BX2350 Valve stem problem

[Westside]

Has anyone experienced problems with valve stems on tires with ballast?
I took delivery of a BX2350 in late May and in late June my right rear tire blew out the valve stem and drained the liquid ballast. This happened while the tractor was parked in the shed after mowing on a hot day. I took the tire to the dealer and was told that I must have hit something and it wouldn't be covered under warranty, so I paid for a new valve stem plus new ballast. Yesterday after mowing about an acre of grass (on a 90 degree day), I parked the tractor in the shed and took a break; 15 minutes later I came back to find liquid ballast shooting out of the valve stem. The metal tube from the center of the valve was laying on the ground about 6 inches from the tire and I could find no sign of damage. It looked as if it just slid out.
Just wondered if anyone had experienced any problem with valve stems or with using calcium cloride ballast.

 

[ultrarunner]

Metal stem and a metal cap is what my Grandfather used on the farm... didn't have any trouble.

In my part of California the water treatment has changed... the new stuff, Chloramine??? dissolves rubber and caused me to replace numerous toilet flappers and ball cock valves

 

[Dr. Bob]

Sounds to me like whoever put the balast in the tires did not tighten the valve stem cores enough, especially to have it happen twice. I assume that when the install the balast they remove the valve stems.
I'd go back to the dealer and present your case that having this happen twice goes against acidentially hitting a rock.
Any of you folks with filled tires have any experience with this?

 

[Hoosier_Daddy]

It might be the Tire Valve recall of chinese tire valves.

Consumer Reports just had it in their recent Mag.

It says 6 million were distributed in North America.

No reason not to think they were not used on a tractor.

TR-413, TR413CH, TR-414, TR 415, TR 418 and TR 423.

Go to Recalls.gov..

 

[chucko]

could they be over filling the tire? Without a little air in it to compress when you hit a rock, something is going to give

 

[jruss]

I'm not familiar with the various compounds used to add to tires, but is it possible that by over filling the rears that heat expansion caused abnormal pressure in the tire thus blowing out the valve stem (as the weakest point)? From reading other posts it seems the concensus that tires should only be filled to app. 75% of capacity.

 

[TedLaRue]

Westside, welcome to the TBN forums. I hope our thoughts help you out. Please make a final post when you get your problem solved so future readers will benefit from your experience.

Was it the same right rear tire both times? If so, that would be one of those things that make you go "Hmmm.....".

...in late June my right rear tire blew out the valve stem...

If you have tubeless tires and hit something, it's unlikely that the entire valve stem "blew out", but it could have sheared off. It's next to impossible to remove a valve stem from a tubeless tire even with channel-lock pliers. I usually just cut them off with a big pair of biters. If you have tubeless tires and you were left with just a hole in the metal wheel, then you probably sheared off the valve stem.

I think your second incident is a different story.

...The metal tube from the center of the valve was laying on the ground...

Your valve stem probably consists of a normal-size valve core threaded into brass tube which threads into a larger diameter valve stem. To fill or remove ballast, you remove the larger tube so you have a bigger hole to pump the fluid through.

It sounds to me like it was this brass tube that blew out and the rest of the valve stem was left in the wheel rim. If so, maybe the threads on this brass tube (or the female threads inside the valve stem) have been stripped. As I recall, the threads are very fine. Maybe it was cross-threaded. If that's the case, then I think the dealer (or whoever fixed your tire after the first incident) is at fault for this problem (this is under the assumption that it was the same tire both times).

I don't see any way you could have hit something that could cause this kind of damage to the interior of the valve. If you hit something, the valve stem would have cracked or broken off at the base.

And I don't see how any of the usual ballast materials could have corroded the brass especially in less than a couple of months.

If your tire is tubeless, you can buy an air/liquid snap-in valve for about $4.00 and install it yourself if you put a little liquid soap on it. Your local tire shop would probably have one, or if not, you can order one. I buy tire repair stuff from Gemplers.

If you have an inner tube installed, you'll probably need to replace the tube, although they do sell valve stems which can be cold-vulcanized onto the tube (they're about $10 which is cheaper than a new tube). But the ballast would have to be removed and replaced which is not much fun if you do it yourself, and expensive if someone else does it for you.

 

[TedLaRue]

... is it possible that by over filling the rears that heat expansion caused abnormal pressure in the tire thus blowing out the valve stem (as the weakest point)?

chucko also suggested this, and I thought about it myself, too. Last spring I had a tire on a log splitter explode while it was sitting in the sun. I had put about 30psi in it during cold weather, and when it blew it was sitting in the sun. The tire was old and had some dry-rot, and it sounded like a shotgun (I thought someone was turkey hunting on my place!) when it blew. But the valve stem on that tire is still intact, even though the steel belts on the tire were blown to shreds where the hole was.

 

[BotaBigot]

I recently had to replace a front valve stem on my one-year-old BX. It was split and slowly leaking where it goes thru the rim (unless I wiggled it, then lots of air). I figured I snagged it on something working in the woods. Didn't think about the Chinese recall. Hopefully no others will fail...especially rears, since they're filled...

 

[AndyinIowa]

My tire dealer installed steel valve stems when I added CaCl to the rear tires. No problems to date.

The probability of two stems blowing out in such a short timeframe indicate an issue with the ballast fill procedure.

You definitely have a good reason to challenge the installer.

IowaAndy