RimGuard: Front and rear?

[jigs_n_fixtures]

I’m headed over the mountain to the nearest dealer tomorrow to have RimGuard put in the rear tires. Since the trip to the dealer is a 3-hr drive one way: Would it make sense to have them RimGuard the front wheels while I’m there.

My tractor is a TYM T233, which is a bit bigger than a JD 1025.

 

[kozal01]

In my opinion no, tire is too small to make much difference in weight and the likelihood of having flats is much higher on the front so the idea of having to deal with fluid filled flats sound like a pain in the butt to me.

 

[zzvyb6]

You can do the Rim Guard yourself if you can rent, borrow, or steal the dual nozzle and valve stems needed. Most overfill the tires which then ride poorly. You need weight for traction and for ballast to reduce the risk of rollover and pitchover. You need tires with load dependent grip, too, otherwise only a partial success by adding weight. If you use this machine to mow your lawns, be prepared for the ruts and track marks. Talk about a rough ride ? Those tires are going to be very heavy after loading and have a lot less air volume. Can you manage them by yourself or going to need help if they want to flop over when changing the wheel track to the max for hill stability. Got a loader ? Fronts will have enough weight from the loaded bucket. That's all you need plus air pressure. If rollover is your principle concern, get iron and park it as low as possible. Add a front 'anti-roll' bar between the front axle and the body. Just like on every car. One from a car junkyard. This reduces the lean angle of your tractor running on a sidehill. This forces the front tires to do their part inrestraining the turning motion induced by drive tire(s). If you start going down hill, most novices will lock up the (rear) brakes and loose control after this. Instead find a gear slightly lower than your ground speed and gently take steering control regardless of the speed and back off the throttle.

Couple of other things to consider:
The Rim Guard probably won't change the c.g. height very much because its own c.g. is slightly below the wheel center. It's best use is with a hydrostatic transmission because changes in tractor ground speed aren't matched with rolling of the internal tire fluid very well, so the loader or snow plow work with constant changing directions won't feel this pain so much.
As for use on hilly ground, c.g. height and rear axle track width are the principle actors here. Ag. tires are best here as well, because of the tread design. This supports less side load than the verticle tipping force, so they will slide unless your wheels dig in or some other stopper prevails. Then you will roll over, maybe 1-1/4 times as the video records seem to show.
Get a bubble meter and keep the side angle in full view. You can also have a friend attach a strap at the transmission location and pull the tractor sideways with a vehicle. Be smart about it. You only need a few readings of pull force (from a suitable scale). Make a plot of pull force vs. angle. It should go down as angle increases. Extend the curve out to zero force. That's the angle you NEVER want to see on your inclinometer.

 

[RayIN]

You can do the Rim Guard yourself if you can rent, borrow, or steal the dual nozzle and valve stems needed. Most overfill the tires which then ride poorly. You need weight for traction and for ballast to reduce the risk of rollover and pitchover. You need tires with load dependent grip, too, otherwise only a partial success by adding weight. If you use this machine to mow your lawns, be prepared for the ruts and track marks. Talk about a rough ride ? Those tires are going to be very heavy after loading and have a lot less air volume. Can you manage them by yourself or going to need help if they want to flop over when changing the wheel track to the max for hill stability. Got a loader ? Fronts will have enough weight from the loaded bucket. That's all you need plus air pressure. If rollover is your principle concern, get iron and park it as low as possible. Add a front 'anti-roll' bar between the front axle and the body. Just like on every car. One from a car junkyard. This reduces the lean angle of your tractor running on a sidehill. This forces the front tires to do their part inrestraining the turning motion induced by drive tire(s). If you start going down hill, most novices will lock up the (rear) brakes and loose control after this. Instead find a gear slightly lower than your ground speed and gently take steering control regardless of the speed and back off the throttle.

Couple of other things to consider:
The Rim Guard probably won't change the c.g. height very much because its own c.g. is slightly below the wheel center. It's best use is with a hydrostatic transmission because changes in tractor ground speed aren't matched with rolling of the internal tire fluid very well, so the loader or snow plow work with constant changing directions won't feel this pain so much.
As for use on hilly ground, c.g. height and rear axle track width are the principle actors here. Ag. tires are best here as well, because of the tread design. This supports less side load than the verticle tipping force, so they will slide unless your wheels dig in or some other stopper prevails. Then you will roll over, maybe 1-1/4 times as the video records seem to show.
Get a bubble meter and keep the side angle in full view. You can also have a friend attach a strap at the transmission location and pull the tractor sideways with a vehicle. Be smart about it. You only need a few readings of pull force (from a suitable scale). Make a plot of pull force vs. angle. It should go down as angle increases. Extend the curve out to zero force. That's the angle you NEVER want to see on your inclinometer.

Where is that video you reference?

 

[Panik]

I’m headed over the mountain to the nearest dealer tomorrow to have RimGuard put in the rear tires. Since the trip to the dealer is a 3-hr drive one way: Would it make sense to have them RimGuard the front wheels while I’m there.

My tractor is a TYM T233, which is a bit bigger than a JD 1025.

So I've seen this question come up on the forum multiple times (and also pondered the question myself before I filled the rears of my BX with RV anti-freeze. For smaller tractors everything I have ever read/heard indicates that filling the front tires:

- At best doesn't really provide much of a return on investment (relatively minimal weight additions)
- Moe than likely places additional, potentially very costly, strain on front end components - especially when a front end loader is involved.

There's always exceptions, but I honestly can't think of a time when someone on this forum has recommended it for small tractors. Unfortunately, I neither have enough caffeination, nor do I have the general ability to explain the geometry and physics involved. There are however very long discussion threads about the topic on this forum.

What I will say is that I think that you'll be happy with filling the rears of your T233. I've got not a single flat piece of land on the 4 ish cleared acres on which I operate my BX and filling the rears with RV made a heck of difference in traction and more importantly feeling planted. I've also not had an issue with the turf being torn up. Best of luck with the endeavor.

 

[DarkBlack]

Add a front 'anti-roll' bar between the front axle and the body. Just like on every car. One from a car junkyard. This reduces the lean angle of your tractor running on a sidehill. This forces the front tires to do their part inrestraining the turning motion induced by drive tire(s).

That’s a really bad recommendation in my view. Anti-sway bars work by forcing the opposite side spring to compress with the near side spring, thus lowering the vehicle end during suspension roll. The tractor front axle has no springs, and more importantly, with a center pivot , rigid axle housing, there’s no possibility of the opposite side moving in the same direction as the near side. To move, the opposite side must move in the opposite direction. An anti-sway bar would offer nothing of its design purpose. All you’d end up accomplishing , is creating a rigid front axle incapable of freely pivoting as designed to follow surface irregularities. You’d compromise the design stability for 99.9% of use.

 

[RjCorazza]

I’m headed over the mountain to the nearest dealer tomorrow to have RimGuard put in the rear tires. Since the trip to the dealer is a 3-hr drive one way: Would it make sense to have them RimGuard the front wheels while I’m there.

My tractor is a TYM T233, which is a bit bigger than a JD 1025.

Without getting into the pivoting front axle geometry, many manufacturers specifically recommend NOT using liquid ballast in front tires.

 

[oosik]

No doubt about it. Having RimGuard in your tractor tires will make repairs more difficult. But not for me. No way would I attempt repair on a tractor tire weighing well over 1000 pounds. The local tire shop ( Les Schwab ) has a mobile repair unit - just for that.

I have RimGuard in the rear tires only. 775 pounds in each rear tire. I have a 1600 pound FEL and 820 pound grapple bearing down on the front tires. No need for extra weight there.

Like has been said - the front tires on the OP's tractor will not hold enough ballast to make any difference.

I live on 80 acres. It's all open range land. Mile long gravel driveway. For 27 years I had CaCl solution in the rear tires of my first tractor. For the last four or five years the rear tires would drip, drool, slobber like a fool with some sort of degenerate disease.

RimGuard in my 2009 Kubota has been such a pleasure. Not a single problem.

BTW - 42+ years out here and not a single flat on any tractor tire. Store the tractor out of the sun and the tires will serve you well.