diy tire ballast

[Tx Jim]

I surely doubt that anyone has seen a tire explode from freezing water inside, high pressure air yes, that is a potential bomb but expanding water not one way in heck will that happen. Water expands by 10 % when frozen and with a 75% fill there is plenty of room for expansion without stressing the tires. Just as ice cubes in a tray expand into the top portion rather than bend or break the tray, the ice in a tire will do the same thing. The only problem with water freezing is that you must not move the tractor till it melts otherwise the ice could damage the tire and especially the stem.

AMEN BUDDY

 

[cartod]

I wasn't even thinking about exploding when I asked the question, I was wondered how it drove with a solid chunk of ice inside the wheel.

 

[Gary Fowler]

What happens when the water freezes solid?

You cant use plain water when your temps get cold enough and stay cold all winter to freeze water. Here in southern Arkansas, we may have a day or so of freezing temps and then it warms back up. This has not been a normal year and having a week of freezing weather is unusual. When tires ballast freezes up, you have to wait till they thaw before moving them to avoid damage to the tire valve stem and tire. You must use anti-freeze additive of some sort when your normal winter temps are below freezing for all or most of the time if you want to continue to use your tractor full time. It takes several days of below freezing temps to freeze the water in a tire and it doesn't happen overnight when a brief period of below 32F happens. In my case, I have my LS with loaded tires (pure water) and my Kubota B26 TLB with only air in the tires as per Kubota directions to not fill the tires when you have the backhoe on it. So if it happened to freeze up my LS for a day or two and I absolutely needed a tractor, I still have my B26 to use if needed, however when it gets that cold, I don't do any work with my tractors anyway even though the LS has a cab with HVAC.

 

[PapaPerk]

My point is... Putting pure water in tires is not good in freezing conditions. It stresses the rubber tire which can lead to tire failure. Especially in older tires. The failure may not occur during freeze... But later in the tires life.

I tell ya what... Call up Firestone or Titan and see what they say about using pure water as ballast in their tires.... In freezing temps.