Ballast Can I do it Myself?

[mmranch]

Thanks for all the info!

I'm currently running 15 PSI in both rears. When I look at the tires with full load (backhoe on and a mega bucket of snow), there is very little bulge to the bottom of the tire. I ran it all day yesterday and all worked fine. But in certain situations, the rears felt a bit 'tilty'. For example, when one of the rears enters a hole, the tilting seemed a lot. I couldn't see what the tires are looking like during these operations. I may bump up the pressure to see if it reduces the tilt factor.

Thanks again.

 

[Oldpath05]

Thanks for all the ideas!, I'm sticking with the CalChlor for my particular application for now.

Thankfully, I got the problem sorted. I was able to extract the stuck valve core and installed a new one and the tractor is working again (without having to install a new tube) Currently running at 15 PSI each. Now that the fluid levels are down at the stem level, it's easy to jack up the tractor and install new valve cores to deal with the corrosion problem.

Thanks again for all the ideas!

Was you able to use that valve core extractor to get the corroded valve out and how did you get calcium back in the tires?

 

[mmranch]

Yes, the core extractor got the last bit of core removed (you can see the old core stuck on the end of the tool in that photo).

I used a fluid pump to drain/fill the calcium to/from 2 plastic trash cans. Worked great!

 

[RNeumann]

Sigh... OK... on to the next problem.

When I pressured up the repaired rear tire to 20 PSI... the tractor was tilting greatly because the other tire had a much lower pressure.

So I bled off pressure on the repaired tire to 12 PSI and the tractor was tiltling much less... but still tilting. Something didn't seem right so I decided to check the 'other' tire pressure. The 'other' tire was at 5 PSI which seemed way low. So I added pressure to the 'other' tire and got it up to about 9 PSI but then the valve core started leaking because of the corrosion. When I went to remove the valve core to put in a new one, the valve core disintegrated because of the corrosion.

The part of the valve core that the tool grips on to remove it is gone, the plunger is gone, the spring came out, etc. The valve core is still stuck in the stem with central hole open. The valve stem of the tube seems to be the type that does NOT have a separate core housing that can be removed and replaced. (The new tube I put in the repaired tire DOES have the separate, removable core housing).

So... if there is no possibility of removing the valve core and the entire tube must be replaced... I must drill out the stuck valve core in order to effectively pump out the ballast. (I have another tube on order but it's not here yet).

Any way to get the bad core out of the valve stem so that a new core could be installed?

I was thinking about drilling in with an undersized bit and hoping this would allow the stuck core bits to be dislodged. I would want to preserve the valve stem threads so the new core could be installed. But maybe with the corrosion, the valve core threads are fused with the stem threads?

Thanks for the ideas!

Left hand drill bit and crossed fingers.

 

[olPete]

You're getting good with tires now!! They are not so bad with practice.. one thing that popped into my head while I was up on my roof... keep an eye out for plain brass cores. They aren't everywhere but I always run brass on brass where possible, for tires with fluid. Have run into the corroded ones before, but it was a tube replacement job so I think I just drove them through with a punch (rough!!) and that was the fast fix. Everything is easy when it's just water in there, I guess I take that for granted due to our climate here. I have only a tiny amount of antifreeze in mine, maybe a half cupful in a 18.4-R34 (just enough for corrosion protection, but dilute enough to be safe).
Pressures vary a lot depending on application mainly. See some farm tractors with very low pressure with little problems. Good place to start is 20psi front 18 psi rear, adjust from there
Once again, thanks for showing the end results, so many threads on the web don't end