Tires Ballasting tires with saline (not calcium chloride)

[Z-Michigan]

Here in Michigan calcium chloride has gone the way of the dinosaurs; no one uses anything but Rimguard, and prices for a Rimguard fill around here are the same or less as what I see quoted on TBN for CaCl fills elsewhere. Any chance you can trailer your tractor into Michigan and get a Rimguard fill? Virtually any tractor dealer of any brand in the state will offer it.

 

[Farmwithjunk]

Here in Michigan calcium chloride has gone the way of the dinosaurs; no one uses anything but Rimguard, and prices for a Rimguard fill around here are the same or less as what I see quoted on TBN for CaCl fills elsewhere. Any chance you can trailer your tractor into Michigan and get a Rimguard fill? Virtually any tractor dealer of any brand in the state will offer it.

It helps that Michigan is sugar beet growing territory! I've enquired about it here in central Kentucky. Tire shops look at you like you've got 2 heads when asked.

Just for the record, the CHEAPEST place I've found to buy bags of Ca cl is a SWIMMING POOL SUPPLY store. Yep. Tire shops want $40 to $50 for 50# bags. Pool supply gets $22.

 

[Reg]

I hear that enviro angle a bit and for some reason it made my skin crawl. Finally the quarter dropped and figured out why. We snowy land folks see salt used on the roads every winter. They are pure white with salt in the spring! The ditches are full of weeds, grass and flowers even after 50-80 years of putting salt down. How much damage is being done when a tire with 40-50-100 # of CaCl2 gets a flat vs the thousands of tons of salt spread by the county every year for the past 50 years?

What I find "SKIN CRAWLY" is the attitude that "Theres a lot of it (it being the whatever) in the system (aquifer, air, river, ocean, or wherever) already, so if I contribute a bit more it won't matter".

Can I dump old oil in a hole in my back yard ? Say a gallon or two each oil change ?
How much does it add to what the town, county, state, country, lays down deliberately as "black top" for roads ?
Awwww, trivial, right ?

Where is the "away" that everything we don't want goes ?

"We all live downstream"
{source forgotten, for the moment}

 

[skipmarcy]

Just got off the phone with another tire guy whose name I got from a local used tractor dealership.

World of difference cause he seems like all he works on are farm tractors. When I told him my tires were 15-19.5 he asked me if it was a "garden tractor"

$120 for two tires + 35 service call + tubes = .. he says about $250. I think I'm going to go for it.

We are behind the times in all things tractor up here in Canada. No one has even heard of loading with anything than calcium chloride (and now saline). If I say RimGuard they say rim what?

If I were doing it myself I'd probably go with something that can be put in without the tube. I've heard of propylene glycol but sounds like it is still toxic just less so. Whats the scoop with methanol - is it toxic, and where do you get it?

As far as toxicity goes, methanol is poisonous but being alcohol it will evaporate quickly if leaked and as far as I know would leave no residual. The methanol I've always seen in tractor tire shops comes in 55 gal. drums - pure alcohol. It is mixed with water in an empty drum then pumped into the tires from there. The windshield washer fluid some speak of would work too, same stuff, but you are paying for the water that's mixed with it as well as the jug it comes in, and you have to open all those jugs and then dispose of them. My 17.5 - 24 tires took 55 gal. each of the mix from the tire chart at our Co-op. The new 16.9 - 24 tires I just recently installed called for 48 gal. of the mix from the same chart, but I went ahead and put all of the 55 gal. I had into the new tires as well and I can still get air with my valve stem at either 10 or 2 o'clock so I'm just a little more than 3/4 full in the tires. I can't remember how many gallons of methanol it took per 55 gal. mix to get to the -10 F, too many moons have passed since than.

 

[daTeacha]

Avoid the issue of what to use. Get or make wheel weights. Your ride will be softer, the tires will mold to the contours of the ground better and give you better traction, and the weights don't leak out or make a mess if you put a hole in a tire.

 

[Z-Michigan]

It helps that Michigan is sugar beet growing territory!

Very true! One of the (few?) benefits of living in Michigan.

I have been too narrowly focused but I would somewhat agree with teacha to consider wheel weights. If I did it all over again I would at least price them out, maybe get them. It's a totally permanent solution and allows more flexibility on how much weight you add.

 

[Farmwithjunk]

Very true! One of the (few?) benefits of living in Michigan.

I have been too narrowly focused but I would somewhat agree with teacha to consider wheel weights. If I did it all over again I would at least price them out, maybe get them. It's a totally permanent solution and allows more flexibility on how much weight you add.

Pro's and con's to cast iron too. Cost can be one with todays iron prices. Fluid in tires HELPS with center of gravity issues in most cases, where wheel mounted iron can go the other way. Back when I was doing a lot of tillage work, cast weights were the norm on my tractors. Mowing on hilly ground seems to favor fluid.

 

[tawilson]

I just replaced and refilled my tires on my 2120 this week. While looking up tire pressure in the owners manual, I came across a paragraph concerning wheel weights which said 160lbs. max per tire, in addition to whatever liquid ballast is used. If I went to weights only and followed the manual, I'd lose 200lbs. per tire. Plus, don't the weights stick out past the tires?

 

[Z-Michigan]

As FWJ noted cast weights have their issues too. I do not think there is one solution for everyone. A single set of wheel weights won't stick out - in particular, see what Kubota offers on their M series. But yes, multiple smaller weights do stick out, as you'll commonly see on JD 5-series with wheel weights. In my case, I am having some issues with soil compaction and I don't really need as much weight (>1500lbs) as my filled rears provide. I also have fairly level ground, so stability is not as big an issue for me as it would be if you're in a hilly area. Finally, I also would like to be able to trailer and with my filled rears, my tractor/FEL/mower runs something like 4 tons, which is approaching the limit of what I can put on a flatbed trailer and pull with my 3/4 ton diesel pickup.

I asked the dealer about doing a half-fill but he said that would cause sloshing issues and basically told me it couldn't/wouldn't be done. For someone who needs every last pound, who has much smaller tires, is working on steep slopes and needs the added stability, or who doesn't have any soil compaction issues to deal with, filled is the way to go. For someone who only needs a little weight, or who really doesn't want fluid in their tires in order to minimize soil compaction, cast weights are worth considering.

 

[yatesfire]

I recently bought a new kubota. The dealer threw in filled tires. He said they use Canola oil. I think this eliminates corrosion issues, and would seem to be eco-friendly. Has anyone heard of this?