Liquid in tires

[Torvy]

Never seen anything but water and no freeze in tires here. A few people grow beets in their gardens, but that's it. Water is plentiful though. Alcohol or anti freeze is readily available. I've always fixed my own flats. Put tires on my vehicles. I have used a tire shop when out of town and in a bind.

I doubt they grow these in a garden...the ones on the left are beta vulgaris, the kind you eat. The ones on the right are sugar beets. They are grown commercially and refined into sugar similar to sugar cane. This is the kind that becomes 'beet juice', or Rim Guard.

 

[ROUSTABOUT]

I doubt they grow these in a garden...the ones on the left are beta vulgaris, the kind you eat. The ones on the right are sugar beets. They are grown commercially and refined into sugar similar to sugar cane. This is the kind that becomes 'beet juice', or Rim Guard.

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Good information. Nice to know what I never knew. Thank you.

 

[landtech]

There is a new product option now besides beet juice. It’s called bio ballast.

I purchased 20 gallons of minus 20-degree wind shield washer fluid for $1/gallon at the end of winter at my local Walmart Store. That gave me about 80 lbs of ballast in each rear tire of my JD 2305. I also bought a hose-end-adapter at Tractor Supply for $9 that screwed onto the tire valve stem (needle valve removed and tire jacked up to remove weight). Then used a small "water feature pump", a bucket, and a garden hose to fill each rear tire about 3/4 full. Simple, inexpensive, and a do it myself project for about $30. Dan C.

 

[Torvy]

Good information. Nice to know what I never knew. Thank you.

No problem. What good is an agriculturally related site if we don't share ag info once in awhile?

After dad retired from the USAF, we lived just a bit south of some major sugar beet production areas. We used to drive up the the base at Grand Forks, right through the middle of sugar beet country. Harvest looks a little like potato harvests with truckloads of roots and dirt that are hard to distinguish if you don't know what they are. 55% of the sugar production in the U.S. comes from beets, not cane. 'Pure cane sugar' is just an advertising slogan. There is no difference in refined sugar from beets or cane.

Here's an idea of where they grow.

 

[Cougsfan]

They used to grow a lot of sugar beets her in Eastern Washington and there was a gigantic sugar beet processing plant in Moses Lake. It has been shut down and the growing of sugar beets is now near non-existent in our area, I am told the reason it shut down is that 1) refined sugar from beets is more expensive than refined sugar from cane, and 2) high fructose corn syrup has seriously cut into the demand for all refined sugar. There are still sugar beet processing plants in the Magic Valley of Idaho and Red River Valley of Minnesota/North Dakota as the map shows. Both are major potato growing areas. It takes similar land and equipment to grow both. Beets and Potatoes are not a rotational crop selection with each other, and most years potatoes are considerably more profitable to grow. This also hampers sugar beet processing in the US.

 

[SmallChange]

There is no difference in refined sugar from beets or cane.

There is for me. Sorry, but I always hated beets. If I thought about beets while eating dessert, I think I'd have to stop.

Not that I believe I could tell the difference by tasting!

 

[Torvy]

There is for me. Sorry, but I always hated beets. If I thought about beets while eating dessert, I think I'd have to stop.

Not that I believe I could tell the difference by tasting!

I don't care for the beta vulgaris either. (table beets)

Your statement makes no sense, though. The plants are like distant cousins. I don't hate Teddy Roosevelt because he is distantly related to FDR and their mutual cousin Eleanor (eww).

 

[Surshot]

When I bought my tractor I had been driving tractors for 60 years. Living in FL makes freeze decisions pretty easy. We do have freezes, but building an enclosed barn pretty well takes care of that, Unless you come see o 12-24-83 when it went to 8 degrees and stayed for 8 days.
I just use water with antifreeze in my tires on the 4x4. I replaced the tires at 13 plus years.

 

[Surshot]

Oh, forgot to add, had a trace software that I bought that would trace 15 hops on hackers, cost $29. Is was better than Cox Cable’s software.

 

[M59]

I have a pretty new 55 hp JD. Should I add liquid to the tires? I have a canyon in my property with a couple fairly steep roads going down there and wonder if liquid in tires would help. I have not yet braved these roads as I'm still getting use to the tractor. If so, what kind of liquid. I'm in Texas but it does freeze a few days a year here.

Stonewall,

In a word yes, add liquid to your tires.
Why would you want to? All tractors work better the heavier they are because the tires engage the ground better with the presumption you are not running turf tires ( R3) AND adding weight to tires lowers the center of mass of the tractor resulting in a more stable machine.

The fill/ not fill topic and what to fill with or hang onto the rims got pretty well flogged to death under an earlier entry entitled:

Why not sugar water in tires instead of beet juice?

I have seen the ads for beet juice for tires. I have not been able to find pricing. In order to get pricing I must fill out a form with all my info and then I will get a quote. But after speaking to a few folks they spent over 300 bucks per 11.2 x 24 tires. I assume beet juice is used because of...

www.tractorbynet.com

Here is a useful comparison from that earlier entry:
Desugared beet juice pulp is a waste product that got repurposed because it's specific gravity is significantly higher than water, it is cheap for distributor to buy since it is a waste product that would normally get dumped back onto field, it is non corrosive to metal wheel rims, it is non poisonous to animals and land if it leaks, and its freezing point at greater than -35'F is well below water's 32'F freeze point.
I'm guessing RimGuard built a business on selling a waste product for profit.
Rimguard weighs 10.7 Lbs/ gal.
BioBallast weighs 9.7 Lbs/ gal ( Their MSDS / SDS says proprietary organic components but I suspect product is corn gluten based )
Water weighs 8.3 Lbs/ gal

The American dream. Selling a waste product for profit.

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