Frozen tire ballast options

[GreatWhitehunter]

The previous owner of my Deere 110 TLB lived in the Carolinas. He had added water to the rears as ballast which I found out the hard way last winter.
As soon as the weather was above freezing I attempted to drain the rear of the water and thought I got the bulk of it out. Fast forward to today and I find I must still have a few gallons in them, I'm guessing about 5-10 gallons.

So I'm trying to come up with a easy short term solution to allow me to use the machine. I'm thinking of adding a gallon of the RV anti freeze to each tire in hopes that will keep them from freezing again. I'm thinking that in the spring I'll take them to a HD tire place down the road and get them dismounted from the rim and ensure there's nothing else in them. Anyone else have any other ideas? I can't bring the machine inside and I don't have a bullet heater or means to thaw the tires at this point. But warmer weather is in the 7 day.

Matt

 

[Sprinklerman]

Drive the tractor real slow . Ad the rv anti freeze , drive the tractor around a bit it may loosen the ice from the tire

 

[Luke'sScreenName]

Isopropyl alcohol might be another option. You can rent "jet" heaters most places arround here.

 

[nybirdman]

Rim Guard gets a little "lumpy" at -15F;good thing that doesn't happen often.Normally I wouldn't go out when that cold but had an older neighbor that had to get out.

 

[GreatWhitehunter]

Isopropyl alcohol might be another option. You can rent "jet" heaters most places arround here.

I was wondering about using Isopropyl but worried it may damage the rim or rubber if it sits for a while. I can actually borrow some bullet heaters from work but it's supposed to warm up to the high 40's Tuesday so I was thinking that the antifreeze would mix with the water and solve my problem for now.

Rim Guard gets a little "lumpy" at -15F;good thing that doesn't happen often.Normally I wouldn't go out when that cold but had an older neighbor that had to get out.

I'd agree that NE CT doesn't get this cold too often but the cold is sort of a mixed blessing in this case.
I've got a large red oak I've been waiting to fell once the ground froze up good. Of course it's plenty frozen now and I moved the tractor to put on the grapple and found the ice block tires. I don't use the machine much in the winter so this isn't an issue that I was thinking about.

Matt

 

[IslandTractor]

Add methanol. Either straight or as WWF. You may need to add as much as the 10 gallons of water that's already in there but you can leave it in as ballast. Methanol won't hurt the tires or rims.

 

[GreatWhitehunter]

Add methanol. Either straight or as WWF. You may need to add as much as the 10 gallons of water that's already in there but you can leave it in as ballast. Methanol won't hurt the tires or rims.

Any idea where to get it?

Matt

 

[CalG]

Auto anti freeze will be fine. even a 25% mix will just make slush and not freeze solid.the

 

[Billrog]

Even 10% antifreeze in a tire isn't going to freeze solid maybe slush. I mix 10% windshield antifreeze in my lube tank on the saw mill and it doesn't freeze.

 

[IslandTractor]

Any idea where to get it?

Matt

WWF obviously is available everywhere. The "winter" version has a higher concentration of methanol. Pure methanol is available from industrial fuel places. Often the same companies that sell heating fuel will also sell methanol in bulk. I forget exactly but I think WWF is about 30% methanol and the rest is water and colorant.