Ballast Filling tires

[TomOfTarsus]

I don't know why, but the search didn't work. So just a quickie. Conventional wisdom, when filling tires with calcium chloride, is to put tubes in so as to prevent rusting your rims out, correct?

And how do you know the shop made up the correct solution? I'm new at this, the shop is new to me, and they haven't exactly covered themselves with glory so far.

Glad to be back,

Tom

 

[intel]

I used a mixture of used antifreeze and windshield washer fluid without a inner tube.

 

[TomOfTarsus]

Yeah, I was going to, but the antifreeze would've cost me just as much AND required me going to get, so I said just go ahead and put tubes and CC in 'em.

 

[JDeerekid]

First of all I would not recommend calcium chloride. I would go with either rim guard, windshield washer fluid, water/antifreeze, beet juice, or something that is not corrosive. Now I have heard that you can put the CC in tubes or tubless just have the fluid cover the rim completely. If the rim is fully sumerged in the CC it will not rust or at least prolong the rusting. This is what I have heard not sure though. My old ford 8N had the CC in tubes on the rear and the valve eventually started leaking and the rims started rusting through. This took all of 15 years to do but they eventually have to be replaced. Its not my problem now becuase I sold it but I warned the no owner of it and recommended when he changed it to put rim guard in it.

 

[TomOfTarsus]

Blast it! I forgot about Rim Guard...

 

[JDeerekid]

I dont know what size tires you have but mine are a bit larger and I just called 2 days ago and it is going to cost me $192 a tire which I thought wasn't bad.

 

[TomOfTarsus]

Yeah, mine will be $200 total including tubes & 13 gal CC each tire, but I'm pushing for a discount. I took them in Monday before last, and we determined that CC was the way to go. Then they told me they'd not have calcium till the next day. They called me the next AM to say that afternoon they'd be done, I drove down and they weren't; they claim they tried to call me but my cell was with me the whole time and I had no calls from them, missed or otherwise.

So the calcium was on "backorder" and they weren't supposed to get it until today. At this point I'm ticked and I take exactly two phone calls to locate a local wholesale source for the CC. After that, I had to go out of town for a test. But no phone calls, no nothing until I called them back and lo and behold, they're done! I leave work early, bust it to get to the shop before closing... they didn't put the inner tubes in!

So that's two unnecessary trips and 10 days without my machine. I'd taken vacation time last week to try to get stuff done, now all that's gone... I hope I don't have a fight on my hands and I hope they did a good job, but short of taking a sample to a chemist to determine the concentration level, I have no way of knowing.

Hey, thanks for the info!

Tom

 

[Diamondpilot]

Thats why we do them ourselves around here with WW Fluid and a cheap fitting at TSC.

If you want it done right you have to do it yourself.

Chris

 

[SPYDERLK]

So that's two unnecessary trips and 10 days without my machine. I'd taken vacation time last week to try to get stuff done, now all that's gone... I hope I don't have a fight on my hands and I hope they did a good job, but short of taking a sample to a chemist to determine the concentration level, I have no way of knowing.
Tom

I have done tests with CaCl added to distilled water. 5# added to a gallon makes a solution that weighs 10.6# per gallon. 6#/G yields an 11#/G solution

7#/G gives 11.4/G but some of the salt precipitates out at 0F. Bottom of tire will be a little slushy with salt until it warms back up.

So you could weight any of the solution they have left over....
larry

 

[Bird]

Tubes keep the calcium from rusting the wheels until you get a puncture and then it leaks in between the tube and the wheel and starts the corrosion. In my part of the country, nobody uses calcium chloride; wouldn't even know where to get it (thank goodness), but a friend and neighbor bought a used tractor that came from Minnesota. He had no idea the tires were filled with calcium until one sprung a leak and since he was very close, he drove up to my shop building with a pencil sized stream coming from one tire. It was about 3 years before the grass started to come back where that stuff leaked on my grass. And he eventually bought new wheels to replace the original rusted out wheels, but the tractor was about 25 years old when he had to buy new wheels. We don't know whether they had ever been replaced before that.

 

[TomOfTarsus]

Thanks, all. SPYDERLK, thanks for the weights.

Now I'm just ticked with myself. If I'd just taken my time to post here, I could've gone to TSC & got a fitting & filled the things with WW fluid or Rim Guard and saved myself a lot of money and aggravation.

That's assuming the fitting from TSC allows you to fill using a normal air compressor.

In my defense, I've been busier than a two-tailed cat in a rocking chair test center, but sheesh! Lesson learned...

And they did discount the cost.

Beautiful day, I'll bust out of the office at noon and get some mowing done so I can take it out tomorrow.

Later,

Tom

 

[wedge40]

Ya know it would be great if you could buy rimgurad off the shelf. Last time I checked there was no one within a 150 mile radius who carried rimguard.
If I had the tires filled could I remove and save the fluid during the summer months then put back in the fall winter?


Wedge

 

[tawilson]

Thanks, all. SPYDERLK, thanks for the weights.
That's assuming the fitting from TSC allows you to fill using a normal air compressor.

Tom

You still need a pump. I used one of the cheapy things that run off a drill when I replaced my tires. I tied the trigger back and came by and checked once in a while. And I used cc as I had it originally and only needed it in the tire that I had poked a hole in.

 

[Reg]

I didn't use a pump.
I just bought the RimGuard, they pumped it into 55 gallon plastic drums that I brought.
Took it home, unloaded the drums with my FEL, tied them in the bucket tight.
Jacked one rear wheel just off the ground to get the weight off it.
Rotated the wheel to get the valve at the top.
Removed the valve core.
Hooked up the $10 fill tool and started a siphon.
Raised the bucket as high as I could to speed up the process, it was still very slow.
Plan to do something else while this happens, the passage through the fill tool is very small, but it isn't worth buying a pump for a one time fill.
Replaced the valve core and aired up the tire when it was all done, THEN lowered that side off the jack.
Repeated on the other side.

RimGuard is easy to clean up, just flush it off with a garden hose, doesn't stink either (-:

I bought 100 gallons at exactly $3 a gallon.
YES I DID get more than $300 worth of added traction, without worries about the environment, rim corrosion or the "weight of the mix".

BTW, I have a set of turf tires and rims too, so I can run those in the summer for mowing and loaded R4s the other 3 seasons for ground work and snow removal.

 

[Mickey_Fx]

Some times some of us don't realize how lucky we are when it comes to parts and service.

Recently had to take a rear tire in for repair, leaking tube filled with CC. Seems like the leak was due to damage at the steam and what a pain to drain the CC but they finally got it done. They took a power wire brush to the rim and cleaned it up as best they could, applied a coat of paint to the bare metal. New Tube and 24gal of Rim Gard.

Shop stocked 3 kinds of fluid, they were in 1000# totes.

Cost, labor was free, tube was $45 and fluid was $78.

All done through Les Schwab tire shop, largest chain of tire shops in the PNW. Never a charge for fixing flats.

Sometime we see posts about weighing a rig and where it can be done. I have half doz public scales within 5-6 mils and most are free.

Have a LARGE feed & Fert Co in town and living in the heart of grass seed production, I can buy small qty's of seed for not much more than a buck a pound.

In some areas, I am very fortunate.

 

[Bird]

All done through Les Schwab tire shop, largest chain of tire shops in the PNW. Never a charge for fixing flats

I think the closest store they have to me is a little over 900 miles in Utah, but one of my brothers who spends the summer in Washington State has had good things to say about them.

 

[Ryan03]

I have calcium in my tubed R-4s. Both rears are comepletely filled. They are 12-80-18's, and to fill them both was around $120.00 including tubes. This setup was trouble free until I got stuck in the mud a couple months ago and tore the valve stem off of the tube on the left rear, talk about a mess, but at least I wont have to weed wack around the mudhole for a few years.

 

[skipro3]

I use Les Schwab too, but are you saying they fixed the flat for free? I took my tubless tractor rear tire in, they charged me a little over $50 to do the job. Worth it, IMO.

 

[David_Kb7uns]

Sad to say that since Les Schwab died our local store has started charging for alot more things and are even charging for mounting the tires after putting a new tube in them.

David Kb7uns

 

[Lunk]

Farm & Fleet has Zecol "Blast" WW Fluid on sale right now for $1.39 / gal.

Good down to -25 degrees.

Anyone have a clue what a 43x16x20 R-4 would take in terms of gallons?

Also - A lot of folks use WW Fluid in their tires. Anything bad we should know about it in terms of harm to the tire itself?

Thanks,

Lunk