calcium filled tire; valve leak: how fix?

[Soundguy]

Soundguy - we pretty much agree to disagree.

will probably have to.

A little hard to change a 500 pound tire. OOPP's we need another tractor or some kind of lift to get one off and one on.

um.. actually not hard at all. I do it all the time. I weight about 130# and 5'6".. I just changed the tires on my ford 4600 a couple weeks ago.. did it with a long prybar.. had a loader if I needed it but didn't. keep em upright and rolling. I NEVER unload a tire to simply change it.. only if it has a leak. big tires like 18.4x30 hold 742# of water per side. not counting the rubber or the rim.. or the ballast.. I usually leave the center on the tractor unless dishing. As mentioned.. the 16.9-24 are 509# of water per side. 14.9-28 442# 13.6x28 360#, 12.4-28 292#, 11.2-28 225# those are the common sizes I have on the bulk of my machines.. At this rate.. the 11.2-28 feel like dog food bags after changing some of those 14.9 or 16.9's

I keep at least one, and in some cases a pair of anything I run onmy machines in the back of the pasture, on rims and aired up leaning against the fence in case of emergency. took a couple years to build up that colelction.. but is worth it. mostly auction and craigslist finds.. usually good deals too.. tires and rims and centers.. 4 of them for 125$.. used and a lil rust.. but hold air.. stuff like that. just gotta watch for them and get them when ya find them.

If someone has time to play you can rush the water out a little. It still takes a few hours.

we'll really just have to disagree there. I've unloaded, broke down, re tubed, and reloaded them big tires in a couple hours... drill pump and burp valve to load. 55g drum to catch the drainings.. and air pressure to unload them. I use a manual tire changer or just lay em over and beat the beads off the rimm, pull the tube, patch the casing, retube and go.

Man handling a tube with several gallons of water in it is not much fun.

nothing about a flat tire is fun...

Tubeless tires can usually be plugged. But some fill material, antifreeze, water or what ever may keep the plug from sealing.

I'm not a big fan of plugs. having worked around heavy equipment most of my life.. I've never seen a plugged ag or industrial tire hold up as well as a patched casing / new or repaired tube. ( I'm a fan of replacing tubes due tot he amout of work it takes to get into the tire.. ).

small tire? like a front.. sure.. a plug is fine.. I don't routinely load fronts unless really needed.

Yes I have been there and done it. I would never put anything like water or antifreeze in one of my tires.

down here where I'm at.. wheel weights are like hens teeth.. hard to find.. everyone just loads the tires... I'd love to find a local set of wheel weights that's affordable for my tractors. In fact.. i just foud a set of fomoco front weights for my 4600 and installed them today. they are not without their own problems though. have to remove them to do anything to the tire or rim..

I respect your way and ideas - Just not for me.

no disagreement there ... to each his own.. what works for one person may not work for another. region makes a big difference too. as mentioned.. no wheel weights to get down her e in fl unless you pay thru the nose.. thus we have found another way to accomplish the same thing... if they were plentifull and cheap, like they are int he farm belt.. then it might be very different. I have friends int he north that atre near massive tractro bone yards that are full of good stuff. usually pallates and pallates and acers of cast iron weights for pennies on the dollar. problem is shipping charges kill ya.

I'm saving up my spare lunch money to get a set of segmented ford weights from a buddy up north one of these days. will just have to bite the bullet and pay the fright charges to get them as I surely havn't been able to find them down here..


soundguy

 

[canucklehead]

nail is possible. I spoke to a few locals today and there's a guy that fixes them from home, so I'll check him out and see.

 

[canucklehead]

oops I didn't realize there were that many more posts.

I have wheel weights. So with wheel weights, do I even need to bother with any fluid at all?

WHen I remove this tire and take it to the tire repair shop (I just don't think I have the skills, time or equipment to repair this myself), do I first have to get the liquid out to handle this thing? I have a fairly low flat deck I can flop it on to transport it.

any tricks to how high to raise the tire off the ground, so i can easily put it back on? A car tire isn't too hard to lift an inch to line up, but I imagine a tractor tire is a different story.

sounds like you guys know tons about this, so thanks for sharing your experience!:thumbsup:

 

[Soundguy]

3 options.

if on a hard surface, and you have the tools to handle tires.. you can use a tire dolley with built in tire jack to move the tire around.

in a pinch a tranny jack will work, and if you can have a helper to ballance it, a floorjack can work.

if none of those then plan b and c

plan b... don't move the tire, move the tractor. use a hefty 20ton or similar bottle jack under that sides axle, and have a jackstand as a backup adjusted a lil lower than the jeacks lowest point you will need.. that way if the jack fails, it can only fall a lil bit.

remember to block al the rest of the tires and lock the brakes on the other side if you have that capability.

i like having the center on the tractor and only dinking with the tire on the rim. using the jack you can edge the tractor hub /center up or down a bit, then get the lowest bolt in usually.. or heck.. any you can line up.. then jack the tractor up a hair and rotate that bolt to the top and get another to line up.. then it cascades from there.

plan c, move the tire not the tractor... jack the tractor so that the tire at rest on the ground is just a half inch or so short.. use a prybar .. preferably 3' long or longer.. drive it under the tire and lift up.. it will lift the tire with great mechanical advantage as the handle that is 3' away is moving a couple feet up.. but the tire itself is at the fulcrum which is only an inch or two from the edge of the prybar and thus only moving maybee an inch.. lever it up and do the same with the bolt as above.

btdt.. all 3 work.. which i use depends on where I'm doing the work.. what tools I have.. etc.. etc. c works if you only have a basic jack like a hi lift jack.. which only has like 2" lift increments which make sit hard to line up holes. if you have a huge bottle jack.. B works pretty good.

if you have a hard surface like concrete or asphalt and the tire dolley / jack ( guess no on this one.. ) then it is the easiest.. as it has a cradle for the tire.. keep sit from rolling and if you don't get crazy.. it does 90% of the work for you.

PS.. if you close 1 eye and look sideways, a shovel looks like a great 3+' prybar.. especially the flat blade shovels... when i did the 18.4x30 loaded tires here just recently a shovel was my prybar. roll tire up to as near hub as you can get, lean top of tire over onto tractor rops or fender, then use prybar to walk base of tire intoward tractor till you can lever up and align hub and or center to rim.. etc... poke in bolts.. use a screwdriver to align holes...rinse, repeat till bolted up.. etc.. etc..

soundguy

 

[Farmwithjunk]

Soundguy - we pretty much agree to disagree.

A little hard to change a 500 pound tire. OOPP's we need another tractor or some kind of lift to get one off and one on.

If someone has time to play you can rush the water out a little. It still takes a few hours.

Man handling a tube with several gallons of water in it is not much fun.

Tubeless tires can usually be plugged. But some fill material, antifreeze, water or what ever may keep the plug from sealing.

Yes I have been there and done it. I would never put anything like water or antifreeze in one of my tires.

I respect your way and ideas - Just not for me.

With a $30 Teel chemical pump, I draw out all the fluid, and re-install it into 20.8X38's in less than 10 minutes each way. I don't know how you can manage to waste "a few hours" on a task that takes mere minutes. Some people are just pathetically slow at anything they do I suppose.

500lb tire? Whatta you got? a flippin 100-ton quarry truck? No farm tractor TIRE I'm aware of weigh 500lbs. Never in a dozen lifetimes would I attempt to pull a filled (or un-filled) tire/wheel from a tractor to fix a flat. That's a waste of time, energy, resources, ect..and an obvious sign of someone who doesn't quite know what they're doing.....Break 'em down ON the tractor, fix, and re-inflate without removing the wheel is the ONLY way to sensibly repair a tractor flat tire. We do literally DOZENS of flats per year on the highway mowing rigs. A few have fluid (for purposes of stability w/boom mounted ditch bank mowers) ONE MAN can pump out the fluid, break the bead, fix the flat, re-inflate, and pump fluid back in the tire in, usually in 45 minutes or less. I'd fire any service tech that worked for me if he pulled a wheel off to fix a flat.

I've been using CAL/Chlor mix in tractor tires for ages. In fact, I have one that has been in my care for more than 40 years, never a sign of rust.....original rims....

Plugs in a heavy duty tubeless tire is a quick fix, but far from a CORRECT fix. That's akin to putting a band aid on a bullet wound. There's really better ways to fix a leak. boot style patch on INSIDE of tire is the way to fix one RIGHT. That can EASILY be done without completely removing tire from the wheel, and without removing wheel from tractor.

Your "theories" are interesting, but not based on reality as most of us know it.

 

[Soundguy]

i agree.. I like the large farm patches or boots. I even use them on tubeless tires. I just don't like plugs.
i also agree on the pumping out into a bbl and then repumping.

i use a drill pump, and agree.. it doesn't take that long. I don't even think gravity draining would take a few hours... ?

soundguy