Ballast filling tires, foam calcum, beet juice anyothers pros cons.

[art]

Years ago they had steel wheels for tractors and they didn't have flats either! The foam will give you everything the steel wheel does except the nostalgic look! Plus or minus, no tire flex so rougher ride even over the fluid filled tires a minus the plus is no flats.

As posted by GManBart try and get the weight off the front end as it will mean faster wear on steering components, three point is the best using the rear axle with those nice big tires to carry more of the load. Rear axle weights are my second best recommendation as filling the tires hinders traction much the same as foam as it doesn't allow the sidewalls to flex to absorb or deflect when going over bumps.
We found this out with the farm tractors about twenty years ago and have been using it successfully out performing other dealers in demo's with the same make and size! There is so much to balancing and ballasting that if it wasn't for the thousands of tractors we have sold we could have missed it. We still get some that seem to know better till we get them into the neighbors tractor!

 

[RedNeckRacin]

Well, that's all well and good until the company only specs 400lbs of wheel weights out for your model tractor.(200/side for a 5083E) I have a 1700lb counter weight, both rear tires loaded with beet juice and I can still manage to get the back end off the ground with the 563 loader on my tractor. (I know I need more weight) If you have a dedicated AG tractor, wheel weights are by far the best way to go IF that is enough weight for your particular application. For me, 200lbs vs 800 lbs was easy enough to convince me to go with the loaded tires; Never have looked back since.

I guess that's why the manufactures all recommended ballasting for each particular task. If you have it dialed in correctly, it can't be beat. For the majority of us, close enough is good enough because our tractors have to tackle so many different tasks besides just pulling ground engaging implements.

 

[alia176]

I have Rimguard in my tires, that's the beet juice stuff, it works great, and it isn't toxic, if it leaks out, I don't have to worry about kids and animals getting into it. And it doesn't rust out the rims if it does leak. I had a old tractor with calcium in it, it started leaking, very, very little, and within a couple of months, the whole rim fell apart. And getting somebody to fix the rim like that is very expensive.

When Rimguard is used, aren't inner tubes utilized during this process as well? Or are folks simply injecting Rimguard directly into the tubeless tires? Forgive my ignorance, I'm still learning this stuff!

 

[art]

When Rimguard is used, aren't inner tubes utilized during this process as well? Or are folks simply injecting Rimguard directly into the tubeless tires? Forgive my ignorance, I'm still learning this stuff!

Tubes are not needed although some do choose to add them.

 

[kco]

When Rimguard is used, aren't inner tubes utilized during this process as well? Or are folks simply injecting Rimguard directly into the tubeless tires? Forgive my ignorance, I'm still learning this stuff!

I have Bio-Tire which is the same as Rim Guard(beet juice) and no tubes. I posted an article a couple of years back comparing different types. I like beet juice because it is the safest( except for plain water). I particularly don't like antifreeze because of the dangers to animals.

One caution for beet juice is that you must have good quality valve stem cores. It will dissolve the adhesive of some cores. The RimGuard or BioTire site has this info and I posted it in a previous thread.

 

[tman1020]

talked to bobcat about the foam ruber option heres what they said. foam will void warenty because it makes tire to stiff/ rigged. the tire offers some give to soften the shock of the abuse that we all exert on our machines if they are foamed they cannot do this near as well..also with the added weight this is compounded. he said that he had seen a lot of problems with this on the skidloaders expecially the early ones. the manual recommends calcum. but i have to think beet juice or washer fluid a better option. now just need to decide which one.

 

[tman1020]

u guys using beet juice have you ever noticed a bad smell in summer months? tube or no tube? tire supplyer said the alcohol in windwasher and anti freeze eats/weekens rubber.

 

[blucoondawg]

When Rimguard is used, aren't inner tubes utilized during this process as well? Or are folks simply injecting Rimguard directly into the tubeless tires? Forgive my ignorance, I'm still learning this stuff!

Even with the tubes in the tires it is still very possible for the tube to break or spring a leak, as me how I know, 2 years in a row I had rims rot out of my old Allis chalmers due to tubes popping and that damned calcium leaking out.

talked to bobcat about the foam ruber option heres what they said. foam will void warenty because it makes tire to stiff/ rigged. the tire offers some give to soften the shock of the abuse that we all exert on our machines if they are foamed they cannot do this near as well..also with the added weight this is compounded. he said that he had seen a lot of problems with this on the skidloaders expecially the early ones. the manual recommends calcum. but i have to think beet juice or washer fluid a better option. now just need to decide which one.

I don't know about the alcohol eating at the rubber but I supposed anything is possible, I do know that there is no way on God's green Earth I would ever put calcium in my tires after the experiences I had with it, save up some extra cash and go with the beet juice, you will save your rims in the long run. I have no experience in the matter but I would doubt you can smell anything through a tractor tire.

Ballast is a good option also for the above mentioned reason, that you can remove it if need be, I currently don't have my tires loaded on the Kioti DK50SE however I rarely remove the Woods backhoe, with the subframe that weighed in at 2600 lbs dry weight according to the shipper's receipt, granted some of the weight is forward of the rear tires in the subframe but that is minimal, most weight is rear of the back axle.

 

[8N Ren]

It will eat rubber. We did a test at work with 70% IPA, 95% ethyl, 200 proof ethyl and methanol. They all broke down rubber gaskets, some faster than others. Having said that I would think that it would take a long time to eat away at the rubber of a tire, depending on the concentration of course. Also the strengths we used aren't readily available to the public.

 

[Turbo Goat]

I've used RV antifreeze in my Yanmar rears for a year now. I've had no issues - no rubber degradation, no smell, costs way less than Rim Guard or automotive anti freeze, non-corrosive, protects to -50F if used straight, and is totally non-toxic. It is even used as a food additive.

The only down side is that it doesn't weigh as much as calcium or Rim Guard. It still added more than enough weight to my YM336D. I couldn't pull the rears off of the ground even with a heaping bucket load of gravel.