Ballast Adding pressure to loaded tractor tires

[jbeall]

Hi All,

I was checking the pressure on my John Deere 2210's tires and discovered that the rear tires are apparently loaded with liquid ballast. I bought it used a few weeks ago and the previous owner said the tires just had air. Apparently he was confused, because I definitely was getting liquid out of them

It's a clear liquid. Methanol and water mixture, probably? I get liquid out of the tires even when the valve stem is at the 12 o'clock position.

At any rate, the rear tires feel a bit soft to me, and my pressure gauge only registered about 5 psi (the tires say max 20psi on the sidewall). But the odd thing is, the tires are not noticeably "squatty" or deflected where they sit on the ground.

I was just using a regular tire pressure gauge, not one designed for use with liquid--might it have given me a bad reading?

I've had no issues with the tractor and have put about 10 hours of use on it since we bought it. It's been driven on gravel and pasture 95% of the time, with just a time bit of use on pavement and concrete.

So from the searching I've done on this it sounds like the "correct" thing to do is to fill the tires to the sidewall pressure. Have I got that right?

-Josh

 

[HCJtractor]

Yes, fill it to the recommended pressure. You can position the valve stem up and add air just like you normally do. Several places sell guages intended for fluid filled tires, but I believe any guage works. You may get a little liquid squirting out.

 

[Willl]

Loaded or not, it's the same pressure.

And any gauge will work, up till whatever you put in it gums it up to the point where it affects its accuracy. Then the whole games off.

 

[Ford tractor]

Loaded or not, it's the same pressure.

And any gauge will work, up till whatever you put in it gums it up to the point where it affects its accuracy. Then the whole games off.

Yeah but the salt will eat it up pretty quick. Plan on replacing them.

 

[Willl]

Yeah but

Do you know of a gauge that WONT get affected by tire ballast solution ?

 

[Mark Page]

Salt? What Salt? I've only ever used methanol and water, don't want to have to replace the rims. 11 psi has always worked for me. More pressure = less traction. I keep a regular old-fashioned tube type gauge in my machine's tool box, never had a problem with it. Less pressure equals a softer ride.

 

[North West Farmer]

Willl,

I have at least one liquid special tire Gage that is at least 20 years old and I regularly compare it to other tire gages. The liquid special Gage still works great. It has a plastic calibrated stem and I am guessing it must have a stainless steel spring to have held up to the corrosive tire liquid.

The Gage was purchased at my local tire dealer that was under family ownership at that time. It is presently under ownership of a large tire chain brand.

After each use I flush the Gage out with water and then soak the Gage in penetrating oil prior to putting it back in storage. If the Gage was not cleaned and protected after usage, it might have failed a long time ago.

Nick, North West Farmer

 

[John_in_TN]

Note that the pressure listed on the sidewall is the MAXIMUM for that tire. It is NOT the reccomended pressure for most applications. Best to check the Owner's Manual for your tractor. In my limited experience: 10 to 12 PSI is good for most applications.

 

[CTPhil]

I buy only tire gauges designed for liquid. Gauges for liquid work fine for tires with air only, but not the other way around in my experience.

 

[Shooter45]

Fill the tires with what the tractor manufacture states in manual. Also if you are getting fluid with stem at 12:00 you may want to jack up rear and pull the valve stem core and make sure they didn't fill rear tires FULL of water.