Beet Juice (a.k.a. Rim Guard)

[oosik]

The local Kubota dealer installed the RG in my rear tires - - 67 gallons in each tire. At the RG web site there is a table that tells how much will be needed for your tire size. I've had that sticky, blood red, c*ap mist me when checking tire pressure - - makes me very glad the dealer did this job.

 

[piercedtiger]

Can you even buy RG by the gallon/55 gallon barrel? I wouldn't mind using it, but I'm not taking my tractor +200 miles - one way - to the nearest dealer for it. Now, if I could pick up a barrel or two and install it myself, then it's just a matter of the next time I'm up in KY or thereabouts.

Not that I was able to find! I would have loved to have just bought it and done it myself, but I couldn't find it available anywhere. Other option was have the wife grow a ton of beets. But that would have taken too long.

I just don't get why it's so expensive! It's a waste product from making sugar from beets! What did they do with it before rimguard? Dump it? It's not like it has expensive chemicals, processing, or storage requirements. You don't need to have hazmat gear for it. They don't even bottle it up for the dealers so there's not bottling plant to pay for and run, or materials to buy for the bottles.

 

[BAP]

I think you're missing my point.

Rimguard's guide lists these fill amounts:
26x12-12 8.3 gallons @ 88.8 lbs
18x8.5-8 3 gallons @ 32.1 lbs

I filled each of my rears with 10 gallons of washer fluid for 83 lbs. Lets assume I can only fit an extra 1 gallon in the front instead of 2 like the rear, above what Rimguard says. That's 33.2 lbs, or the same as Rimguard if the dealer does it "by the book."

So you're saying it's worth an extra $200 for 17.6 lbs? That's ridiculous. :laughing: I did both rear tires in 20 minutes with equipment cobbled together in my basement after watching 1 youtube video. So where is the extra $200? You can't tell me it takes the dealer, with professional equipment and no bottles to open and pour, 3x as long to charge a full $60-$80 hour's worth of labor. Even if they did that leaves $170 for materials that I paid $50 for. Still seems like a waste of money.

Now, if the Rimguard dealer pumps more fluid in than Rimguard recommends, that helps a little. Or if the added cost involved mounting new tires. However, my quote involved me doing labor to remove wheels from the tractor to bring them 30 miles away. So my time, plus gas, plus the inconvenience of blocking the tractor to take all 4 wheels off to pay $200 for only 17 extra pounds makes it not even worth considering. I have well over 17lbs in scrap metal laying around if I *really* need to add that much onto the tractor. My wife weighs more than 17lbs more than I do, and even with her driving we still had traction issues. So 17lbs is not a deal breaker for me.

Another changing factor would be if I could buy rimguard by the gallon and pump it in myself. If I could buy it, even at double the price of WWF it would be worth paying the $80 for 20 gallons for the rear, and $16 for the front. It would be less than half the cost of the dealer doing it, and provide a marginal increase in weight. Since that's not an option, Rimguard is out in my book.

If your quote from your dealer required you to remove the tires from the tractor to fill them, then they don't know what they are doing about filling tires. They should be able to load the tires on the tractor. It sounds like they aren't profession tire people with the right equipment. Also, you seem to think that they should do their job for free. I bet you do your job for free. Take anything to a shop to be worked on, and it is going to cost more than $60/hour. I like saving money and doing as much of my own repair work as I can, but I also know that if I can't and have to hire it done, then it is going to cost me. I also shop around to check prices and make sure the quote I get is representative of what the job should cost, not take the first one that comes along.
As far as sugar beet pulp uses before Rimguard, it is used as an animal feed so it is not just a useless waste product. It has value, and costs money to produce and ship just like any bulky item.

 

[piercedtiger]

If your quote from your dealer required you to remove the tires from the tractor to fill them, then they don't know what they are doing about filling tires. They should be able to load the tires on the tractor. It sounds like they aren't profession tire people with the right equipment. Also, you seem to think that they should do their job for free. I bet you do your job for free. Take anything to a shop to be worked on, and it is going to cost more than $60/hour. I like saving money and doing as much of my own repair work as I can, but I also know that if I can't and have to hire it done, then it is going to cost me. I also shop around to check prices and make sure the quote I get is representative of what the job should cost, not take the first one that comes along.
As far as sugar beet pulp uses before Rimguard, it is used as an animal feed so it is not just a useless waste product. It has value, and costs money to produce and ship just like any bulky item.

Like I said, even at $80/hr for labor on something that takes less than an hour even for an unskilled person would leave $170 for the cost of materials (Rimguard). That's still $120 more than I paid for wwf with minimal difference in weight. It's not about them doing it for free. My time isn't free either. However it seems stupid to pay $120 more for a different product that provides minimal gains. Especially when it's such a simple process to do that even someone with minimal tire experience, filling tires for the first time, could do 2 of the tires in less than 20 minutes. Most of that time being just waiting on the pump. It's not rocket science. As such, it shouldn't come with a rocket science cost. Remove valve stem, connect hose, pump/bleed air as needed, replace valve stem, top off with air. No bead breaking, or power tools required unless they use a pump instead of gravity feed. This should not be an expensive procedure.

Regardless, for myself, and others I'm sure, the cost excludes it from being a viable option. If it were sold to consumers directly I would reconsider.

 

[drizler]

It's pretty easy to do yourself . Just get a 15 -20 gallon plastic barrel you can find around and drill and screw in a barb at the side down near the bottom. Get ya a piece of trust junk garden hose and put another barb to the screw on adapter you got at the dealer, Tractor supply or whatever. Then you get your tank of fluid higher than the top of the tire like say the seat and make sure the tire is stopped with the stem at the top. screw the adapter on and let it fill. You won't get quite as much in as the dealer but it will be close enough. It's just as easy to drain most of it out again into the tank if you poke a tire or want it out to run around mowing the yard ect.
Personally I can't see filling mine. I wanted to use the back blade as well as the loader. Using it a few times I can see that I can live without the back blade. That 1000 lbs of back hoe back there seems plenty enough weight to hold it down and I can get unstuck a lot easier if it ever manages to get that far buried.:dance1:

 

[piercedtiger]

It's pretty easy to do yourself . Just get a 15 -20 gallon plastic barrel you can find around and drill and screw in a barb at the side down near the bottom. Get ya a piece of trust junk garden hose and put another barb to the screw on adapter you got at the dealer, Tractor supply or whatever. Then you get your tank of fluid higher than the top of the tire like say the seat and make sure the tire is stopped with the stem at the top. screw the adapter on and let it fill. You won't get quite as much in as the dealer but it will be close enough. It's just as easy to drain most of it out again into the tank if you poke a tire or want it out to run around mowing the yard ect.
Personally I can't see filling mine. I wanted to use the back blade as well as the loader. Using it a few times I can see that I can live without the back blade. That 1000 lbs of back hoe back there seems plenty enough weight to hold it down and I can get unstuck a lot easier if it ever manages to get that far buried.:dance1:

I followed this guy's example so it was even easier. Just needed a 5 gallon bucket, pump, hose and adapter, and I had everything except the adapter already. Only tool I needed was the valve stem too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbAQ00XFDdg

 

[FTG-05]

I used that video as well when I filled my front tires, except I did it with the tires vertical and still on the tractor. Didn't take long at all.

 

[piercedtiger]

I left mine on the tractor too. I was going to take the rears off and swap for the extra width, but it was too cold to fire up the air compressor so I left that for another day. Also wanted to see how much of a difference the loaded tires made by themselves.

 

[BandT]

Just had my rears done today, 40 gallons in each. $300 which included removing calcium from one, all I did was back the tractor out of the garage. I waited for a while but feel rimguard was money well spent. We'll see....