Ballast What is the purpose of filling tires ?

[tccontender]

I see a couple of posts referring to filling tires with foam or alcohol. What is the purpose? Weight or puncture resistance?

 

[AllWaysBreakinSomething]

Weight mostly. Adding weight in the rear can help drastically with pulling and offsetting weight for front end loaders (FEL). It's usually glycol of some sort that want freeze.

 

[loulblades]

I see a couple of posts referring to filling tires with foam or alcohol. What is the purpose? Weight or puncture resistance?

Both, if you use foam (well the foam won't provide puncture resistance, just that it won't come out if you do puncture the tire)

I had alcohol (antifreeze) in my front tires to provide ballast to handle the rear mount mower until a sharp root went through one and the antifreeze escaped. I now have foam in all 4 tires and have no concerns about flat tires.

A few nights ago I put my turf tires on for the first time and now realize just how heavy those foam-filled tires are.

 

[tccontender]

Thanks. What kind of foam are they filled with? Is it something you can do yourself?

 

[DMW]

I had my front tires filled with a polyeurathane? foam at a forklift tire shop. It added a lot of weight to the tires and let me stop worrying about all the scrap metal in my yard. You can drive a nail into them with no effect. Only thing is the rims aren't likely to be re-usable when the tread wears out. The extra weight also helped control steering with a rear mount snowblower. The amount of foam depends on the air pressure rating so you don't lose all the cushioning effect of pneumatic tires. My fronts now weigh 62.5 pounds each. I didn't do the rears due to the size. Extra cost,weight if I ever have to remove it, and my back didn't like the thought of a harder ride, and I am quite happy with my boxblade as a counter-weight for the FEL.

 

[loulblades]

My dealer told me that they use a lower density foam that what is normally used in forklifts so the ride isn't as hard.

 

[thatguy]

Roughly what is the coast for using foam??

Brian

 

[DMW]

thatguy, here are 2 threads to read for other's input. Get the exact tire sizes you want to fill and call a couple shops to get a rough idea of the cost. If it's not out of the way, stop in and see what kind of deal they can do. I've found that prices can vary quite a bit when negotiating in person.

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/owning-operating/77578-exactly-what-foam-foam-filled-3.html?

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/owning-operating/76202-foam-tire-fill-price-2.html?

loulblades, your right about forklift tires, but the amount they inject is dependant on size and max psi rating of the tire. So it doesn't have to be super hard. i got it done at a shop that does work for my employer, so the price was very reasonable