poor mans weight for stone boat?

[PeytonM]

title says it all. A friend gave me a stone boat to use for the time being until I can get one of my own or build one. Im not sure how much she weighs in at, but I’m sure my boys shouldnt have a problem pulling it around empty… but I would like to be able to add weight to it and see what they can do, not saying it right off the bat I’m going to do that.

thanks for the help.

[sickle hocks]

Well, i’m not going to make the first suggestion that springs to mind ’cause i don’t want to sound like a smart-ass…;)

[PeytonM]

I was thinking some wood or rocks but I dont feel like throwing a bunch of rocks…

[sickle hocks]

yeah, picking stones isn’t all that much fun…but it’s better with a team than a tractor..

[Lanny Collins]

Well, depending on the size of the stoneboat and what terrain you will be using it in. A quick way to add weight and remove is fill 5gallon buckets with water. A gallon of water weighs around 8 pounds so 5 will be 40poiunds. That way you will know approximately how heavy you have them loaded and can adjust as needed. If you get way out there and the team gets thirsty, well open up a 5 gallon bucket. Didn’t say it but lids would be required. Sitting on one of those buckets would’nt be a bad idea either.

[PeytonM]

one guy that has been helping me has a square tank, its like 4x4x4 with a metal cage around it, i dont know what they are meant for i know guys use them for bio diesel. but he fills it with water and then waters the track with it also… i’ll have to find one of them maybe…

[Lanny Collins]

The water tank would work too. Guess it depends on if you ever need to use it empty. With the 5 gallon buckets it would not take too long to load and unload. You could even use 5 gallon buckets full of rock. The buckets just make it easier / faster to load / unload. To get a tank full of water off the stoneboat without draining the tank would probably take a tractor / lift. That would be a lot of wasted water just to empty it to unload the boat. Those plastic tanks metal cage around it are used for many things even for food industry. They sell them around here for 50 to 60 dollars each.

[fogish]

It’s called an IBC Tote, the standard is 275 gallons but also come in 330 gallons. At my last job we filled them with 250 gal. / 3000 lbs. of honey.

As far as weight: scrap metal, logs, children, bags of salt/concrete/grain/gravel/sand. Maybe some heavily weighted tires on chains like anchors behind the stone boat, not exactly the same as more weight on the stone boat but it may have a similar effect? Attach a shaft to the stone boat and then put wheels with seized or damaged bearings and then have them touching the ground and be turned as the oxen move forward. Increase the force needed to move without adding weight.

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