weight gain

[rockyridgefarm]

<font color="green"> as far as windshield washer fluid goes,i have seen it freeze here in pa </font>

Did it FREEZE or go to slush? We sure have seen it turn to slush....

 

[tomrscott]

Slush would still be okay. As long as it is even slushy the expansion it does can extrude into the air space and compress the air. I think what you want to avoid is having it freeze rock hard where the ice cannot flow and forces expansion of the tire to the point of damaging it.

On another note. I wonder if the air pressure required in a fluid filled tire isn't much lower than normal? The only reason for air pressure in a tire is to prevent the tire shape from collapsing. All other things being equal, with heaier loads in a vehicle you need more pressure, and with lighter loads in the car you can get buy with less air pressure.

In the case of a fluid filled tire, I am thinking that the weight of the fluid must tend to keep the tire expanded to it's desired shape pretty well without much (or any?) extra air pressure. If that is true, it would make it even easier for a slushy fluid to expand, just by compressing the air a bit.

I've heard that it's common for people to overinflate fluid filled tires, making them stiffer than they need to be.

Any opinions on this? I'm planning to fill my tires with ~75% fluid and then see how they behave, how much air pressure is required to get the tire expanded to normal profile. I can't imagine that it takes as much as with just air.

 

[tomrscott]

I priced some things at costco today thinking about what a homebrewed tire fill could be made from. They had windsheild washer fluid rated to -25 degrees for $1.30 per gallon, but as others have pointed out, I suspect WWF is probably lighter than water due to alchohol content. Don't have an easy and accurate way to weigh it.

Thinking about the beet juice that Rim Guard apparently uses, I looked at the cost of bulk sugars and plain white sugar was the cheapest sugar source I could find, about 33 cents per pound. If you could get three pounds of sugar disolved into a gallon of water, you'd be at about 11 pounds per gallon, which is about what Rim Guard manages to do, and it would only cost about $1 per gallon. Now I haven't tried to see if you can get three pounds of sugar to disolve into water, but I know that heated water would help (the sugar will stay disolved after it cools).

I could also add a gallon of liquid hand soap (might give some corrosion resistance?) for about $5. Using 10% soap solution would only raise the cost another 50 cents, still half the cost of the Rim Guard.

Does this sound real whacky to everyone? Or is somebody else out there as cheap as I am?

We're talking about 15 cents per pound or less here, versus thirty cents for Rim Guard, or a dollar or two for "green" or "orange" tractor weights, or fifty cents or so for weight-lifting weights (everyone has heard of EZ-Weight, yes?).

My JD790 with 15-19.5 R4s on the rear will hold 29 gallons per tire (according to Rim Guard web site) or about $180 to fill my tires. If I could do that for $90, I can pretty easily find something else to spend $90 on.

At that price I might fill the front tires and my lawn tractor tires too.

 

[DK35vince]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( as far as windshield washer fluid goes,i have seen it freeze here in pa,depends on the manufacturer.)</font>

I live in Western, Pa. and run windshield washer fluid in my rear tires. Works good and the winter washer fluid is good to -20 so freezing is not a concern..