concrete wheel weights

[clemsonfor]

Lead shot is pretty pricy, and would take forever to get it into the tire I would think?? Midway shows that 50lbs of shot is $95!!!! I think you can get weight somewhere else far cheaper than that. If I were to use lead shot I would not put it in the tire I would make a box somewhere on the back and put the shot bags in it!! Better yet you could get scrap tire weights for the lead scrap price and put that in your box.

 

[clemsonfor]

Has anyone had any luck adding lead shot and tire slime? I would prefer not to risk getting a puncture and leaking antifreeze all over the place. I'm using lugghandles but wanted to add some inner tire ballast as well. Wanted to start with something simple and reversible.

Or do what I did and use windshield washer fluid, which dogs don't want to drink, or you can use RV antifreeze with is polyethyl glychol or whatever and its used in rv water systems. It just cost more than the washer fluid. I think I ended up paying about $1/gallon for -20F fluid.

 

[sal64]

nice job good idea.

 

[California]

...windshield washer fluid... -20F fluid.

Do you guys freeze that hard in SC? Here we see ice that won't melt all day, only every few years. The local farmers just run plain water. I think it never gets cold enough to worry about tire damage. There's quite a bit of mass in a filled tire and it won't turn to ice as soon as the thermometer moves below 32. But we consider an unusual cold spell to be maybe low 20's overnight, 33 daytime. I would just put a light bulb under the tractor if I got worried about freezing plain water in this climate - and I've never seen it cold enough to do that.

 

[BC Dave]

nice work:thumbsup:; intresting idea; ... you did... what I have thought about .... I like the idea of using th wheel well as a form; lining with heavy gauage plastic with bolts through ... fiber concrete is a good idea; I doubt if it will crack; but I guess rebar would help to tie it together further.

 

[clemsonfor]

Do you guys freeze that hard in SC? Here we see ice that won't melt all day, only every few years. The local farmers just run plain water. I think it never gets cold enough to worry about tire damage. There's quite a bit of mass in a filled tire and it won't turn to ice as soon as the thermometer moves below 32. But we consider an unusual cold spell to be maybe low 20's overnight, 33 daytime. I would just put a light bulb under the tractor if I got worried about freezing plain water in this climate - and I've never seen it cold enough to do that.

nah we never get close to that, that was just my choice other than the summer kind. I had to take what advance had in stock in August. Many here do run plain water but I just did not want to take a chance. I know that even at 30F its not instantly freezing and there is a mass that has to freeze.

We did however have a cold snap in I think april 2010 or maybe it was the late 2009?? But that thing was the coldest that I can remember in my 30 years. We had snow (that storm dropped one evening 6-7 inches of power fluffy snow)in the north facing shadows that lasted 7 days. I don't think it actually got above freezing for 2-4days though, the night lows for at least 3 of those nights dipped into the teens. One night I remember was 12F. Would this have frozen my 8.5x24 or whatever size tires hard enough to bust them...I don't know?? Maybe I could have put a tarp over the back of the tractor and put a 100W drop light under it to help keep it warm if need be?? Do I feel better spending the $35 or whatever I did to fill them..yes. I did fudge and buy 15 gallons for each tire and filled the remaining 2 gallons or so of each tire up with water so I don't have a total of -20f protection but I still have plenty for our climate.

We have had one day cold snaps all the time where the night low would be in the 20s and it does not get out of the 40s that day but that's still not enough to bust a tire. We have had snow linger several times I can remember for 2-3 days but nothing like that storm I described above.

EDIT: after rereading my post I know I wrote 30F does not freeze instantly. I do know that freezing is 32F but I just put it a few degrees colder to just pick a temp below freeze point. Just did not want anyone to think I did not realize that. I also know my C scale as well, just not as good converting it as I once was...something about 5/9 and 9/5 I think? I cant remember all that middle school science. I did have a calculator that just had a button at some point!!

 

[S Putnik]

I did something similar on my Shibaura. I used RV antifreeze in the tires, giving me an additional 160lbs. RV antifreeze is non-toxic and is actually used as a food additive.

I cast on concrete weights with fiber reinforced pre-mix. That added 240lbs for around 400lbs total.

This is a huge help when using the loader. I don't need a counter-weight even with a bucket full of gravel.