Soundguy said:
Nothing inherantly wrong with CACL.. It's about the cheapest, easiest weight you can add.
Just have to do a bit of maintenance.
#1,, start with clean painted rims.
#2, start with a new tube.. not an old leaky one from 1957.
#3, When you notice corrosion around the valve stem.. start thinking about a new tube. I generally try to force some oil or grease down the core/stem of my tubes with fluid. That small film barrier makes a huge difference.
soundguy
Not enough "wrong with it" that I don't use it in several tractors, but it's totally ridiculous to think of removing a tire/tube and repainting the wheel every time a leak occurs. If a person is overwhelmed with spare time, or just that ****, I suppose he could remove rear tires and do "routine mainenance" on his wheels, but in all likelyhood, a tractor tire won't be coming off a rim until it needs either "flat repair" or tire replacement. Most times, the tire isn't even removed to deal with a puncture. Break down ONE SIDE, reach in and remove the tube, stuff in a new one, air it up and get back in the field is the more "normal" routine.
Who on earth do you suppose would install a 50 year old leaky inner tube? Do you suppose a NEW tube might get a leak? I'd bet THAT happens once in a while too.
Do you suppose it's likely that even a NEW, or well painted rim can have a tractor tire mounted on it without ANY scratches on the edges of the bead lip? Not gonna happen. Tire irons are tough on painted edges of rims. Bare metal there.....
Pull a tire off of a rim where it's been mounted for any lenght of time. The tire will rub the paint off where the inner edge of the bead contacts the rim. I just last week helped my son install tubes in the rear wheels of his NEW Deere. (It came with tubeless tires) He wanted tubes before installing cal/chlor. When we broke down the bead on a NEW tire/wheel with less than 15 hours on the tractor, there was bare metal showing on the bead lip of the rim. And again, that's brand new. Imagine a rim and tire that's been on the job for 10 years or more. Probably find some bare metal there too, I'd expect.
EVer been around when someone is putting fluid in a tire? I've NEVER seen it done, even by "tire techs" for tire repair services, that SOME wasn't spilled on the rim when installing/removing the hose from the schraeder valve. That's a start on rust right there.
Isn't it a bit presumtuous to think EVERYONE uses a tractor as a hobby/toy/lawn mower and NOT as a full time work tool? Wouldn't there be a strong likelyhood that a more typical "working tractor" would get a scratch or two on the rims while on the job? ANOTHER possible rust spot.... It's easy to keep paint touched up, rims clean, and not a chance of a tire leak when a tractor does relatively little actual "hard work", but put one in the field for several hundred hours per year and it would be INSANE to try to deal with every little nick and scratch on a back rim. I've seen several of the best maintained tractors I know of that had to have rims replaced in a few years after a normal "on the job" tire puncture.
How many people do you suppose use cal/chlor in their tires as compared to the number of people who would remove their back tires, then clean and paint them every time they get a flat? Doubtfull it's even 1% who'll go that far.
Oil or grease by the valve stem? Petroleum products break down the rubber commonly used in inner tubes. I'd just as soon NOT start the tube down the wrong path by HELPING it to go bad around the valve stem, where 99% of inner tube failures occur anyway. (Most tire manufacturers even warn to NOT use petroleum products in place of tire lube (soap) when mounting their tires for this very reason)
Cal/chlor IS the CHEAPEST way to add weight to a tractor. It IS still the most popular way. But it DOES have inherent risk involved. If there WASN'T any risk, some people wouldn't be buying 100 1-gallon jugs of windshield washer solution, or paying freight to get "beet juice" shipped cross country to fill their tires. "Cheapest" may equate to "best" in some circles. But cheap initially may just be the most expensive over a LONG haul. I for one don't automatically draw a line between "best" and "cheapest". (In fact, I'm ALWAYS suspect of "cheapest" until it can be proven worthwhile) Usually "cheapest" comes with baggage. In this case it definately does.
Probably 75% or more of the "older" farm tractors you'll see will have SOME to a lot of rust and corrosion on the rims if it had cal/chlor in the rear tires at any point in its life. I only know of a handful of farmers who neglected their equipment. Most full time farmers rely on their tractors and take better care of them than their cars/trucks/houses/families.... It's not uncommon, even NORMAL to see them having to replace a rim every now and then. Maint HELPS, but it isn't any gaurantey of preventing rust from NORMAL use of cal/chlor. It happens.
Calcium Chloride IS a HIGHLY CORROSIVE compound. It WILL leak from a tube or tire on occasion. When it does leak , it does damage to one degree or another. It's just the risk you take. That's the INHERENT risk with cal/chlor. It won't make a rim disapear right before your eyes, but it WILL most likely do damage over the long haul ... That can be slowed, but there's absolutely no practical way to STOP it completely. The extreme measures that would need to be taken just plain ol' ISN'T in the scheme for probably 99.99% of us who use a tractor on a fulltime basis. That may be possible on a static collection, but why would anyone want fluid in tires on a tractor where it isn't even needed in the first place?
The rear tires on my J-D 955 are partially liquid filled. If I park the tractor with the valve stem of the left rear tire anywhere below the horizontal plane (using the clock face analogy - from 3 to 9), the tire will lose fluid/air, and go flat if it sits for a day or two. You can see where a small bit of fluid leaks out around the stem, but, all the air is gone. So, I have to drag extension cords and my little compressor from the house to the garage and pump it up. If the stem is above horizontal, everything is fine - it can sit for a month or more, no problems. It doesn't make any sense. Air molecules are smaller than fluid, right? If the stem's bad, the air should leak out regardless of where the stem is located, wouldn't you think? Please help!! 
