Why not sugar water in tires instead of beet juice?

[ROUSTABOUT]

We use water and anti freeze.

 

[LouNY]

And at over $60 gallon would be pretty expensive ballast.
I've been paying $20 per guart.

 

[David Wayne]

I sell for $10 a quart. But it would be a shame to waste it in a tire.

 

[etpm]

So, because of where I live, just north of Seattle, I will be seriously investigating the use of sugar water as ballast because the freezing hazard is low. We only get into the teens rarely and then not for long. Sugar doesn't provide the same freeze protection as other substances but I don't need protection from really cold temperatures. I already have wheel weights on the rears and they add about 70 lbs. per tire. My Yanmar manual says to use 273 lbs. of calcium chloride solution in each tire. So I need about 200 lbs. of liquid ballast weight. Somewhere there is a chart that shows how much volume a particular tire will hold and how much liquid ballast to add so that the tire is filled the proper amount. Using that chart I can figure out how much sugar I need to use. I may need to add some anti-freeze too and I don't know how that will affect the solubility of sugar in the water. In any case I will figure it out and then post the results here. Today I was offered the use of a pump that works for pumping liquid into tires so that's a bonus.
Eric

 

[jyoutz]

Maple Syrup doesn't freeze, just gets thicker and it weighs 11 pounds per gallon.
It is environmentally friendly too!!

And costs $15/quart.

 

[Richard]

Thanks. I saw that thread and skipped it so, I was totally in the dark.

Me too, but I just found it (or one if there are several?) and added something different to it.

 

[Garson]

Does anyone here know the result of driving on tires with ice inside?

I bought an Oliver tractor with 38" tires at an auction years ago. It worked great but had been used for tractor pulls and the rear tires were unknowingly filled with water. When they froze I drove about 100 yards and the tubes got pulverized by the ice frozen solid inside the tires and the tractor returned to the yard with the tires flat on one position only. With every revolution of the tires there was a deep blip when the tractor flopped down like driving over a stump.

Water might be OK for tire ballast in the Caribbean but not in Canada.

 

[wsc9tt]

In the midwest, most of the sugar you buy is actually made from beets and not sugarcane so you would be using the same stuff.

 

[Robert walker]

Maple Syrup doesn't freeze, just gets thicker and it weighs 11 pounds per gallon.
It is environmentally friendly too!!

I would be having a waffle iron on my open cab tractor with an inverter. Not sure how the dust and grass clippings would go along with it.

 

[mahovy]

My dealer filled my tires with a new product named bio-ballast made of corn. He said it’s far less messy than beet juice, cheaper, and non toxic. I don’t know what it costs; it was wrapped into the deal.

Bio-Ballast® - EnviroTech Services

envirotechservices.com

I’ve used RV antifreeze. Safe for house plumbing, so don’t see any reason it would damage tires and wheels. Works to -20 F. Around $2-$2.50 a gallon

 

[landtech]

I have seen the ads for beet juice for tires. I have not been able to find pricing. In order to get pricing I must fill out a form with all my info and then I will get a quote. But after speaking to a few folks they spent over 300 bucks per 11.2 x 24 tires. I assume beet juice is used because of all the sugar dissolved into the beet juice. Looking at my Yanmar YM2310 manual it says the tires can be loaded with 235 pounds of a calcium chloride and water solution. Water will dissolve, by weight, pretty much the same amount of sucrose, which is table sugar. Since water weighs about 8 pounds per gallon if I was to make a saturated solution of sugar and water I would need to buy 235 pounds of sugar. Really though, because of the way sugar is packaged in bulk I would need to buy 250 pounds. A quick look online resulted in me finding sugar for 80 cents per pound delivered. So 200 bucks for 250 pounds of sugar. But sugar dissolves 2.4 times, as much, by weight, as calcium chloride into water. So I would need to use more water and less sugar to get to the 235 pound weight shown in the manual. It looks like I can just add sugar water to my innertubes instead of beet juice. Is there a good reason(s) to not use sugar water instead of beet juice? Will it eat up my tubes? I don't get it. Since the sugar water is way less corrosive than calcium chloride I wonder why I have never seen a sugar water solution being mentioned for adding weight. Anybody here have any info on this?
Thanks,
Eric

Last spring I purchased "20 gallons of end of season Walmart windshield washer solution" for $1 per gallon. This is will not freeze down to -15 degrees F.. I also purchased a $10 "valve stem to garden hose connector" from Farm and Fleet. I jacked up each rear tire on my JD2350, removed the valve stem, connected my adapter to the valve stem (top of wheel position) and used a small water feature type low pressure water pump and garden hose to fill each rear tire.

I filled each tire with winter washer fluid only to the top of the rim. Disconnecting the hose, allowed any excess fluid to drain out, then I inserted the tire valve stem, and inflated to the recommended pressure. This gave me 10 gallons of -15 degree anti-freeze solution per tire, or about 80 pounds per tire. The 160 lbs of weight is at or below the top of each rear tire rim. Just where you want it. Simple and inexpensive solution for extra weight down low in your tractor. Dan C.

 

[charles todd]

Louisiana.

1 tractor loaded with pure, H2O, tubes.

1 tractor loaded with pure, H20, tubeless.

CT

 

[marhar]

I have seen the ads for beet juice for tires. I have not been able to find pricing. In order to get pricing I must fill out a form with all my info and then I will get a quote. But after speaking to a few folks they spent over 300 bucks per 11.2 x 24 tires. I assume beet juice is used because of all the sugar dissolved into the beet juice. Looking at my Yanmar YM2310 manual it says the tires can be loaded with 235 pounds of a calcium chloride and water solution. Water will dissolve, by weight, pretty much the same amount of sucrose, which is table sugar. Since water weighs about 8 pounds per gallon if I was to make a saturated solution of sugar and water I would need to buy 235 pounds of sugar. Really though, because of the way sugar is packaged in bulk I would need to buy 250 pounds. A quick look online resulted in me finding sugar for 80 cents per pound delivered. So 200 bucks for 250 pounds of sugar. But sugar dissolves 2.4 times, as much, by weight, as calcium chloride into water. So I would need to use more water and less sugar to get to the 235 pound weight shown in the manual. It looks like I can just add sugar water to my innertubes instead of beet juice. Is there a good reason(s) to not use sugar water instead of beet juice? Will it eat up my tubes? I don't get it. Since the sugar water is way less corrosive than calcium chloride I wonder why I have never seen a sugar water solution being mentioned for adding weight. Anybody here have any info on this?
Thanks,
Eric

All ideas are worth considering...I am a beekeeper. To create a 2 sugar 1 water solution one will have to heat the water to melt the sugar. The solution will still form some crystals when it stays cool over time like it does in early spring. These crystals may not be an issue inside a tube.

Before trying on the tires. why not make the solution and put it in the freezer to see how it performs?

Just don't have a pin hole leak and park next to a yellow jacket nest.

 

[gckshea]

Possibly, depending on your climate. I don't know if adding sugar to water will lower the freeze point.

Anything dissolved in water will have some impact on freezing point depression. I'm not a chemist but there are ways to calculate the freezing point depression based on the molecular weight of the solute (sucrose), the solvent (water), and percent concentration dissolved. Lots of variables, but there are tables from people who already invented this wheel.

 

[PILOON]

Maple Syrup doesn't freeze, just gets thicker and it weighs 11 pounds per gallon.
It is environmentally friendly too!!

Also rather costly!

 

[stuckmotor]

I bought an Oliver tractor with 38" tires at an auction years ago. It worked great but had been used for tractor pulls and the rear tires were unknowingly filled with water. When they froze I drove about 100 yards and the tubes got pulverized by the ice frozen solid inside the tires and the tractor returned to the yard with the tires flat on one position only. With every revolution of the tires there was a deep blip when the tractor flopped down like driving over a stump.

Water might be OK for tire ballast in the Caribbean but not

Thanks Garson,
I've been curious about that off and on for years.

 

[rbstern]

I’ve used RV antifreeze. Safe for house plumbing, so don’t see any reason it would damage tires and wheels. Works to -20 F. Around $2-$2.50 a gallon

I use the same in the front tires of my Yanmar, to help keep the front planted when I have a heavy load on the rear (no FEL). Also have suitcase weights up front.

 

[etpm]

All ideas are worth considering...I am a beekeeper. To create a 2 sugar 1 water solution one will have to heat the water to melt the sugar. The solution will still form some crystals when it stays cool over time like it does in early spring. These crystals may not be an issue inside a tube.

Before trying on the tires. why not make the solution and put it in the freezer to see how it performs?

Just don't have a pin hole leak and park next to a yellow jacket nest.

I won't need to use a 2 to 1 solution. I might bee able to get by with a 1 to 1 solution. I already have wheel weights mounted that weigh about 70 lbs. each. I looked at a chart and it shows that for the size tires I have each tire filled with 25 gallons will result in an approx. 70% fill. Because of the wheel weights another 200 lbs. of weight need to be added according to the Yanmar manual. At 8 lbs. per gallon it looks like pure water will do. But where I live it does get into the low 20s and rarely into the teens. Not for long, but it does happen. So I am going to find out which will work better for lowering the freezing temperature to 15 degrees F, sugar or the safe anti-freeze. By better I mean weight, cost, and volume wise. This may mean freezing samples myself. With mixed sugar, anti freeze, and water. It could be fun.
Eric

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

I’ll sell you honey... $10/pound

 

[LouNY]

Of course that honey will crystalize at around 45 deg.F