HEck of a mess in the shop today!!!!

I had my son's lawn tractor setting in the shop. Just pulled it in there to park it after I serviced it Friday. He had the rear tires loaded with Rim-guard last year. I was in the shop this morning early and then did not go out until after supper. One of the rear valve stems came apart. The metal came out of the rubber. I now have Rim-guard sprayed all over half my shop,tool boxes, and work bench. I had it parked close to the benches so I had room to park the two cylinder tractors that where for sale. I rinsed most of it off with water but it is a sticky mess. I am glad it is not corrosive but it still is a mess. I bet that it will take half a day to clean up the mess. It seems my luck has changed. LOL I knew yesterday could not last.

Just be thankful it wasn't calcium your tools and tool box would melt

Had 18.4-38 do the same thing last summer while mowing grass rubber stem blew out the core i took a bath in rim gaurd trying to plug stem no luck with that called dealer mader then wet hen service manager said huh that also happened to so and so theres nothin i can do for you i got on rim gaurds web site found installation directions sure enough says dealer needs to make sure and install brass type bolt in stems on radial tires thank you XTXNXOX equipment this is the 7 th time you failed as a dealer to us. luckily i own a calcium pump i broke down tire 1 replaced stem aired tire drove to shop check tire stem 2 was weeping brown goo i got a little hose clamp and clamped the stem off loaded tire 2 fixed stem got on phone with rimgaurd owner Mr Koch he was more then an upstanding person listened to my story then said contact your dealer if they wont replace the differance in fluid needed to refill tires he would pay for it so they gave me the differance for free and had to reload MYSELF with my pump that so said dealer told me i couldnt do myself with my pump cause it wouldnt work with and old gear type calcium pump so that would be 8th time wronged by so said dealer i have some nice pics of my nightmare if i can find them to this day you can still smell the rim gaurd and everytime it rains it like rejuvinates itself in the dirt driveway

The only reason CaCL causes problems is because people put off proper maintenance. Rims don"t rust overnight, or even in a few months. That ballast has been used since the 30s/40s without problems, given proper maintenance.

Sounds to me like your luck is still holding strong. As others have said, it wasn't calcium and it wasn't a 18.4x38!

All those rotten rims in the salvage yard and on still operating tractors came from where? There is no way that all the salt could be washed from all the crooks and crannies. The smart way is to eliminate the problem and use something else in it's place. Same way PCB electrical insulation was replaced with other insulation.

Problem is usually somebody trying to obtained weight and over filling the tires. Tires in an ideal world would always be run dry and external weights used. IF liquid ballast is used, half full is lots. Absolute max is up tithe valve stem when rotated to 12 o'clock and no pressure in the tire. A pneumatic tire has to have flex and squish.

I agree Jim. Some guys will complain that they only got 70 years out of a set of rims instead of 100 because someone in the past used calcium.

Reading thru this thread, it's starting to sound like Rimguard does work. There is no damage to the rims. It eats the valve stems up----

rim gaurd is great just unbonded brass core out of the rubber stem the directions said to replace them with bolt in water stems dealer was just to lazy didnt want to break down rim they can be a bear to get reseated

so, what is proper maintenance of a tire to keep the fill stem from coroding?

Keep caustic and corrosive compounds away from materials they can damage.
CaCl salts are more reactive than ordinary table salt.

Best to use stainless valve cores in tubes filled with calcium. Brass will corrode. It's just a matter of time. Mike

Only a fool would dispute your last 6 words.