Tires Ballasting tires with saline (not calcium chloride)

[n8wrl]

I hear that enviro angle a bit and for some reason it made my skin crawl. Finally the quarter dropped and figured out why. We snowy land folks see salt used on the roads every winter. They are pure white with salt in the spring! The ditches are full of weeds, grass and flowers even after 50-80 years of putting salt down. How much damage is being done when a tire with 40-50-100 # of CaCl2 gets a flat vs the thousands of tons of salt spread by the county every year for the past 50 years?

Several houses-ago we had a PVC pipe that came out of the basement wall about 2' above grade. It bent at a 90-deg and stopped just above a 4" black plastic hose that went to the septic tank. The PVC was the outlet for the sump in the basement, and the water softener drained in there when it 'recharged'. One day my MIL came to visit with a litter of kittens. She was concerned about the kittens falling down the hose into the septic so she put a bowl over the hose. I didn't know, and later the softener recharged.

The rock salt did a number on the lawn and it sure looked bad but it took only a couple of weeks for the grass to come back.

-Brian

 

[LBrown59]

. How much damage is being done when a tire with 40-50-100 # of CaCl2 gets a flat vs the thousands of tons of salt spread by the county every year for the past 50 years?

Or the millions of gallons of oil dumped on gravel roads in the name of dust control!

 

[Reg]

Island Tractor,
I did my own this year, my experience with RimGuard was that it isn't THAT viscous and it flowed reasonably well when siphoned from 55 gallon drums lifted to the full height that my loader could go to. Basically start the siphon at about ground level, raise the bucket once it starts, go do something else - maybe leave it overnight (-:
I got it locally (Mass) for $3.00 a gallon, pumped into barrels that I brought.

 

[RexB]

IslandTractor my smaller 15-19.5 tires took about 26 gallons of WWF each and added ~400 lbs. Dealer threw in the tire fill and a phd for buying it. The SuperTech methanol WWF at Wallyworld or Schuck's i have is good to -20F, plenty for here our coldest is only +20F.

A handy tire chart and fluid loading pg 57 http://www.goodyear.ca/tires/farm/pdf/GoodyearFarmHandbook.pdf

I lowered the PSI 2lbs to make up for fluid weight and slippage.

Love the ballast hauling dirt and gravel and things, don't have to worry about compacting soil here.

 

[patrick_g]

I hear that enviro angle a bit and for some reason it made my skin crawl. Finally the quarter dropped and figured out why. We snowy land folks see salt used on the roads every winter. They are pure white with salt in the spring! The ditches are full of weeds, grass and flowers even after 50-80 years of putting salt down. How much damage is being done when a tire with 40-50-100 # of CaCl2 gets a flat vs the thousands of tons of salt spread by the county every year for the past 50 years?

John, All around the nation where salt has been used on the roads for years there are bridges that are dangerously weakened by the salt penetration to the armature.

There are salt tolerant weeds so unless you knew what grew there before so much salt was used you wouldn't notice that the population of plants may have changed.

That said, I basically agree with you that the problem is exaggerated beyond all reasonableness.

A tire shop I know of no longer deals with filled tires at all because they got caught dumping a fill in a storm drain. The tire was filled with anti-freeze, ethylene glycol (poison) not the environment friendly propylene glycol. In the big scheme of things an isolated spill here and there will not destroy western civilization but it can sure kill some pets and such.

The comment about salt (NaCl) being less corrosive than CaCl is a "so what" even if true, which I doubt. Salt corrodes steel, a lot.

Pat

 

[Don R.]

I have not put ballast into my tires; yet. But, the back end of my 4740 is a little on the light side. The loader is ample in capacity. The other day, I strapped a load of lumber which was stacked on tope of some other lumber I needed for my pole barn and picked it up. No problem. Until, I backed up and the full weight of the load was on the loader. Then the back end came up, the front end came down, and my backside chewed a hole in my brand new seat.

A neighbor has a "kit" for filling tires with water that he purchased from a parts store. Looks simple enough. But, will I need to put a tube in my tubeless tire before I put water in? There's so much I don't know, that I thought I did know.

 

[IslandTractor]

No need for a tube but if it ever freezes for more than a day or so in your part of Texas it would be safer to put in either windshield washer fluid (methanol plus water) or a salt solution or RimGuard.

 

[patrick_g]

No need for a tube but if it ever freezes for more than a day or so in your part of Texas it would be safer to put in either windshield washer fluid (methanol plus water) or a salt solution or RimGuard.

I haven't checked in decades but you used to be able to buy anti-rust additives for radiators. Something like that might save your wheels from excessive corrosion with water fill. ...and oh by the way... does WWF have any anti-corrosion properties? Isn't it just water, alcohol, and some blue coloring?

I wonder what propylene glycol sells for in bulk? Isn't that what is used for anti-freeze in RV systems and for winterizing unoccupied residences. This is a non-toxic anti-freeze and should work fine in filling tires.

Pat

 

[canoetrpr]

FWIW: The local tire guy did mine up with tubes and CaCl2. It was cheap and widely available. In fact most people up here have not heard of doing it with anything else.

 

[IslandTractor]

I haven't checked in decades but you used to be able to buy anti-rust additives for radiators. Something like that might save your wheels from excessive corrosion with water fill. ...and oh by the way... does WWF have any anti-corrosion properties? Isn't it just water, alcohol, and some blue coloring?

I wonder what propylene glycol sells for in bulk? Isn't that what is used for anti-freeze in RV systems and for winterizing unoccupied residences. This is a non-toxic anti-freeze and should work fine in filling tires.

Pat

Rust is not really an issue if you keep the tires inflated properly as there is not enough oxygen in the tire to permit rusting. That at least is what Goodyear states in their written material recommending calcium chloride in tractor tires. Once you expose the rim to air, as in when you remove the tire or break the bead, you need to rinse quickly and thoroughly with water to prevent rapid rusting with any salt solution. I don't think there is much concern about WWF which is just methanol and water.

Propylene glycol ain't cheap even in bulk. $786/55gallon drum on one website and over $1000 on another. Even ethylene glycol, which is cheaper, is over $450 even in 55gallon drums.

Methanol at 275 dollars for 55 gallons starts to look like a bargin. Mixed 50/50 with water it would provide antifreeze to -30F or so. That works out to about $2.50/gallon mixed. Rimguard is about $3/gallon and has the advantage of being heavier but requires access to a dealer.

Plain vanilla WWF costs about $1.25/gallon at Home Depot in my area. I cannot tell from the labelling though when it freezes. The deicer version which is really just the same thing with different color dye and a higher concentration of methanol, costs close to double.

Despite all the problems with calcium chloride, it is by far the cheapest solution and would cost just pennies/gallon made up as a -30F antifreeze solution on site.