Filled front tires

[TomOfTarsus]

Ve-l-l-ly Interesting! An dthe same for this calcium chloride stuff I hear about? Which I assume is more dense? (Kinda like me... )

 

[Phineas7]

BTW, as you're filling from the hose don't forget to take the hose off and let the pressure blead off. Else the water will stop flowing when the pressure equalizes. If you're on city water, that might be a 120PSI +.

Not sure about the CC. I assume it's heavier and doesn't freeze.
If you have tubless tires, you want the rims completly submerged to help prevent corrosion.

I read all this stuff here. I've only owned a tractor for 3 months, and I just filled my tires about 2 weeks ago, so take advice from me with a grain of salt

 

[GinNB]

Calcium in water is heavier than water alone and doesn't freeze. Use it in tubed tires only or you'll dissolve your rims. I'd also make sure that you don't fill your tires above the level of the top of the rim. You need room for air for one, and you'll also affect your handling. You'll have little/no cushion and it'll feel like you're driving a pogo stick. It'll also be hard to add/remove air because calcium'll squirt out your valve stem into your tire guage and wreck it in short order. If you load your tires with calcium and want to check your tire pressure afterwards, poke the valve with something to blow out the calcium until the air's dry before putting your gauge on.

 

[Solo]

Calcium in water is heavier than water alone and doesn't freeze. Use it in tubed tires only or you'll dissolve your rims. I'd also make sure that you don't fill your tires above the level of the top of the rim. You need room for air for one, and you'll also affect your handling. You'll have little/no cushion and it'll feel like you're driving a pogo stick. It'll also be hard to add/remove air because calcium'll squirt out your valve stem into your tire guage and wreck it in short order. If you load your tires with calcium and want to check your tire pressure afterwards, poke the valve with something to blow out the calcium until the air's dry before putting your gauge on.

You can buy tire guages that are made for calcium filled tires. I bought mine at Tractor Supply.

Solo

 

[TomOfTarsus]

Okay, cool. So I need to see if that New Holland TC-18 has tubes in the tires, get a special tire gauge, and to calc the weight I'd add, use the density of water, volume to the top of the rim. (Just a skosh on the light side). Then get a bunch of water, saturate it with calcium chloride, a special hose fitting (and yes, I DO have 100 psi water pressure), and I'm off to the races.

Caan this also be done with antifreeze? Seems like the corrosion factor wouldn't be as serious, but I'd have to look up the density.

Y'all have been very helpful. Now if I can still get my grubby mitts on that TC-18..

 

[rdbrumfield]

Be sure to leave plenty of airspace when filling those small tires. They will become so ridgid thay rocks will penetrate much easier. Especially when using a loader.
Personally, I would never put anything in them. they make weights for the front, and it is an easy thing to make your own if you have the equipment to do it.
Fact is, I don't put anything in the rears either. Using a loader with something hanging off the 3pt plus balasted tires put quite a strain on the middle of the tractor. They have been known to break in two.
Having 4wheel drive on most cuts, that should be enough. If you feel light in the back, lighten you loads, and listen to the tractor, it will live much longer. As far as the fronts with a loader, when you go to getting a load, when you are lifting and pushing at the same time, you are adding a lot of down pressure to the front end, can't see how 35lbs added to 500 or more would be such a great advantage.

 

[TomOfTarsus]

Second the motion on air space, sir. We cannot emphasize this enough. A fully filled tire would be incompressible and that would be a disaster going someplace to happen. Mostly filled, you still have a pretty rigid tire.

And I appreciate your advice about not filling CUT tires at all. Less complicated! As you can see above, I figured it was the thing to do for those of us who work (or want to work) on hilly terrrain a lot. But that's one reason why I wanted to run a calculation, just to see how much it could add, what it'd do to the CG, roll-over inertia etc., and compare it to add-on weights.

I agree that the filled front tires don't seem to make much sense from a weight standpoint (more trouble than it's worth). But as you and I both point out, it doen't make much sense from a stress standpoint to prohibit filling them. The only thing I can figure is that, by reducing the volume of air to compress, you increase the rigidity of the tire and make it more prone to bouncing, as well as increasing the shock load transmitted to the spindle. That'd make sense to me.

Now I want to check out what it would take to break a tractor in half!

 

[Phineas7]

Tom, you can do a lot of reading here about filled tires. There's definitely 2 opinions on that. I've only filled the rears. I need to bush hog in very hilly places and wanted more stability from a lower center of gravity. From what I've seen it bounces less. Not sure what's harder on the spindles, 700lbs in the tires or 700 on the tractor. If it's just for loader work, I can see the preference for using rear ballast instead.

Concerning anti-freeze, that's what my dealer uses (about 5%). I'm just using water. Don't figure it will freeze here and if I get a leak I won't be poisening anything. Just let the water run out and get the tire fixed.

 

[TomOfTarsus]

Just goes to show you. I plumb forgot about the poisoning risk from antifreeze. At least calcium chloride is more forgiving in that regard (it WILL freeze where I'm from!).

IMHO I don't think there's a stress issue at all, unless, as I noted above, it's due to dynamics. Of course, you could place the 700 lb so that it would be a problem, but from where I sit it seems, if anything, the weight of the tires aren't supported by the spindles, or axles, so as for axle stress one may even be better off with the tires weighted. Note this is for static stress only and does not address the many other perfomance and balance issues involved.

That somewhat contradicts my first post in the thread, which is what happens sometimes when you shoot from the hip. But it is true that the wheel weight is not supported by the axle, whereas hung weights certainly are.