Ballast Adding pressure to loaded tractor tires

[jbeall]

Hi All,

I was checking the pressure on my John Deere 2210's tires and discovered that the rear tires are apparently loaded with liquid ballast. I bought it used a few weeks ago and the previous owner said the tires just had air. Apparently he was confused, because I definitely was getting liquid out of them

It's a clear liquid. Methanol and water mixture, probably? I get liquid out of the tires even when the valve stem is at the 12 o'clock position.

At any rate, the rear tires feel a bit soft to me, and my pressure gauge only registered about 5 psi (the tires say max 20psi on the sidewall). But the odd thing is, the tires are not noticeably "squatty" or deflected where they sit on the ground.

I was just using a regular tire pressure gauge, not one designed for use with liquid--might it have given me a bad reading?

I've had no issues with the tractor and have put about 10 hours of use on it since we bought it. It's been driven on gravel and pasture 95% of the time, with just a time bit of use on pavement and concrete.

So from the searching I've done on this it sounds like the "correct" thing to do is to fill the tires to the sidewall pressure. Have I got that right?

-Josh

 

[HCJtractor]

Yes, fill it to the recommended pressure. You can position the valve stem up and add air just like you normally do. Several places sell guages intended for fluid filled tires, but I believe any guage works. You may get a little liquid squirting out.

 

[Willl]

Loaded or not, it's the same pressure.

And any gauge will work, up till whatever you put in it gums it up to the point where it affects its accuracy. Then the whole games off.

 

[Ford tractor]

Loaded or not, it's the same pressure.

And any gauge will work, up till whatever you put in it gums it up to the point where it affects its accuracy. Then the whole games off.

Yeah but the salt will eat it up pretty quick. Plan on replacing them.

 

[Willl]

Yeah but

Do you know of a gauge that WONT get affected by tire ballast solution ?

 

[Mark Page]

Salt? What Salt? I've only ever used methanol and water, don't want to have to replace the rims. 11 psi has always worked for me. More pressure = less traction. I keep a regular old-fashioned tube type gauge in my machine's tool box, never had a problem with it. Less pressure equals a softer ride.

 

[North West Farmer]

Willl,

I have at least one liquid special tire Gage that is at least 20 years old and I regularly compare it to other tire gages. The liquid special Gage still works great. It has a plastic calibrated stem and I am guessing it must have a stainless steel spring to have held up to the corrosive tire liquid.

The Gage was purchased at my local tire dealer that was under family ownership at that time. It is presently under ownership of a large tire chain brand.

After each use I flush the Gage out with water and then soak the Gage in penetrating oil prior to putting it back in storage. If the Gage was not cleaned and protected after usage, it might have failed a long time ago.

Nick, North West Farmer

 

[John_in_TN]

Note that the pressure listed on the sidewall is the MAXIMUM for that tire. It is NOT the reccomended pressure for most applications. Best to check the Owner's Manual for your tractor. In my limited experience: 10 to 12 PSI is good for most applications.

 

[CTPhil]

I buy only tire gauges designed for liquid. Gauges for liquid work fine for tires with air only, but not the other way around in my experience.

 

[Shooter45]

Fill the tires with what the tractor manufacture states in manual. Also if you are getting fluid with stem at 12:00 you may want to jack up rear and pull the valve stem core and make sure they didn't fill rear tires FULL of water.

 

[Willl]

After each use I flush the Gage out with water and then soak the Gage in penetrating oil prior to putting it back in storage. If the Gage was not cleaned and protected after usage, it might have failed a long time ago.

Awesome tip Nick. Heck with a grade A maintenance plan like that, you could use a standard gauge on filled tires and get good results.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I dont think there is any way to completely fill a tire with liquid. Once it goes over the valve stem, then it just pressurizing the remaining air. At max of 20 psi, you could fill it above the rim but not much before the pressure maxed out. Then any reduction would just drain off the liquid. You are always going to have some air space in them. I suppose you could put some sort of bent straw or tube thru the valve stem and point it at the top of the tire to remove the trapped air, but that would be extraordinary measure taken to do something wrong which I dont see happening.
I just checked my rear tires on the LS from Factory filled and they had 15 psi on 16.9 tires. They were setting up so high that the outside 2-3 inches of tread wasnt touching the ground. I reduced it to 12 psi which I think is still a bit high when looking at tread foot print. I didnt bother to check the fronts as they do squat a bit with a full FEL bucket of material. I will leave them as is as I dont want to take a chance of rolling one off the rim. I do run the max (25) in the fronts on my Yanmar

 

[Shooter45]

I dont think there is any way to completely fill a tire with liquid. Once it goes over the valve stem, then it just pressurizing the remaining air. At max of 20 psi, you could fill it above the rim but not much before the pressure maxed out. Then any reduction would just drain off the liquid. You are always going to have some air space in them. I suppose you could put some sort of bent straw or tube thru the valve stem and point it at the top of the tire to remove the trapped air, but that would be extraordinary measure taken to do something wrong which I dont see happening.
I just checked my rear tires on the LS from Factory filled and they had 15 psi on 16.9 tires. They were setting up so high that the outside 2-3 inches of tread wasnt touching the ground. I reduced it to 12 psi which I think is still a bit high when looking at tread foot print. I didnt bother to check the fronts as they do squat a bit with a full FEL bucket of material. I will leave them as is as I dont want to take a chance of rolling one off the rim. I do run the max (25) in the fronts on my Yanmar

Of course you can. You just continue bleeding the air as it's filling.

 

[magicheater]

Salt? What Salt? I've only ever used methanol and water, don't want to have to replace the rims. 11 psi has always worked for me. More pressure = less traction. I keep a regular old-fashioned tube type gauge in my machine's tool box, never had a problem with it. Less pressure equals a softer ride.

Note that the pressure listed on the sidewall is the MAXIMUM for that tire. It is NOT the reccomended pressure for most applications. Best to check the Owner's Manual for your tractor. In my limited experience: 10 to 12 PSI is good for most applications.

A fellow who works for a Firestone Store that has been to my place a number of times told me that a good rule of thumb is to set the air pressure equal to the diameter of the rim the tire is on. It would seem this is pretty much spot on based on some of the responses here. I posted this info in an earlier thread on the subject.

 

[CTPhil]

A fellow who works for a Firestone Store that has been to my place a number of times told me that a good rule of thumb is to set the air pressure equal to the diameter of the rim the tire is on.

That doesn't sound right. If you had a tractor with 38" rears that would be 38 lbs., way too much.

 

[magicheater]

That doesn't sound right. If you had a tractor with 38" rears that would be 38 lbs., way too much.

I'll be calling him in the morning and make sure I did not misremember his advice. Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I'll post tomorrow about what he says, I hold his opinion in high regard so it may have been a mistake on my part.

 

[hrcarver]

That doesn't sound right. If you had a tractor with 38" rears that would be 38 lbs., way too much.

I agree, way too much pressure. Even little tractors would be 26 or 28 psi.

 

[skipmarcy]

This gets discussed on here very regularly to great lengths, everybody has their opinions on the matter of tire pressure but it's really pretty basic. The air pressure is the same whether it has fluid or not, fact not fiction. The pressure listed on the sidewall is the max for that tire when loaded to it's MAX load limit (my Titan 16.9x24s don't even have a max on the sidewall). Depending on what your tractor weighs will affect what air pressure you need to run to get the proper sidewall profile and tread contact with the ground. Ideally you want a nice even bar contact with the ground all the way across the tire - this is easy to see in the dirt as you drive. Adjust as necessary for your particular machine with your particular equipment attached. On my tractor it so happens that right at 11 - 12 psi works just right for me with the equipment I hang on my 3 pt. I get the best traction (TRACTOR) at this air pressure and a decent ride, considering this is the only suspension I have on my tractor. Now since I always have my FEL on and use it very often, I keep my front tires just shy of max pressure which is 38 psi (40 max). Of course my front R4 tires (12 ply) are built very different from my rear R4s (8 ply) too, the sidewalls are so stiff I can't tell if I have a flat or not unless I have a load in the bucket. By design they have good bar contact at most any air pressure .

 

[SSdoxie]

That doesn't sound right. If you had a tractor with 38" rears that would be 38 lbs., way too much.

I think that 'rule of thumb" maybe the width of the tire. 16.9 = 16 - 17 psi. I have 11.2 X 24 and run 12 psi in mine.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I dont think that rule holds at all for tractor tires. Mostly tractor tires get larger as the machine gets larger and heavier. I have ran tractors with as much as 23.1 tire widths and 12 PSI has alway been sufficient for even heavily loaded rear implements. The wider the tire, the more area you have to push that 12 psi internal pressure out on and support the tractor. Usually larger flotation tires take less pressure than smaller tires to support the same weight, reference small narrow bicycle tires that take 50 or more PSI just to hold up a 150# rider versus a big tire on an ATV that takes about 6 psi. As another poster said, adjust the tire pressure to hold up what you are carrying and keep as much tire on the ground as possible for traction as long as you dont exceed the maximum design pressure or minimum for that matter. You dont want too much side wall flex in the tire although a little flex is desirable.