Calcium in tires, no longer a fan......

[ovrszd]

I used WWF. If the difference in weight is acceptable it's definitely the cheapest route.

 

[Oldpath05]

The extra weight of Rimguard at 11 lbs./gal. might be worth the extra stability on my compact tractor when I have wheels set to narrowest. Windshield washer fluid comes in at 8.5 lbs./gal, at a 24 gal fill/tire, I estimate that to be a net loss of around 2000 lbs./tire and at $2.00 +/gal, sounds like Rimguard isn't that much more and at 15 mi. one way travel is a non issue, unless I could find someone to come to my house and change out CaCl....

 

[teg]

Mental Note: {buy extra valve stems!}

I don't know what I got in my tires... after 12 years, tires still holding air and liquid!

 

[fried1765]

The extra weight of Rimguard at 11 lbs./gal. might be worth the extra stability on my compact tractor when I have wheels set to narrowest. Windshield washer fluid comes in at 8.5 lbs./gal, at a 24 gal fill/tire, I estimate that to be a net loss of around 2000 lbs./tire and at $2.00 +/gal, sounds like Rimguard isn't that much more and at 15 mi. one way travel is a non issue, unless I could find someone to come to my house and change out CaCl....

The way I figure it, for a 24 gal tire fill, the difference between RimGuard and WW fluid is, 60 lbs. per tire.

 

[arrow]

RimGuard is good stuff..... but.
I was quoted $3.25 per gallon plus $75 per tire, plus having to drive 170 miles round trip for the fill.
Thus my RimGuard estimated cost (80 gal.) was $506 inclusive.
Bought 80 gal. windshield washer fluid (yep it is not as heavy), plus $10 TSC fill fitting, for a total of $135.
$371 is a BIG cost DIFFERENCE for me!

That's one advantage of the more liquity stuff...you can handle repairs and such right at home. Beet juice seems proprietary and they seem not to want to sell you a little bit. Here the distributor has a 250 gallon minimum. I don't know if you need a special pump to extract it or replace it but if so, I'm willing to bet it would cost more than the $25 pump I got at HF to change out my calcium. Also, I thought they had special agricultural tubes for calcium with brass stems or was that long ago and a far away aspect? At any rate, to cut some of the caustic reaction of calcium, I heard some people add lime to the mix. Never did it so I cannot be definitive on the subject of lime added.

 

[arrow]

I went to check my rear tire presure, first time in two years. A couple weeks ago I thought they looked a little slack, so this past weekend I put the gauge on the stem and the calcium started coming out and wouldn't stop, so quickly I jacked up the tractor and asking in the name of all that's holy, WHY? I got things to do. I took the the valve core out, what was left of it, with the valve stem at 12 why is so much CaCl coming out? had to get a bucket to start catching the stuff so it wouldn't go all over the garage floor, but some did.
In the meantime went down to the junk pile try to find some valve cores, got back to the garage, finally the Ca. stop coming out, greased the new good used valve core and screed it back in, then went to the other side, same issue, think in all I lost 2-3 gal of CaCl. That stuff was ice cold even the sawdust on the floor didn't like it, put back in 20psi and tires set a little taller for now anyways. Drove the tractor out down by the house, two 5 gal pails of water on the rims, 3 gal. on me and my new $100.00 Carhartt insulated bibs. So that's it, as soon as warm weather gets here, that crap is coming out and Rim Guard is going in, I draw the line when in three years that CaCl eats away valve cores, what's it doing to the inner tube, might as well have battery acid in the tires......

I'm willing to bet someone overfilled that tire. With anything one puts in a tire, fill point should be 75% of tire volume. You may get a bit of a squirt even in a properly filled tire but it never comes out like gushing as you described if filled correctly.

 

[ovrszd]

The way I figure it, for a 24 gal tire fill, the difference between RimGuard and WW fluid is, 60 lbs. per tire.

Yep...

 

[crazyal]

If you live up north go talk to a local sprinkler company. A friend of mine drains sprinkler systems in the fall and fills them with RV antifreeze. He buys it by the pallet in bulk and gets a really good deal. Adding an extra 100 gallons to his shipment isn't going to change his shipping cost much (if at all). While I haven't gotten around to it the last time I asked about it he was almost half what the local auto parts store wanted for WWF in 55 gallon drums.

 

[fried1765]

If you live up north go talk to a local sprinkler company. A friend of mine drains sprinkler systems in the fall and fills them with RV antifreeze. He buys it by the pallet in bulk and gets a really good deal. Adding an extra 100 gallons to his shipment isn't going to change his shipping cost much (if at all). While I haven't gotten around to it the last time I asked about it he was almost half what the local auto parts store wanted for WWF in 55 gallon drums.

I tried a "local auto parts store" for a 55 gallon drum of WW fluid, and they were WAY high.
Instead, I watched for a sale at a big box store, and was able to get 80 gallons (1 gal. plastic jugs) for $120.

 

[KYErik]

If Rimguard is just beet juice (sugar water), has anyone tried to mix up their own strong sugar water solution and test the freezing point? If a gallon of water weighs 8.34 lbs and a gallon of rim guard weighs about 10.8 lbs, that would be about 2.5 lbs of sugar dissolved in one gallon of water. A 4 lb bag of sugar is about $2- so that would cost $1.25 per gallon to mix up your own sugar water solution "Fauxguard" (assuming that the freezing point is depressed to at least -20 F).