How do you put ballast in your tires?

[herringchoker]

I always hate to have to do this because it means I've had a flat tire. It happened again today, so I dug out my little setup I've used before. It's cheap and it works like a charm. It consists of a bucket, a drill pump and drill, 2 pieces of garden hose and a small hose clamp. I start with the tire flat, and the valve stem at close to 12:00. (This is about the same as 10:00 to 11:00 with full air.) I pump in 3 or 4 gallons, then reverse the drill for about 1 revolution and let the air (that the ballast has displaced) bleed out, then pump again. (Picture 4 shows the displaced air bubbling in the supply bucket.) When done, I flush the pump with clean water and then squirt a little oil in it and give it a few turns so it's ready for the next time.

[k0ua]

How interesting! Two things, One I never thought of reversing the drill pump for a bit to burp the air.. I bought the adaptor with the burp button. But I see you did not use an adaptor.. so $10 saved there.. item number two: Your drill pump seems to be much more substantial than the plastic POS I bought from Home Depot. Thanks for posting

James K0UA

[creekbend]

Thanks for posting.

[Mark Page]

I call the tire repair brothers and they stop by with a pick up and all the bits and pcs. you would ever need to fix a tire. They will empty a tire, replace the inner tube and replace the fluid for around $100. They have been here a couple of times and make a PITA job look easy.
OK, call me lazy.

[vtsnowedin]

Ayup you are lazy!! But that doesn't mean you are wrong or foolish. Letting people that have practised a job do it for a fair price usually saves money in the end but sometimes you have to tackle a project just to assure yourself that you have some skills in hand.

[Mechanos]

How interesting! Two things, One I never thought of reversing the drill pump for a bit to burp the air.. I bought the adaptor with the burp button. But I see you did not use an adaptor.. so $10 saved there.. item number two: Your drill pump seems to be much more substantial than the plastic POS I bought from Home Depot. Thanks for posting

James K0UA

That's basically the way the tire shop installed the RimGuard in my tires. They start with the tire at 11:00 o'clock and connect the fill hose. They use a pneumatic powered diaphram pump to transfer the liquid. After pumping in some liquid and building pressure in tire, they reverse the pump. Since this type of pump is a positive displacement pump, they keep pumping until they pull a bit of a vacuum on the tire. Then reverse the pump and transfer some more fluid, and repeat. Once the liquid level is above the valve stem, the pump pull the excess liquid out of the tire. Once the pump starts sucking air, they know they have the correct amount of liquid in the tire. They use a slick hose connector valve that allows them to remove the valve stem AFTER the hose is conneceted and reinstall the valve stem BEFORE disconnecting the hose so there is very little mess.

[Deere Dude]

How interesting! Two things, One I never thought of reversing the drill pump for a bit to burp the air.. I bought the adaptor with the burp button. But I see you did not use an adaptor.. so $10 saved there.. item number two: Your drill pump seems to be much more substantial than the plastic POS I bought from Home Depot. Thanks for posting

James K0UA

I'm all for DOY, if not just to save a few bucks but to keep ourselves finely tuned mechanically.

I bought and used the adapter made for getting the air out while pumping. Well worth the $10. Trying to burp air out is fine the other way, but consider what may happen if drawn to much of a vacuum; the bead may break and then you may have 50 gallons of RimGuard running down your driveway. Just hanging a tire on a tractor with the rear end jacked off the ground could have the same effect, a broken bead. Then you really have a mess. Been there, done that. I don't understand why the tire is sitting on the block of wood. I would think that would make a difficult situation rolling it off without losing balance.

[sam5570]

I call the tire repair brothers and they stop by with a pick up and all the bits and pcs. you would ever need to fix a tire. They will empty a tire, replace the inner tube and replace the fluid for around $100. They have been here a couple of times and make a PITA job look easy.
OK, call me lazy.

now thats my way of doing things take the easy way out

[Soundguy]

How interesting! Two things, One I never thought of reversing the drill pump for a bit to burp the air.. I bought the adaptor with the burp button. But I see you did not use an adaptor.. so $10 saved there.. item number two: Your drill pump seems to be much more substantial than the plastic POS I bought from Home Depot. Thanks for posting

James K0UA

yep.. i like his drill pump too.. the black pos one i have is.. well.. a pos too..

[k0ua]

yep.. i like his drill pump too.. the black pos one i have is.. well.. a pos too..

Yeah about the time I got all the fluid in, the "bearing" was getting stiff on the shaft. so at about 52 gallons it was struggling. I am not even sure it would work now. It was only $6 but it is definitely in the POS class of pumps.

James K0UA