</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I am a little curious about the windshield washer fluid, and the tire sealant that you put in your tires. How did you come up with that mix, and does it work. I know the washer fluid adds weight, but do you still have an effective sealant in your tires. Do they mix, or stay separated? )</font>>
JJ, I've been using winter-mix windshield washer fluid to load garden tractor tires for quite a few years, since it is inexpensive, non-corrosive and won't freeze until -20F. So, that's been my modus operandi. I personally prefer loaded tires to either wheel weights or frame weights such as "suitcase" weights or ballast boxes. It puts the added weight on the ground and not on the wheel/axle bearings (or wheel motors in this case) as do the other two alternatives.
Before I loaded my tires, I'd had something like 3 flats in two weeks working in the woods behind my house. So, I was simultaneously looking for something like "Slime" to solve that problem. Someone here on TBN recommended a product called Multi-Seal, an industrial grade tire sealant used by the military to plug bullet holes. While on their site, I noticed that they also had a product called Hydro-Seal -- which is the only sealant I could find for loaded tires.
I called and talked to their engineering department to see if Hydro-Seal is compatible with WW fluid and they said it absolutely was. So I bought a 5 gallon pail and used about 4 gallons when I loaded my tires -- they recommend a 1:7 or 1:8 ratio. It is some type of fiberglass-like fiber suspended in a thick, sticky liquid, which thorougly mixes with whatever fluid you have in your tires.
It supposedly works similar to blood clotting. During a leak, the escaping fluid carries the fiber to the hole, where it plugs the gap and the sticky liquid part of it dries on/around the fiber and forms a solid plug.
I loaded my tires last August and haven't had a problem since -- other than one valve stem that I broke off in the woods... nothing short of foam-filled would've solved that...
It's expensive stuff -- as I recall, I paid about $200 for the 5-gallon pail -- with shipping -- the smallest size they sell.
Multi-Seal & Hydro-Seal