Backhoe Loaded tires with a backhoe

[Skidmark25]

Dealer recommended that on my B7610 the back tires be loaded with salt water in addition to having a Woods BH6500 backhoe. He said that when I take the hoe off I would need the ballast for FEL work.

I have owned the tractor for 2 years now and have taken the hoe off once just to walk through the process of removing the hoe. Put it right back on.

My concern is that I damage the lawn every time I drive over it even though I have turf tires.

I'm thinking that I should remove the ballast from the tires and if I ever need rear ballast without the hoe I can rig up a ballast box with some gravel and a 55 gallon drum. SHould help out the lawn a little.

How do I take out the salt water?

Any idea how much weight it adds when loading the tires??

 

[MrJimi]

I don't know about salt water but water weighs 8.3 pounds per gallon
not much help but it's a start?

 

[Bob_Young]

Hi Skid,
Can't help with your question, but have a question for you. What kind of soil do you have where you live in MA?

Here it's sort of a gravelly/rocky loam with some clay. Drainage is very good. My B7610 with loaded turfs doesn't appear to bother the lawn at all. I suspect it would if there were areas that held water.

Goes to show, what works for one can cause problems for another.

Oh, yeah. The B7610 manual shows a weight of around 170lbs. per tire for 11.2-16 Ag tires. These are NOT the same as the 12.5-15 turfs, but I'd imagine it's fairly close...I'd expect maybe 150 to 165lbs/tire.

My (village idiot's) approach to unloading the tires would be to put the stem at 6:00, remove the valve core (or the complete valve end itself if they're screw-ons), and let it drain. Then re-inflate the tire. You wouldn't get it all, but what's left wouldn't weigh much. Will be watching to see what the RIGHT way is.
Bob

 

[TalonDancer]

As I understand it, the problem with removing water ballast is three fold...

1 - properly disposing of the polluted water (salt, antifreeze, etc.)
2 - stopping the inside of the rim from rusting once it is exposed to air all the time.
3 - actually getting all of it out

Talon Dancer

 

[fiddler kelly]

I would say the right way is to take the tire of the rim but as was said turn the tire with the valve to 6 o'clock with the tired filled with air , then once the water level is at the valve level and all that is coming out is air you then refill the tire with air and have the valve center piece out of the valve and have a piece of plastic hosing that will fit into the valve opening and is long enough to reach to the bottom of the inside of the tire so the end of the plastic tubing is in the water , then the compressed air in the tire will push the water out of the plastic tubing. You won't get it all but will get most of it .

By the way I have never done this I just thought of it so if you do try it let me know how it works.

Best of Luck.

 

[SPYDERLK]

"How do I take out the salt water? Any idea how much weight it adds when loading the tires??"

Around 11# per G for CaCl. You can save your fluid in a plastic trash can or poly drum. Using tubing as Fiddler suggested is good. To start you clamp it around the valve nipple and let the air push it out to your container. When it slows use a blow gun to recharge tire back thru the tube - not too much. After youre down to 6oclock get creative with Fiddlers idea. If youre tubeless you might want to do an internal rinse and then add a small amt of anti freeze solution to prevent corrosion.
larry

 

[Bob_Young]

I gotta say, I'm a little surprised that your dealer used CaCl on something as new as a B7610. I thought everyone had gone over to beet juice or windshield washer fluid. CaCl I'd expect to find in something 20 years old or more.

BTW I recently discovered a rim-rot problem with my Ford 2000. Nasty stuff, CaCl. Still I doubt it's much worse for the environment than what they throw on the roads here all winter long. You should see the county bus fleet; whatta bunch of rust buckets.
Bob

 

[skippy957]

I put CaCl in my Ag tires on my bx 2350 and it makes the deferent for bucket handling. No more over tipping.
You need fill the wheel over the rim to avoid corrosion. He also put the CaCl without tube. The tube tends to get cut by the tire. anyway on radial tires you do not put tubes in it.
The tractor tires dealer ho fill my tires tell me that he did try different stuff and the CaCl is the best for the prise.
He put a steel bar in his big thumb of CaCl for a year and nothing append for steel bar. But few hours expose to air it starts to corrode.