Fluid capacity for rear tire ballast

[J2Jonner]

Thanks Rebeldad, you had me rethink and I was able to locate some -20c fluid for $1.97. I may add a gallon of antifreeze to each wheel frankly just for a touch of good measure and peace of mind about at least some corrosion inhibitors. Still a value compared to alternatives.

 

[aczlan]

Shop around. Bought zero temp for $1.79 a gallon at the time.
Wouldnt recommend diluting what you put in. you cant go back and fix it.

Too late now, but I picked up 50 gallons of "absolute zero" RV antifreeze at Wal-Mart for $1/gallon a few weeks back.
Ended up being just enough to refill the tires on the tractor and have 1/2 gallon left over.

Aaron Z

 

[fried1765]

I wanted to just thank everyone on the forum for the numerous threads on tire ballast with washer fluid / glycols / beat juice. I'm new to the forum and have found it a wealth of information on this an other topics! I decided to go with the Walmart RV antifreeze which appears to be an alcohol / propylene glycol mixed antifreeze. At $2.58 a gallon with free shipping to my house it feels like a good mix of affordable / convenience. I plan to use a 2 : 1 ratio of the RV juice and water as I'm in VA and expect the decrease in freeze performance to be acceptable here and bring the price below what I can get straight washer fluid for. Comments appreciated if anyone see's a problem with this line of thought. Thanks all!

I did a freezer experiment with diluted RV antifreeze, and the result was quite poor.
25% water was the only reasonably successful result, but using full strength 0F windshield washer fluid seemed equal, and was cheaper.

 

[Firefly0556]

I am changing mine this weekend. Ordered new rears limited with size wanted the r14t but ended up with carisle r4 12.4x16. Had 13.6x16 turf's on my jd790. On those I put in tubes and used 2 gal antifreeze per tire and the rest was water never had a problem. It has been like that since 2004. I hope I can reuse the tubes with the new tires.

 

[fried1765]

I am changing mine this weekend. Ordered new rears limited with size wanted the r14t but ended up with carisle r4 12.4x16. Had 13.6x16 turf's on my jd790. On those I put in tubes and used 2 gal antifreeze per tire and the rest was water never had a problem. It has been like that since 2004. I hope I can reuse the tubes with the new tires.

Your profile lacks any location information.
Your method would likely work just fine in Florida.
Not so fine in Alaska!

 

[FTG-05]

Your profile lacks any location information.
Your method would likely work just fine in Florida.
Not so fine in Alaska!

This.

 

[5030]

Loading tires seems to be a popular thing. I NEVER fill my tires with anything but air. In fact I bought a used unit last spring and first thing I did to it was have the farm tire guy come out and dismount the tires, pull all the liquid out of the tubes, replace the tubes with new ones and put everything back together. Having said that, I always run cast centers on my tractors instead. A cast center will give you an additional 300-500 pounds of tractive effort per wheel, depending on wheel size and center size.

 

[5030]

In my mind without a doubt the best way, is more expensive initially.



We repair all most all of our tractor tires while still mounted on the tractor,
if we remove the rim to work on or clean it up to repair or paint we may take it of the tractor after the tire has been demounted.
Much easier to work with a large tire upright and fixed in place.
If it's liquid filled many times we will drain them into a barrel set up down hill fromthe tractor and just let gravity and siphoning do the work.
Otherwise air the tire up rotate the valve stem to 6 o'clock let the air pressure push the fluid out,
when it stops add more air and repeat when the tire is mostly empty, break the beads, iron the outside off the rim
and pull the tube out.

With a filled tube, no matter what you do, the fill will only go as low as the valve stem so you still wind up with fill at the level of the stem in the 6 o'clock position unless you vacuum it out. That can be a lot of liquid in a large tire. Like I've stated before, I'm adverse to any filled tire. Not required for my operation at all.

 

[RickB]

I completely drained a pair of 15.5x38s using a piece of steel brake line, a short piece of rubber fuel hose fitted over the line to act as a seal, and the air pressure within the tire. Drained them to less than a cup of fluid.

 

[i7win7]

GUESS THE CHEAPEST BALLAST WEIGHT OPTION FOR YOUR TRACTOR! - YouTube

GWT compares the cost of ballasting options. My take on fluid filled tires -- weight is resting on the ground, only when tractor tries to flip is when the additional weight is applied to tractor frame via the axles. All other options the weight is carried by the frame. YFI, not an engineer.