Tires Emptying filled tires

[texbaylea]

I did a search but could not find any thread on this subject. I seem to remember some discussion about this but could not find it.

Anyway, very cold (for us) temps are being forecast for next week. My tractor tires are filled with plain water (by dealer) and I am concerned about their freezing. What is a good way to go about emptying the tires?

Vernon

 

[dswinnerjr]

Hey there, I just filled mine up a couple of weeks ago and put in a couple of quarts of antifreeze in them.

But to answer your question. Put a jack underneath the axle to raise it up just enough to get the tire off the ground. Rotate the tire so that the stem is at the six oclock position. Then take out the needle valve and let it drain, may take some time though. The remaining water that is in the tire should not hurt it a bit. Hope this helps. Take care

 

[texasjohn]

To assist the speed of draining, pressure the tire some... maybe 15 PSI and then rotate until water squirts out of stem with no valve... this will continue until either pressure is exhausted, or liquid is exhausted... if tire stem is at 6 o'clock, then almost all of the liquid will be gone. You may have to add pressure a couple of times to get all liquid drained.

 

[tydp]

Up in Tyler, the lowest predicted temp for next week is 28. I wouldn't think you should worry unless it got down into the low 20's and stayed there for many, many hours......

 

[daTeacha]

Water expands by about 10% when it freezes. Leaving some in there with some airspace shouldn't hurt anything, but you may not want to drive the tractor if the water is frozen solid.

On the other hand, some of the Amish around here are not allowed to use a tractor with air filled tires, but they are allowed to use tractors with solid wheels. Solution? Fill your tires solid. Some use foam, and I've heard that some use concrete, but I have no idea how they get it in there.

 

[texbaylea]

tydp

I have been seeing predictions as low as 19 with highs about 35 Monday through Thursday.

However I must remember that being a weather predictor is the only profesion where you can be wrong half the time or more and keep your job.

Vernon

 

[tydp]

Yeah, I wish I could still have a job if I was wrong more than half of the time!

 

[3RRL]

If you're concerned about getting more of it out, after turning your valve stem to the 6:00 position, you could lower the jack to slightly flatten the tire (don't break the bead) to allow a little more to come out. I don't know how much more would come out though?