Ballast Choices for liqiud ballast in rear tires?

[dubba]

Not to hijack, but...

Has anyone "foamed" their tires?

My local dealer suggests this as the "next best thing to sliced bread". My manual recommends against it, But this same dealer is the one who sold me the tractor.

 

[john_bud]

Yep, heard of it. There are 2 main types. Hard and soft. If you want the tires to feel more like rocks, get the hard type. Weight is about like CaCl2 with the soft version. The benefit is that you will never get a flat tire. The foam is filling the tire all the way and it is not able to get out.

Two big negatives. First is when you need new tires, your tire guy will want to beat you with a tire iron. The stuff will have to be cut off of the rim in chunks then sand blasted off. Other is the price. Big equipment uses foam and they drop lots of expense by never having flats. Keeps the wheels rolling.

jb

 

[Bird]

A brother-in-law checked with a local place that foams tires when he thought about having it done to an old Ford tractor, but it was too expensive. One of my brothers had a small riding mower with very small tires on the front that kept rolling off the rim on turns and he had that same place foam those two little tires. I like the idea of the soft foam if it weren't so expensive.

 

[kingoflawns]

I was quoted a price of $800. to foam fill the turfs on my B7500, too rich for my blood. I found the green slime a couple of months later and it worked very well.

 

[curt1]

Last week I was quoted $925 (include's tax) to fill my L3130 rear tires with the soft foam. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif The tire dealer told me my 12.4 X 24 tire's would weigh in at about 450 Lbs. each, when filled. I may drain the ethanol from the rear tire's and add berrymans tire sealant. Then put rear wheel weights on. I do not want the hassle of fixing a fluid filled rear tire in the field.

Curt

 

[canoetrpr]

I've asked my dealer for some prices on wheel weights. Lets see how that goes.

 

[JerryG]

Dealer prices on wheel weights are enough to give an older guy a heart attack. I made mine for about $350. That is buying the weights and paying someone else to make the plates. I didn't have a welder at the time.

 

[gordon21]

Please explain what type of foam they are using. This is all new to me. Is it a flexible closed cell foam like what is inside high quality life jackets? Dense rigid foam like what is inside of boat hulls? What prevents the foam from crushing down and letting the tire ride lower and lower as time goes by?

 

[PineRidge]

If I was going to make a set of rear wheel weights Jerry has a pretty neat looking setup IMHO. How are they holding up Jerry?

 

[canoetrpr]

Ow!. I'm not an older guy and I'm sure I'll have a heart attack if they cost too much more than that.

I guess there is a reason why people ballast their tires with fluid rather than buying wheel weights!

Up here unfortunately the only liquid used is Calcium Chloride with tubes. I'm not comfortable doing it myself so it looks like this is the way I'm going to have to go.