Brand new tractor - should I load the tires myself?

[TrentonMaple]

Got myself a brand new LS 3039 tractor with FEL. The tires are not loaded. (The old Ford 8N that it replaced had loaded tires)

Dealer wants $400 to load both rear tires with Rimguard.

Is this something I should attempt myself with the Gempler's attachment using washer fluid? Or is this a job better left to a pro. I'm just a little bit nervous as this is a brand new tractor and I don't want to mess anything up.

 

[jeff9366]

Now that you have Four Wheel Drive, do you NEED loaded tires?

If you will be doing any kind of crop or turf work preventing/reducing soil compaction should always be on your mind.

I suggest working your new tractor for awhile before filling the tires. Nothing lost by testing first.

 

[boggen]

filling tires... gets a little expensive. in various parts needed to make filling and unfilling tires much easier.

i have a 30 gallon pull behind sprayer. and use the sprayer tank and pump, and some extra fittings. so i can toss what ever i want to fill tires with into the tank. and use pump to fill up tire (be careful way to easy to cause tire to over pressurize and explode and harm you or kill ya doing it this way) but i also use same sprayer with hose and fittings connected to pumps inlet. to suck fluid out of the tires, and let the sprayer pump fill up the tank. when i have to deal with a bloody thorn or like in a tire. it so happens the sprayer is able to hold the fluid form the tire for a few days if need be, till i get a new tube or get a pach-kit to fix leak. (( i do run tubes in all tires, regardless of tubeless tire or not)) to many stinking thorns *arghs*

if your not going to be messing in fixing leaks in your tires by yourself.... then ya most likely better off letting dealer deal with filling tires.... and when ya call up local ag tire place to come out and deal with tire. letting them drain and fix and refill tire backup. ((it will add extra cost to unfill and refill)) but *shrugs*.

if you have another way to remove tire from tractor and pick it up (fully loaded with fluid in it), so you can haul tire to some place to get it fixed by all means. but if you don't have another means to pickup up tire with fluid in it (2nd tractor for example) then you will most likely want some sort of setup to drain fluid from tire, so you can man handle it enough to get it in back of truck, to haul it some place to get leak fixed. and then when it comes back to fill tire back up with fluid.

other words.... at least for me, ya might as well invest in something to deal with filling and un-filling rear tractor tires. and do the filling of tires your self.

================
do you need rear tire filled with a fluid NO. would it be recommended? when asking me, it would be a big YES. more so with FEL (Front end loader) work, and dealing with hills. and overall extra weight filling rear tires give for traction.

 

[k0ua]

If I can do it, you can do it.. Use common sense.. You need your fill adaptor, a 5 gallon bucket for the fluid to pour into a pump, and some hose.
Jack up one side so the the tire is just barely touching the ground, but still touching. Let most of the air out but not all. You don't want the bead to unseat. It would be a good idea to put a few hours on the tires so that the bead is stuck good and seated for sure. get you pump going and pump in a couple of gallons, If your pump starts to labor against the "head" pressure which will build back up as the fluid goes in, the remaining air in the tire will compress. So burp out some of the air with the burp button on the fill valve., then continue pumping in fluid. Repeat. Keep track of the calculated amount of fluid for 75% fill and stop when you get to that amount. Quickly remove the fill adaptor. By the way this is all done with the valve stem at 12 o'clock. And quickly put in the valve core. You want weight of the fluid on the ground, but not so much that the tire "squishes" and possibly break the bead. Air up the tire and check pressure to normal recommended pressure. Jack up and do the other side.

Just think through all of your moves first then do them. You always want to maintain some air pressure in the tire, but not too much that the pump cant pump over this head pressure. Like I said, just use common sense. Oh, I also put a shut off valve in line with the hose to prevent air from bubbling back when I refilled the bucket from my jugs of fluid.

 

[OZisKTB]

Now that you have Four Wheel Drive, do you NEED loaded tires?

If you will be doing any kind of crop or turf work preventing/reducing soil compaction should always be on your mind.

I would work with your new tractor for awhile before filling the tires. Nothing lost by doing so.

What does your tractor and FEL manual say about tractor weight loading?

My JD with a FEL is unsafe to operate without loaded tires, wheel weights and 1100lbs on the 3 point. This discussion should have been part of your machine orientation.

 

[tcreeley]

My NH TC30 is rear filled with beet juice which is the same as rim guard I think. -Never a problem with them. (Never had a leak in the rears, - someone plugged my fronts before I got it- still going great.)
I think you need them filled- to deal with the snow, and to balance your FEL. I would stay away from wind shield washer or the salt mix they put in tires and on icy roads that rusts everything. Beet juice works and is environmentally friendly and windshield washer fluid isn't.

see below for info on doing it with rimguard:

admin, Author at Rim Guard - Liquid Tire Ballast

I'm not sure it is worth the hassle of doing it yourself - but it will save you some money. What is the cost of the fluid for the tires along with a pump? Do you have to change the valve stems?

 

[RollingsFarms]

My 67hp tractor with unloaded rear tires weighing 6300# WILL NOT budge my 6' disk on my fire breaks. Has plenty of power just no traction to dig down. Lock it in 4wd and it's better. My 56hp tractor I had prior to this one had loaded rear tires and pulled way better then my 67hp tractor with unloaded rear tires.

 

[k0ua]

Windshield washer fluid is not that bad for the environment, it degrades in a very few days, There are millions and millions of gallons of it sprayed on the environment every year.. I would not worry too much about it. Of course it is not safe to drink, but animals will not drink it. The active ingredient is methanol, a primary toxic alcohol. You do not have to change your valve stems with methanol mix (windshield washer fluid). Another alternative is RV anti-freeze which is Propylene glycol, which is safe to drink in small amounts. Not to be confused with Ethylene Glycol, or ordinary anti-freeze.

 

[Gary Fowler]

Filling the tires will make the tractor more stabil on slopes and help maintain traction when pulling ground engaging tools or even with FEL use. I wouldn't be too concerned with soil compaction with such a small tractor unless you are running it back and forth several times in the same tracks which will eventually compact the soil and kill your grass at the same time. Normal mowing patterns are not going to severely impact the soil. Every few years, you may want to run a sub-soiler over your pasture land.

 

[Natureboy]

TSC currently has RV antifreeze on sale for 3 bucks a gallon. As said, jack up the tire so its still touching the ground. Remove the valve stem core to let the air out. I use a pump from a tow behind sprayer also. When you pump about 2 gallons in, remove the hose from the pump to burp the tire. Bigger the tire, the longer it takes. Using a 2.5 gpm pump should make sort of quick work out of it.

 

[lostcreekranch]

If you get one of these, from Tractor Supply, you can bleed air, while filling, without removing hose.

Slime® Air/Water Adapter Kit with Bleeder Valve - Tractor Supply Co.

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[ctgoodman]

So how much is a gallon of rim guard? I too saw the $3 RV antifreeze at TSC today. I see the antifreeze is good down to -50. How much water could I add to it and have it at about -20. I need 72 gallons in each tire and still at $3/gal that adds up quick.

 

[4310]

If you have a Menards nearby you can get it even cheaper.

 

[arrow]

Got myself a brand new LS 3039 tractor with FEL. The tires are not loaded. (The old Ford 8N that it replaced had loaded tires)

Dealer wants $400 to load both rear tires with Rimguard.

Is this something I should attempt myself with the Gempler's attachment using washer fluid? Or is this a job better left to a pro. I'm just a little bit nervous as this is a brand new tractor and I don't want to mess anything up.

Have the dealer fill the tires with RG. Here is my thought process: 1. You are not going to save much money (maybe a hundred bucks) doing it yourself. After you buy the adapter, hoses, pump (cheap $25 Harbor Freight would do) , fluid and mixing containers, you're going to be pretty close to $400 if you cannot buy the fluid for around 3 bucks per gal. Don't forget; the guy is coming to your house to fill your tires so part of this expense involves trucking 2. RG will give you 30% more weight than windshield washer fluid so if each of your tires is taking 40 gallons (don't know just guessing) with water weighing about 8 lbs per gallon, your 320 lb tire becomes an over 400 lb tire or almost 200 lbs more weight for the tractor overall. Living in the N.E., you should fill the tires. You may want to consider tire chains for snow work as well later down the road.

 

[George2615]

Got myself a brand new LS 3039 tractor with FEL. The tires are not loaded. (The old Ford 8N that it replaced had loaded tires)

Dealer wants $400 to load both rear tires with Rimguard.

Is this something I should attempt myself with the Gempler's attachment using washer fluid? Or is this a job better left to a pro. I'm just a little bit nervous as this is a brand new tractor and I don't want to mess anything up.

I just did the rears on my XR3037HC. Same size tires (43x16-20). I used washer fluid and put 39 gallons in each. It's not a hard job to do. Mainly time consuming because you have to keep filling your supply barrel and watch it. Make sure you have a good pump. I used the larger pump that HF sells and it took me 7 hours to fill mine. I've heard from others that the pump you use with an electric drill works well. I did not have the Gemplers fill tool with automatic air bleed so had to stop quite often to burp the air out. My total cost was about $180.

 

[Tractorrr]

For $400 it sounds like the dealer is giving a pretty good price for 72 gallons per tire. If you put the RV antifreeze in you would be getting close to that price at $3 per gallon plus the price of a pump, and then it is going to be a lot of work to put the fluid in.

However, I just put in the RV antifreeze from TSC. I bought a Flotec portable/transfer utility pump FP5112 which is 1/2 HP. It did pretty good but was fairly expensive at $160. Probably could have gotten a cheaper one but wasn't sure how much pump to buy. The pump is rated at 6.1 gallons per minute at 5 ft. of lift. I also had previously gotten a couple short 3 ft. flexible garden hoses which were handy for this.

The entire process of setup, draining my tires of water which was previously in there, then filling tires which take 22 gallons per tire (only put in 14 gallons in each tire as there was some water still left in), and clean up took 3-4 hours and I didn't include the time to buy the fluid and equipment and time to go to the dump to empty RV antifreeze bottles. It is rewarding to put the fluid in but it is expensive and takes a lot of work. The RV antifreeze came in cases of 6 making it easier to handle. Some advantages of doing it for me would be: now having a pump which I can use for other purposes, having the knowledge to drain the tires if need be, and the ability to fill future tires.

If you do decide to do it I would not recommend the cheap drill pump. Would probably take way too long if it would even work at all. Plus you want a pump that's not gonna occupy your hands and make you hold a drill trigger for hours.

 

[k0ua]

The Drill pump I mentioned for $6 from Home Depot is junk, but it worked to fill my two tires on the L3400, about 2 hours or maybe a bit more, total for the 50 gallons total pumped.
Now keep in mind, don't put your bucket on the ground and pump uphill.. I put my bucket source fluid higher than the tire on a handy ledge wall.. I put in 3 gallons into the 5 gallon bucket and pumped that in then burped the tire. It only took a few minutes of drill time for each fill of the bucket, and the drill got a chance to cool a bit while I opened new jugs and poured it in, and burped the tire. I powered the drill pump with a cheap black and decker 1/4 inch hand drill about 30 years old.

If you don't have a handy ledge, put your bucket on a short step ladder or something to give your junky pump some help.

 

[lostcreekranch]

I just did the rears on my XR3037HC. Same size tires (43x16-20). I used washer fluid and put 39 gallons in each. It's not a hard job to do. Mainly time consuming because you have to keep filling your supply barrel and watch it. Make sure you have a good pump. I used the larger pump that HF sells and it took me 7 hours to fill mine. I've heard from others that the pump you use with an electric drill works well. I did not have the Gemplers fill tool with automatic air bleed so had to stop quite often to burp the air out. My total cost was about $180.

George;

Isn't 7 hours of your time worth something?

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[Citydude]

It seems like your getting all get hung up on a couple hundred bucks for the necessity of rear weight. Lots of us have. Reality is, it's an investment towards a stable, safe machine. I was uncomfortable doing it myself so I had it done at a tire dealer, which by the way, was half the cost of the dealer quote.

 

[boggen]

I just did the rears on my XR3037HC. Same size tires (43x16-20). I used washer fluid and put 39 gallons in each. It's not a hard job to do. Mainly time consuming because you have to keep filling your supply barrel and watch it. Make sure you have a good pump. I used the larger pump that HF sells and it took me 7 hours to fill mine. I've heard from others that the pump you use with an electric drill works well. I did not have the Gemplers fill tool with automatic air bleed so had to stop quite often to burp the air out. My total cost was about $180.

7 hours seems a bit extensive to me.

--wondering if you left valve core in, the tire nipple. and/or you didn't remove the bushing pipe on tire nipple to allow for more flow of fluid.
--wondering if you were burping way to much.

2 to 3 hours dealing with 2 tires. most of it was jacking around, trying to get everything ready, (jacks, hoses, etc...)