tire ballast? I lied......

OK,
something is going in my tires..... Murphy spends a lot of time around here, so the calcium stuff has me a little nervous. There is petsafe antifreeze available....... The calcium (?) would be 130 pounds in each tire before the water so (I think) that just liquid would be considerably less. For what I would be doing, there would always be tongue weight of at least a 300 gallon (+ tank and chassis) water trailer, or a full load of poo (cubic meter). Is the amount as important as just having the tires full to keep the tread engaged flatter(??) and keep some weight on the bottom?

Secondary would be a better grip when doing hay on a pasture that slopes some. That was a small issue with the little tractor and shouldn't be much of one with this one.... A plus to not using the calcium, neighbor kid has a filler valve and I'd only have to get the antifreeze.

Somebody please make up my mind :roll:

Dave

Don't let the "city farmers" scare you off.

Fill 'em with calcium and be done with it.

Allan

From what I understand it would be a decision of cost now or cost later. The ethylene glycol antifreeze would be a lot more expensive than the calcium chloride. Then if not used correctly the calcium chloride would eat your rims up and you would have to buy new rims later. To use either the ballast should be used in a tubed tire. When using calcium chloride if you get a puncture, even very small, you need to fix it immediately and thoroughly wash the tube and rim in the process.

i run nothing but beet juice in the fleet at work.

(quoted from post at 05:10:52 12/13/11) i run nothing but beet juice in the fleet at work.

Click to expand...

doesn't seem to be availabe here............ Will ask again........ this is just straight sugar beet juice?

Amen!

I use a Farmall C to pull gravel out of an old gravel pit. The incline is very steep. I don't have weights or ballast. Seen the damage that ballast can do to rims over time and don't want that either.

I had to build a strong reese hitch on the Farmall, so I could increase the tongue weight and increase the weight on the back wheels. Increased the load capacity up the hill about 3 times.

I would try to figure out how to increase tongue weight or use something that doesn't cause rust.

If you drive on black top, ballast may increase tire wear.

George

Typical of internet forums......there is more than one way to skin a cat!!

Calcium has been in the tires of my Ford NAA since it was new. Just replaced the rims last year. I'll be satisfied with the decision to keep using calcium if I can keep getting +50 years out of a set of rims.....

Yupper, as they say.
Zach

Here's my main problem/headache..........

Worst is the water trailers. I can get by with leaving them in place and filling them with a tank/pump from the road that runs by but still need to go in and out with hay and poo........ Daily problem is keeping pawprints off the seat tho :roll:
Majority of my driving is on pavement,gravel, and cobblestone.....

Dave i have had a lot of tractors over the years some good ones and some so bad that i had to farm with them because nobody wanted them . some with cal. in the tires and some with out . None of them even close to being new , and some of them with cal in the ires that were leaking till i fixed them and cal will not eat the rims out over night or even in a year of leaking. Yes i have seen some plum ate thru and most of them were in manure all there lifes. You can not add enough iron t a wheel that will not become a post removal tool to equal the weight of cal. in one tire. Your car- truck will eat out faster then the rim from the salt . If the tire gets a hole in it ya fix it and wash the rim down and go again.If ya have to ya sand blast prime and paint. Case and point here , the one neighbor just got a 1066 that is not loaded and has added five 150 donuts to each side that approx. 750 lbs each side they stick out past the tires. our 1066 has 18.4x38 radials and are loaded with a 11# per gallon mix x110 gallon per tire approx 1210 # pounds per tire then we have and extra 300# in iron added . He has to remove the iron to get his tractor into his shed to fit thru the door , his dad is anti cal so the boys have to load and unload the tractor . Plus they still do not have enough weight on it for the hills . Oh and this is on a farm that is just starting to come out of the dark ages as up till 2 years ago they were still farming with two Farmall Super MTA's a WD 45 Allis and a 8 N Ford . They Still milk cows with the old pale milkers and hand carry each pale from the barn to the milk house . Eugene and i have one tractor that is not loaded and that is the 706 it weighs in at around 92-9300 # and i am here to tell ya that at the one farm where we make hay at it is a little on the steep side you have to be extremely careful while mowing or raking with out the extra weight on the back . So my take on the cal verses no cal is this if you are working a tractor you need the weight if it is just a toy and a trailer queen then ya don't need the weight , if your rims rust out because of cal then that is your fault because it it is in a rubber inner tube and stays in there like it is suppose to it is not going to eat a rim out and it will not do it over night or even in a year or two or three .

I wouldn't worry about pets drinking the fluid, it tastes bad enough they won't taste much of it befoe they get the idea. I had a valve core stick when putting more air into the tire and some calcium leaked on the ground. Two young dogs came along, took a lick and left.

I've run calcium in all three tractors, from the little 33 hp to the 135 hp. Fill them to 75 to 80 percent, just to the top of the rim and you will be amazed at the difference in traction. These older tractors have had fluid for over 40 years and the rims are still in great shape. Costs more to have the tire man come out to do a change over or fix a flat but its not something you hopefully have to do often. Go with the calcium.

If you're determined to put something in the tires... just put the damn CaCl in and be done of it. It'll outlast you.

Rod

You got it right!

That anti freeze is what is the poision, tasts sweet and animals will lap it up very fast, calcium is like if you have the lid come off your salt shaker on your plate of food, it will not hurt you, just make you spit out the mouth full of food. And the anti freeze does not that have the weight you are after. And calcium will not damage a tire, anti freeze will. And Beet juict (rim guard) is just a sugar beat byproduct that is harmless to both people and animals. Cast would cause faster tire wear on roads as it would not even out the tire pressure on the pavement.

I took out all the salt and replaced it with waste antifreeze. Not much difference in weight and as for poison, every car and truck on the highway uses antifreeze and I cant see any effect on animals.

see you pulled your head out long enough to babble something..... Put it back before your ears get cold....

Whatever you decide, you will find someome else to blame for whatever happens.

Amen, brother.............

Dave, search for rim gaurd (beet juice) it's good to -35 and is 8lbs per gallon

Here in MN, dad/I've had calcium chloride in 3 tractors, one is a 1954 model, the bigger one is tubeless and has cc in all 4 tires, one I owned for 2 weeks without cc and it scared me bad, called the coop and had the cc put in pronto.

I don't like antifreeze; in my climate you need a lot, you lose a lot of weight because it's lighter than water not heavier, and it's a eco-issue. As well my coop would be pretty upset if I contaminate their cc supply with some antifreeze concoction.

If this is a tractor you use, you take care of tire issues as they happen, and good to go.

If it's a show tractor parked in the shed 9 months a year forgotten or if you park it in the grove for 20 years, yea any leak will show up as rust if you neglect it. But on a tractor you use, it's no big deal.

My opinion.

--->Paul

nothing wrong with the calcium if your in an area where you dont have many flats,one of our places is covered in locust trees and they eat tires alive so rims dont last long.those tires are foamed whenever possible, but you pretty much have to burn the tire off to change it afterwards. Most antifreeze will kill small animals that drink it. So theres pretty much a problem with it all. Probably out of the whole deal beet juice is the best overall,but its way expensive here. Keep in mind that if/when you have a flat it will cost more to repair with fluid if you have it done. ive used calcium for years,on different tractors ,and as long as you dont have leaks it works as well as anything. If you do have a leak if you will get it repaired soon and wash the rims it isnt as bad as some say. Where you get in trouble is when you just keep airing tires up for a long time and rims stay wet. I am sort of suprised the enviro's havent got it outlawed to tell the truth. Simply because it could kill the grass. My dad absolutly refused to fix a tractor tire unless it just wouldnt air up,so we pretty much changed rims when we bought tires. But if you keep on top of it calcium works as good as any.

Use windshield washer fluid or polypropylene glycol.
I have no idea why somebody would be daft enough use ethylene glycol in tires.

Cast would cause faster tire wear on roads as it would not even out the tire pressure on the pavement.

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What ???

I am sure you have seen car tires that had the edges wore away and still like new tread in the middle. That is a perfect example of what I am saying. That comes from running the pressure at car makers recemonded 30psi instead of tire makers recemonded 35psi. Now the tractor tire makers recomend pressure equalling the 30 car pressure so you have the same thing, then you add the cast weight and how many increase the pressure to carry the aditional weight. That answer would be very few. Now add weight like a big bale on the back and that tire is way under pressure and the tread is bending in like that car tire with no tread at the sidewall and full tread in the middle. That tells me that the pressure is higher at the sidewall than the center of the tire. Now if you up the pressure enough it equals out but how many do that? Very few. Fluid will keep the same pressure on each sq in of tire on pavement if in center of tire or edge no mater what the load unless it is so suverily overloaded the sidewalls cannot handle the load at that pressure. I know that I am not a good speller.

Glen, I present to you, in all it's glory, ONE red brick wall....

Rod