Ballast Choices for liqiud ballast in rear tires?

[David Jackson]

If anyone is still following this thread;

After much careful cogitation I come back to good old anti freeze.

Here's what I am thinking about doing.

A pump from Grainger (for those with catalog 396 the pumps are at the bottom of page 3183, their stock numbers 1P579, 1P580 and 4RU63, the cheapest at $45). I am leaning towards the cheapest as I only plan to do this once unless something terrible happens to one of my rear tires).

My tires at 75% full apparently hold 47 or 48 gallons of water. A 4 to 1 mixture of anti freeze should protect the tires down to 10 degrees above (the coldest I have ever recorded here in 28 winters is 17 degrees above so 10 should be enough) I would need 12 gallons of anti freeeze per tire. Anti freeze is about $10/gal and maybe I can get a discount if I buy 24 gallons) so about $240.

The NAPA gadget should be $10 or less to adapt garden hose to the tire valve.

So; about $300 should do the job.

Any thoughts about this approach?

I have never attempted this particular task before so any advice and/or hints will be gratefully received.

Thanks in advance;

David Jackson

 

[3RRL]

Looks like you're on the right track David. Sorry I couldn't remember exactly where I saw the gadget. But the Grainger and Napa set up should work. You might check if you can get away with less anti-freeze. If I'm not mistaken, even partially frozen (shlush) tires are OK as long as they don't freeze solid. But then again at 10 bucks a gallon, that's not too bad.