Riggin' for steep slopes

[MarkV]

Re: Riggin\' for steep slopes

Darren, do you have any idea how the weight of the foam you used compares to liquid fill? I have also heard that some foam can create a rough ride. Have you found that to be the case in you situation?

MarkV

 

[GregGG]

Re: Riggin\' for steep slopes

Hey kinda off the subject (but not much). I was wonderin' if you could tell me what my tractor tires are filled with. It looks green like antifreeze and I always assumed it was, but I wanted to see if I'm right. If it is antifreeze, do you know if there are any negative affects of that vs. other methods. One nice thing I noticed is that there is a puncture, and it looks like someone slapped some green gum on it 'cause the antifreeze (?) had gummed up and formed a patch. also you can imagine my suprise when I went to check the tire pressure just to get my electronic pressure gauge full of slippery green stuff. I couldn't really tell from the smell and I didn't want to let anymore out to see what it smelled like.

 

[MarkV]

Re: Riggin\' for steep slopes

Greg, it sounded like antifreeze to me until you talked about it stopping a puncture. I just don’t know if it would do that or not. On the down side, if it is the normal antifreeze you use in the car it can be very bad for animals if it were to leak. I believe it will kill vegetation in a big way also. There is environmentally friendly antifreeze that is much less harmful and that is what I used when filling my rear tires.

MarkV

 

[GregGG]

Re: Riggin\' for steep slopes

Yeah, I found it hard to believe that it plugged up a puncture, but I'm not about to complain! Nor am I about to pull off the glob to see what the puncture looks like. I am sure it's the old poisionous type, because it had to be done before we got it, which was three years ago, and the previous owner said all he didn't do any mods to it. How would I go about draining and filling them, I am clueless on how to fill tires with anything but air.

 

[mikim]

Re: Riggin\' for steep slopes

I was going to fill a lawn tractor tires with foam but was advised by a small engine mechanic that it could cause damage to the transmission/transfer case? --- whatever it is that drives the wheels and makes it go -- (I ain't a mechanic)
If this brain trust says it ain't so - I may yet do it. My mother-in-law (77 years young) keeps 10 acres mowed using 2 lawn tractors - she runs one in the a.m. til it gets a flat or overheats - then runs #2 in the afternoon. We have a lot of mesquite thorns out there and she gets flats on a real regular basis - tires are full of plugs she puts in. -- I hate working with her - she can outwork both me and the brother-in-law.
mike

 

[WVBill]

Re: Riggin\' for steep slopes

GregGG:

It might be this stuff: Slime</font color=green>

 

[Bird]

Re: Riggin\' for steep slopes

I ain't a mechanic either, Mike, so I don't know, but I don't see how filling the tires with foam could cause any problem. My brother rolled the front tires off the rim on his Cub Cadet Yard Bug so many times, he had them foam filled and never had a problem. I suspect your small engine mechanic just didn't know what he was talking about, or didn't know what the foam is, but of course that's just an uneducated guess on my part./w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

 

[Darren]

Re: Riggin\' for steep slopes

Mark, I checked and what I came up with after talking to one dealer was:

He didn't know what the urethane foam weighed.

He did have some weights of tires filled with liquid as compared to foam. By my calcs water filled is about the same as foam if both tires are filled completely. The practice is to fill a tire with liquid only up to the top of the rim.
I believe that's to get the optimum weight distribution (low).

A foam filled tire is completely solid. Otherwise you'd end up with a tremendous out of balance problem as the foam filled section rotated. Because of general practice the same size trie filled with foam will always weigh more than one filled with water.

The other kicker is that foam comes in different weights. The simplest and cheapest solution for you is have the tires filled with liquid. The other potential problem is foam can destroy a tire with a weak sidewall.

 

[bubenberg]

Re: Riggin\' for steep slopes

slime saves us alot of money each year in tire repair. i found out from my kuboata dealer's maintenance supervisor, that he is using it with his atv's and has suggested it to some of the farmers around here, that move fields with multiflora bushes.

 

[b249]

Re: Riggin\' for steep slopes

I would seem that filling a tire solid w/ foam would cause a slightly rougher ride as the ability of the tire to compress under load is removed. EX. with an air or partially filled liquid tire going over a vertical curve (also read "bump") the tire is able to compress slightly thus absorbing some of the shock. The compressabiltiy (to me anyway) would be removed when the tire is filled w/ a solid foam (or even filled completely with a liquid).

I'm going on a limb here but I would guess that any type of solid filled tire (or attached wheel weight for that matter) would negatively effect the transmission as this may change the rotational enertia specs that the trans. was designed around.

Just my thoughts.

p.s. my dealer filled my rear tires (to the valve stem w/ the stem at "12 0-clock" with "beet juice".

b249