerous if you hit your brakes in an emergency, even with a board to hold them . use sand tubes or loose sand

 

Last year I started using a cheap hitch platform with 300lbs of sand bags on it. It keeps the bed free for snow blowers and shovels.

 

I have an idea weather good or bad here it is to keep the bed some what free for blowers and ice melt.Get some 4x4 post and lay them on the floor or some landscape timbers you could put a piece of plywood on top to make them smooth I would think that would make enough weight in the back and still have bed use.

 

dont put concrete blocks in the bed they can be dangerous if you hit your brakes in an emergency, even with a board to hold them . use sand tubes or loose sand

Whats the differance. I use sand tubes, but they may as well be concrete tubes. Becuase that is exactly what they become after getting wet then freezing solid. I use 1400#+ of ballast.

 

dont put concrete blocks in the bed they can be dangerous if you hit your brakes in an emergency, even with a board to hold them . use sand tubes or loose sand

Good point. Thank you!

 

Concrete blocks aren't very heavy for their size anyways, I wouldn't bother with them.

I've used gravel, salt, sand... my favorite for the small pickup was a pair of cast-iron elevator counterweights I found... around 300lbs each.

Another idea would be to get a steel plate, maybe 1/4" thick or so, and cut it to fit the floor of the bed. It would be a couple hundred pounds (don't have my tables handy) and allow full use of the bed.

Then again, with the price of steel these days, it may be an expen$ive option.

 

I use a Snowman backplow # 500

 

I use a Snowman backplow # 500

Bill I like that... Weight and functionality all in one..

Depending on the snow type you get I find when the snow is dry and its realy cold the snow doesnt compact under your tires or doesnt move out from under your tires I should say and it almost seams like you counterweight isnt doing much. Hate those days and we get alot of them here.


You could always build a box out of plywood and make it so its water proof some what and have a hatch u can open if you need access to it. Pickled sand would work better then regular sand maybe. Hopefully the salt keeps it from freezeing as much.


Dave.

 

I like the steel plate idea. My first pick up was a 61 F100 with a 6 ft stepside bed. The wooden bed floor was rotted so my cousin and I put a plywood floor in. The truck was so light in the rear I no traction. My buddy worked for a constuction company. He brought the truck in. They cut a steel plate and dropped it in the bed. It worked great! Beleive it or not that truck is still on the road! I should have kept it!

 

I once saw a truck that used a train wheel for ballast . He built a box in the bed to keep it stationary . I forget the weight but it was heavy enough and looked pretty cool .

 

This year I was going to try making my own cement block with a hook in the middle so I could lift it out with my skid steer. Last year I tried the sand tubes, but they all fell apart in the truck over the season. My father used to use parking lot stoppers and they lasted for like 20 yrs .

 

ballest

SL

The concrete block and lift hook is a good idea and i can tell ya back when my dad ran the snow buss we had a equal amount of 2wd's and 4wd's trucks. He would take forums and pour them using a lift hook in the middle i can still remember the old ford 2wds working snow just has well has a 4x4 with the concrete block he would lift put them in for the winter and lift them out in the spring.

 

I think alot of guy used the poor a cement block weight but even with that you need to make it secure unless your strapping it down on a flat bed. Last year I used 4 recyceling bins and loading them up with cobble stones and put them on tha ass end right next to the tailgate with a 2x6 in those side pockets to keep it from slidding but they would end up getting loose and move .was good for a quick idea when it was snowing out .

 

cement

Rick

Were is a 4ft x4ft 3.5 inch thick cement block gonna go its to heavy to slide :grinz

 

Fred I could see it slidding right into the pick up bed head wall if you hit something that was not seen very hard.

 

I built two L shaped dividers out of 2x4s and 3/4" plywood, the one rests against the front wall of the utility body, and then there is space int he center for weight, and another divider in the back, resting against the tailgate.
I have 4" solid block, that is 8" wide. I can fit about 50 of them in the divider if there isn't any salt going in. last year I put the salter on, so now I only put about 20 blocks in, whatever makes an even two rows. the rest is all salt bags.
I fastened a small heavy tarp with cap nails to the front divider and that allows me to keep all the salt bags dry. I just lift it up when I need salt and the pull the tarp back over and put some weight on the loose end of the tarp.
I think with salt and the blocks, it's around 700 lbs. the utility body weighs a lot more than a normal pickup bed, so I have plenty of weight to give me traction.
i'll take a picture of it when I get it all ready to go for this winter.

very simply to use. and the blocks won't com eout, unless I were to flip the truck completely over. and if that happens, losing the blocks will be the least of my worries. lol.

 

From an engineering standpoint and also a legal standpoint not to mention a common sense stand point I think everyone should not take lightly the issues surrounding adding ballast to trucks. I could run the numbers on what the break away G force would be during a wreck or the resulting impact force of the load shifting forward and then slamming into the cab but I think it should be really clear just thinking about it that these weights should be tremendously secured to the frame of the vehicle and or the driving style while the load is in place should be extremely conservative.

My problem has always been the mixture of duties my truck has to perform. While loaded with ballast I may also have to make a drive at highway speeds. Like Fred I also remember the 2WD trucks loaded with a Mafia block setting on the bed held down with a couple binders. But they also motored around town at about 20MPH max when not plowing.
I have been down the wood 2x6 weight box method filled with stacked bricks and when I did that I placed the box all the way to the front of the bed. The reason being it still allowed me to load the back of the bed and in the event of a sudden stop the weight would already be fully forward and not coming thru the rear window. The draw back is that with mid loading the ballast it adds weight to the front axle and requires twice the weight to get the weight needed over the rear axle.
Trust me in a impact situation those 2x6”s will snap like match sticks the nails or screws will pull out loose frozen sand bags held in place by ice will snap free and fly.

Like Bill said a back blade is a great approach as is a spreader both are designed to stay attached. But if you fall into the class like I do that don’t use those and require the use of your bed year round think about some type of ballast bumper. The one concern some of the guys had about mine last year before I had really tested it and I also had myself was by placing the weight so far back I might be adding to the whip around effect when turning. I can’t say how it would work on shorter wheel based trucks but on my full length 2500 it seemed that the effect of whip around was offset by the added traction the weight provided.

I built a makeshift dolly for mine to aid in taking it on and off over the summer and that seemed to be working well and I plan on building a better one at some point. I also think I will add another 100 pounds or so for this winter.

Just be careful with the ballast guys whatever you do.

Bud

 

I only put these blocks in when I'm going to plow. I never drive very fast while out in the snow or while plowing. maybe i'm taking a chance, but the way I built it, and the additional height of the utility body bed walls makes it safer than a normal pickup bed. I've been in one accident when I wasn't plowing or even had weight in the back, just normal construction debris, I was coming down a hill that had a dusting on it, but ice underneath(that I didn't know about because only the steepest part of the hill had ice on it.) and it was around a sharp corner. I had 2x4s and some other loose stuff in the back, as i came around the turn, my front wheels lost traction and at about 25 mph I skidded off the road and into a very deep ditch. the ditch was perpendicular to the road, so I hit a wall of dirt. nothing came out of the truck, it slid forward, but nothing came off, and the ladders on top never moved at all.

i'm not saying that it can't happen, but I don't drive around all winter with these blocks in my truck. I have no big garage or hoist to lift one solid weight into the back, nor do I have a flat bed truck.

 

I agree the right method would be to load and unload the weight as required at the same time you put your plow on and off. I’m sure I’m the exception to the rule when it comes to leaving a plow on. For several reasons mine stays on for the whole season unless I’m planning a long trip down south or something. And for that reason along with the added protection I leave the ballast bumper on also.

I also agree that any containment built to hold loose blocks etc. is a major improvement over just stacking them in the back. And the construction box is designed to take a lot more abuse than the standard bed.

About a month ago the show “Myth Busters” did a show on (will a box of Kleenex sitting on the back window shelf of a car smash your skull in a head on crash) and they built a test rig to see if the myth held true. I forget all the items they tested and I remember that the box didn’t do much to the test head they were using. But things like a bobble head doll and other junk people leave up there that really don’t weigh a lot made some major holes in the head. I forget what was the heavy item they used at the end. maybe someone on here will recall.

I have a habit of checking trucks out in parking lots for some reason. And I see a lot of stuff used as ballast around Erie. blocks, rocks, firewood, engine blocks you name it. And most looks to live in there all winter.

I guess what surprises me somewhat is that no one sells a quick attach system of ballast. With mine on the dolly now it takes about the same amount of time as it would to hookup a trailer. Plug it into the receiver tighten two bolts and plug in the flat four connector. Plus I haven’t added any new dents to the bumper. Wish I would have had it from day one.

Bud