Tires Antifreeze in tires or not?

[matt16631]

I live in northern California. Winters here have occasional stretches of overnight lows in the high 20's. Freezing temps usually subside by mid morning. Most overnight lows are in the low to mid 30's and 40's. My question: do I need antifreeze in my rear tires to prevent freezing?

 

[EdC]

Matt

If you are planning on loading your tires then either antifreeze or RimGuard is much better than water. Why take a chance, if you fill your tires with water and it does freeze at the very least you will have badly out of balance tires to the point of being unsafe. At worst the tires could be forced off the rim (doubtful).

If you are leery of loading tires with RimGuard or antifreeze and you want weighted tires how about wheel weights?

 

[woodchuckie]

I don't think it would ever freeze at that temp. Unless you have tubes in the tires, you might want the antifreeze for the corrosion protection.

 

[VistanTN]

While you likely will not have a problem, some "anti-freeze" is the safest option. You wouldn't need to mix for 20 below, so that will save some on cost. I would suggest Rim Guard, RV anti-freeze, or methanol rather than regular radiator anti-freeze, particularly if you have any dogs or cats (but also horses). Ethylene glycol (regular antifreeze) tastes very sweet and is very attractive to domestic animals -- and also HIGHLY toxic. If you ever break a bead or get a leak, it's a real mess. The others I mentioned are non-toxic, and while a little more expensive, it's cheap insurance.

PS I have my tires filled with water-metanol mix good to 0 -- just so you know what my "slant/bias" might be.

 

[john_bud]

You can usually go to auto recyclers and get used filtered anti-freeze for about 50 cents to 75 cents a gallon. Bring along a couple 5 gal buckets with lids (hydraulic fluid buckets work good). You would probably only need 5 gal per tire for rust and any possible freeze protection.

 

[matt16631]

Thanks for the input; currently I'm in a situation where delivery of my tractor may be delayed by 2 days if I want an additive in the tires.

 

[Bird]

Fifty years ago, just north of Dallas, I occasionally fixed tractor flats for farmers and refilled the tires (all were tube type back then) with plain water. For my 1999 B2710, I used regular old Prestone antifreeze, but if I had to do it again, I'd use non-toxic antifreeze just to be safer for animals in the event of a leak. However, a real farmer friend at the time said he never used anything except plain water. We didn't often have hard freezes that lasted long and he said even if it freezes, it won't hurt anything if you don't move the tractor until after it thaws.

 

[Farmwithjunk]

All you need to do is keep the water from freezing solid. It can be slush and not hurt a thing. Just a small ammount of RV anti-freeze, ca/cl, windshield washer fluid, rim-gaurd, or regular automotive anti-freeze will do the trick temps just barely below the freezing point.

If you let it freeze anything like solid, and then try to move the tractor, you will most likely shred the innertube if you have one. Ca/Cl has always been popular because in addition to freeze-proofing the fill, it adds weight to the same volume of water.

 

[patrick_g]

If you don't have tubes you need corrosion protection. To be environmentally sensitive use non-toxic chemicals like RV antifreeze. CaCl is OK (with tubes) but can be a corrosion problem. CaCl as typically found is maybe 75-80% pure and is corrosive to steel. If you search you can find "stabilized" CaCl with additives to reduce corrosion of steel. DOW chemical is one source.

Pat

 

[SFish]

Matt:

I live in the mountains of Mendocino county. I have tubed tires so I just use plain water.

Steve