Tires flat tire, damn!

[mlmartin]

Just as I was going to get the camera, too.

I was about to take a picture of my JD 870 with a 7 foot long granite billet hanging on two chains from the FEL. I was placing it in front of the front barn door. I heard a loud hissing and observed a very flat tire on the right front. The air was escaping around the valve stem. I guess the tube ripped as the tire looks fine. I had just had tubes put in because there were multiple patches in the front tires that were the sources of slow leaks.

I have been carrying heavy loads of gravel, fill and loam in the FEL for the last several days. The turf tires really don't carry the weight and turn without some really scary deformation. I think the weight of the billet and the high turning forces I was using to position it were a bad combination. I've moved this billet a few times, so it wasn't just the weight. Then again, it was the first time I moved it with just the box blade as ballast. The backhoe tends to unweight the front wheels a lot more.

I have an estimate for $150 to install flat proofing in each front tire. It didn't seem worthwhile at the time. If I can't get the tube repaired by Satureday, $300 will look like a bargain. My wifes's new pony will end up being boarded for another month. That's $500.

Matthew

 

[patrickg]

OK OK I ain't gotta Deere B U T I got a flat today and the Firestone Industrials are so new that the little rubber feeler thingies aren't worn off yet, even on the tread. Either a beer bottle (ought to be an open season on lliterers) or a stob, I was brush hoggin and the uneven terrain makes me cut off some saplings too close to ground (leave tire killers). I prefer to leave longer stumps as they are usually shattered and being longer can be driven over with impunity or a pickup.

Patrick

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Re: flat tire NO!-16 Ply Super Tires damn!

Eliminate Flats with this Super 16 Ply from Firestone

16 Ply-Industrial/Logger, 20,400 lb. Load rating

No rear tire weights are required, because each tire weighs 1563 lbs.

 

[DarinRay]

Re: flat tire NO!-16 Ply Super Tires damn!

WOW! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif Now that's a tire everyone could use....but then we all would need more hp to turn em.../w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

Darin

 

[mlmartin]

One $25, while-I-waited repair later ...

The billet is now in place, sorry, no pictures. The tube had sustained a three cornered tear. My local service place (Case/IH dealer) doesn't stock weird (JD) tube sizes. They patched it and I'm off again.

At $25 per repair, it wouldn't take many flats to cost $150. Mayme that flat proofing for the fronts can be worked into the budgets (financial and time).

Got to go. The last of 100 tons of stone dust has arrived and it won't spread itself.

Matthew

 

[patrickg]

$25 What a deal, I paid $50 today. $35 labor and $15 materials (tubeless) Firestone 17 5L 24 6 ply industrials. I still say there ought to be an open season on literers, maybe a bounty, or at least an automatic justifiable homicide tag (like a deer tag) you could fill out and put on their toe and leave them beside the road for the roadside trash pickers to handle. (Realizing the delicate sensibilities of many readers, I heavily censored my comments, toning them down about 25-30 dB.)

Patrick

 

[patrickg]

Re: flat tire NO!-16 Ply Super Tires damn!

What do they weigh in size to fit L4610??

On way back from tire shop was passed by a B I G truck with a large articulated arm on it resting on a large tire. Apparently the arm with its grippers (like an early robot) can lift, translate, and rotate to place the tire onto the equipment. Her commment, "That's what we need." She isn't happy when I handle things I can't pick up."

Patrick

 

[mlmartin]

No bottle deposit in your state? Bottles and cans on the side of the road are a real rarity in Massachusetts.

Matthew

 

[Bird]

Matthew, we don't have a bottle or can deposit in Texas either./w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif You can sell aluminum cans; last I knew they would bring $.35 a pound; not much incentive./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif Personally, I wish they'd go back to returnable glass bottles for both beer and soda.

Bird

 

[FarmerSteve]

We've had a deposit law in Michigan for 20 years or so. The bounty is 10 cents. The only thing on the roadside is the occasional guy putting his kid through college by picking up. Then again, most stores have entire sheds devoted to storing the things.

 

[GlennT]

Bird--Amen. I am constantly picking up cans, aluminum foil wrappers, empty feed sacks, parts of old plastic tarps, etc. in the ditch next to our place. However, it could be worse. For several months, someone would dump off cigarette butts, cans and DIRTY DISPOSABLE DIAPERS in the ditch next to my place--right in the culvert at the intersection to a dead-end road in a subdivision. Gosh, I hate to pick up dirty diapers. Fortunately, the kid apparently has grown out of diapers because I haven't found any lately.

 

[patrickg]

Bottle deposit. Indeed, I'd rather have a bounty on literers. Yeah, when I lived in CA there was a deposit on containers, 5 cents on a two liter. Eons ago it was two cents on a 6 oz Coke bottle. What about cost of living indexing!!! Alternatively (tho still prefering the bounty) I'd vote for a Federal container deposit and a Federal law against unlawful disposal of a Federal deposit container. I would not exempt anything refillable, recycleable, or otherwise. I think if a beer bottle was worth a quarter, empty, it wouldn't be under my tires. Similarly milk bottles and many other food containers determined by the numbers found disposed of in an unauthorized manner. There would be a homeless supporters riot 'cause the poor unfortunates can hardly buy dog food now, let alone if there were a 25 cent deposit on the can. My claim is that it is a zero sum game. Once you have some containers there is no additional cost. Perhaps the sellers of the offending products could be charged a fee per container high enough to make them offer a "reward" for the return of empties. If I were selling cold soda and paying the Government say 20 cents for each can sold and the Government paid me 20 cents for every can I turned in to recycling (above and beyond the value of aluminum or plastic) I would sure encourage folks to return the cans. I might hire some indigents to pick up cans for a fee.

Patrick

 

[mlmartin]

A nickel per container seems to work here without a major bureaucracy. The redemption centers get 7 cents for each container they return to the bottlers. There are some huge redemption centers around that return a lot of nickels for the two cent fee. Unclaimed deposits go to the state's general fund which gives the bottlers an incentive to keep the return rate high.

There is action being taken to extend the deposit beyond carbonated beverages. If adopted, virtually all beverage containers will be covered, including water, wine and liquor bottles. Those damned "nip" bottles are about the only thing I see on the lawn nowadays.

Given that nearly everyone is required to separate recyclables here, putting a deposit on mayonaise jars would probably be counterproductive.

Matthew

 

[mlmartin]

Oh! The addition of insuilt to injury/w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif

I sttart up the tractor this morning and dorve 20 feet during which time the (very) recently repaired tire went flat again/w3tcompact/icons/mad.gif

The tube had an invisible pinhole. Took the wheel in and got it repaired. They were very apologetic and only charged me for a "second patch" $8.50 and swallowed the labor fee.

Matthew