Fluid capacity for rear tire ballast

buickanddeere · Dec 31, 2019

In an ideal world . The tires would be tubeless radials with bolted on cast iron weights .

seville009 · Jan 1, 2020

Maybe get enough for a little over one tire at first; fill that up to see exactly how much it took then buy enough additional to fill up the second tire

buickanddeere · Jan 1, 2020

seville009 said:
Maybe get enough for a little over one tire at first; fill that up to see exactly how much it took then buy enough additional to fill up the second tire

Why not use the tire fill chart ?
Over filling the tires will also contribute to rollovers .

seville009 · Jan 1, 2020

buickanddeere said:
Why not use the tire fill chart ?
Over filling the tires will also contribute to rollovers .

Not overfill the tires - just buy more than enough fluid to fill more than one tire. When the first tire is filled properly, he will know exactly how much it took and can buy the exact amount to finish filling his second tire, including what’s left over from the first purchasr

PILOON · Jan 1, 2020

MBJones said:
Yes, pretty accurate now, but you still come across a lot of sources that claim 11#/gallon.

Rounded off figure ti the closest pound.

Also temperature will affect the density/weight.

5030 · Jan 1, 2020

Pretty simple really. Place the valve stem vertically at the 12 o'clock poistion and fill it until it starts coming out. That gives you the proper 85% fill. Tubeless or tube don't matter but I would never used CACL in a tubeless tire because it will eventually destroy the rim (corrode it). Only washer fluid or beet juice. Myself, I prefer external wights ove filling any tire.. In fact, both my Kubota's have cast center sections that5 give me an additional 500 pounds on each side which is plenty enough ballast in my view.

Problem with filling a tire is, if you get a puncture or what to replace the tires, you have to pump out the liquid ballast and if you get a puncture, the ballast makes one heck of a mess on thre ground and, if you ever dismount the tire and wheel, they are so heavy and cumbersome that it literally takes a couple people to manhandle them around whicj rellay don't apply with smaller tires but do with my large ones.

LouNY · Jan 1, 2020

buickanddeere said:
In an ideal world . The tires would be tubeless radials with bolted on cast iron weights .

In my mind without a doubt the best way, is more expensive initially.

5030 said:
Pretty simple really. Place the valve stem vertically at the 12 o'clock poistion and fill it until it starts coming out. That gives you the proper 85% fill. Tubeless or tube don't matter but I would never used CACL in a tubeless tire because it will eventually destroy the rim (corrode it). Only washer fluid or beet juice. Myself, I prefer external wights ove filling any tire.. In fact, both my Kubota's have cast center sections that5 give me an additional 500 pounds on each side which is plenty enough ballast in my view.

Problem with filling a tire is, if you get a puncture or what to replace the tires, you have to pump out the liquid ballast and if you get a puncture, the ballast makes one heck of a mess on thre ground and, if you ever dismount the tire and wheel, they are so heavy and cumbersome that it literally takes a couple people to manhandle them around whicj rellay don't apply with smaller tires but do with my large ones.

We repair all most all of our tractor tires while still mounted on the tractor,
if we remove the rim to work on or clean it up to repair or paint we may take it of the tractor after the tire has been demounted.
Much easier to work with a large tire upright and fixed in place.
If it's liquid filled many times we will drain them into a barrel set up down hill fromthe tractor and just let gravity and siphoning do the work.
Otherwise air the tire up rotate the valve stem to 6 o'clock let the air pressure push the fluid out,
when it stops add more air and repeat when the tire is mostly empty, break the beads, iron the outside off the rim
and pull the tube out.

buickanddeere · Jan 1, 2020

I hope washer fluid or beet juice is being used and not calcium chloride .

J2Jonner · May 5, 2020

I wanted to just thank everyone on the forum for the numerous threads on tire ballast with washer fluid / glycols / beat juice. I'm new to the forum and have found it a wealth of information on this an other topics! I decided to go with the Walmart RV antifreeze which appears to be an alcohol / propylene glycol mixed antifreeze. At $2.58 a gallon with free shipping to my house it feels like a good mix of affordable / convenience. I plan to use a 2 : 1 ratio of the RV juice and water as I'm in VA and expect the decrease in freeze performance to be acceptable here and bring the price below what I can get straight washer fluid for. Comments appreciated if anyone see's a problem with this line of thought. Thanks all!