Filling tires with ballast at home.

[Gord Baker]

Here's another example of filling tires with liquid ballast at home. I wanted to do this at home mostly because taking the tractor (or even just the wheels) to a shop to have them fill them is expensive and time consuming. Spoiler alert - I was able to fill them at home in about 3 hrs which is less than my drive time to the closest tire dealer.

First was the selection of the ballast liquid. I considered three alternatives, all of which cost about the same $$/lb for the material:

- Beet juice, which I have in my other tractor. But it's just too messy, and I couldn't find a source to buy it for home installation. It's a little heavier per gal, so more total weight, but not enough to overcome the down sides.

- Windshield washer fluid: In small quantities, this is inexpensive ($1/gal),But buying 165 gal jugs is just not practical. In 55 gal drums the cost is more like $4 per gal, the same at beet juice or RV antifreeze. Also, windshield washer fluid is toxic, and I really want something that is non toxic. Weight is the same as water.

- RV antifreeze: Weight is the same as water, and it's non toxic, so this worked the best for me. I bought 3 55 gal drums from NAPA in a fall sale.

Next is the pump/transfer setup. I started with one of the readily available adapters to connect a garden hose to a tire valve. But after that I did things a bit differently. I didn't want to use the little push button valve on the adapter to bleed out air because some amount of liquid would also come out and make a mess. I also wanted to be able to monitor the pressure in the tire so I'd know when to stop pumping and let some air out. The result was this assembly of hose fittings. The branch and hose that goes to the tire adapter is also connected to the pressure gauge to monitor tire pressure. Then there are two hose connections with valves. One is liquid coming from the pump, and the other is a drain back to the drum. To fill, you close the drain valve and open the pump valve. Then after 10-15 minutes, close the pump valve and open the drain valve. That lets the air our of the tire, and any fluid pushed out just goes right back into the drum.

This also allowed the connection to the tire to just be a single hose so there isn't a lot of weight hanging off the valve. It also moves all the controls for filling and bleeding to a comfortable location rather than crammed between the wheel and rear end of the tractor.

For a suction pickup in the drum, I cobbled together a piece of copper tube and fittings to a hose that connects to the pump.

Then it was just a matter of sitting around while running the pump, and pausing to occasionally bleed out the air.

You also need to jack up the tractor to take the weight of the machine, then let all the air out of the tire. Then fill it, and top off with air to the final operating pressure. I put 82.5 gal in each tire, which is 680 lbs per wheel. Total time about 3 hrs.

Other than the tire valve adapter, I had all this stuff lying around, so my cost was just the cost of the antifreeze, and my time.

 

[Gord Baker]

AI is just an automated web search robot that doesn't know if its right or wrong.

Question... how do you know when you are at the level you want?

 

[Gord Baker]

They are filled with the valve at the top. When you bleed out accumulated air and liquid comes out, it is full. Some air is required to remain in the Tire.

 

[walnutman]

They are filled with the valve at the top. When you bleed out accumulated air and liquid comes out, it is full. Some air is required to remain in the Tire.

So now I remember reading about this before.
I believe you position the tire so the stem is at an orientation you want the fill line to be. When it gets to the stem and only liquid comes out, you are at the level you want.

 

[Pecosbill7]

Maybe I’m behind the times, but the way we always did this was to (1) rotate the tire until the valve stem was at the top, (2) have a hose connected to the valve stem with the other end in a bucket of whatever mixture you choose (we used anti-freeze), (3) have an air-compressor activated hydraulic jack under the rear of the tractor, (4) remove the needle valve from the tire to allow all of the air out of the tire, (5) make sure the bucket end of the hose is completely submerged in the fluid, (6) jack up the tractor and as the weight of the tractor is removed from the wheel the tire will resume its natural shape which then creates suction in the hose, drawing the anti-freeze mixture into the tire. (7) the liquid mixture then travels to the lowest point in the tire as it is drawn into the tire. (8) deflate the jack, allowing the tire to flatten again, which then forces air out of the tire at the needle valve, (9) repeat (5) through (8) again and again until antifreeze mixture comes out of the tire when it is deflated. At that point the tire is essentially then full of antifreeze with the exception of the small amount of air trapped at the top of the tire. (10) re-install needle valve and inflate tire to desired level. All done. Note: you can do this with a manual jack, but your right arm may grow out of proportion to the left from all of the jacking and deflating you will be doing.

 

[Paul McILwain]

We used to fuel out twin otter when in remote locations (northern Canada) by keeping the right engine running at idle and using bleed air to pressurize the drum (steel), not sure if a similar system would work for tires as there is no back pressure when filling the aircraft.

 

[ZiggyD]

Your plumbing is overly complex. I have a cheap pump like that hooked directly to the tire adapter. Just pump for a bit then let the pressure out.

Where’s the fun in that?

 

[not2old]

A previous post said ballast is hard on axles and bearings. Can anyone explain to me the theory on this? My thought is that the weight is on the ground and have no bearing on the tractor parts.

 

[Crank Shaft]

I also just used a drill pump and WW fluid and bought a burp valve

. Worked great.

 

[Crank Shaft]

Being OCD, I calculated the volume of WW needed for a 70% fill of my tires. I then pumped in the calculated volume with valve stem at 12 o'clock position. Once done I verified correct level by slowly rotating the tire and watching for fluid escape. My math was bang on.

 

[JRH02]

A previous post said ballast is hard on axles and bearings. Can anyone explain to me the theory on this? My thought is that the weight is on the ground and have no bearing on the tractor parts.

I couldn't make sense of that comment either.

When I was learning to use our 410j I came close to upsetting the unit a few times. It is really back and top heavy and our land is really steep. One of the most dangerous times is when the boom is out and fully extended. Ya don't want to swing that fully to the side. Dangerous stuff. It didn't take very long before I called the tire shop and had the fronts and rears filled. The 19.5L-24 10PR rears took a LOT to fill. As I recall each of the rears gained about 1000# each. The fronts didn't gain much but it did help keep the front down on the ground. It didn't affect the ride at all except for the assurance the unit stays on the ground now. There is no more scooting the tractor around with the BH anymore .

It improved things so much I took my B7100 tires in and had them filled as well.

 

[ACWSPEEDPATROL]

Here's another example of filling tires with liquid ballast at home. I wanted to do this at home mostly because taking the tractor (or even just the wheels) to a shop to have them fill them is expensive and time consuming. Spoiler alert - I was able to fill them at home in about 3 hrs which is less than my drive time to the closest tire dealer.

First was the selection of the ballast liquid. I considered three alternatives, all of which cost about the same $$/lb for the material:

- Beet juice, which I have in my other tractor. But it's just too messy, and I couldn't find a source to buy it for home installation. It's a little heavier per gal, so more total weight, but not enough to overcome the down sides.

- Windshield washer fluid: In small quantities, this is inexpensive ($1/gal),But buying 165 gal jugs is just not practical. In 55 gal drums the cost is more like $4 per gal, the same at beet juice or RV antifreeze. Also, windshield washer fluid is toxic, and I really want something that is non toxic. Weight is the same as water.

- RV antifreeze: Weight is the same as water, and it's non toxic, so this worked the best for me. I bought 3 55 gal drums from NAPA in a fall sale.

Next is the pump/transfer setup. I started with one of the readily available adapters to connect a garden hose to a tire valve. But after that I did things a bit differently. I didn't want to use the little push button valve on the adapter to bleed out air because some amount of liquid would also come out and make a mess. I also wanted to be able to monitor the pressure in the tire so I'd know when to stop pumping and let some air out. The result was this assembly of hose fittings. The branch and hose that goes to the tire adapter is also connected to the pressure gauge to monitor tire pressure. Then there are two hose connections with valves. One is liquid coming from the pump, and the other is a drain back to the drum. To fill, you close the drain valve and open the pump valve. Then after 10-15 minutes, close the pump valve and open the drain valve. That lets the air our of the tire, and any fluid pushed out just goes right back into the drum.

This also allowed the connection to the tire to just be a single hose so there isn't a lot of weight hanging off the valve. It also moves all the controls for filling and bleeding to a comfortable location rather than crammed between the wheel and rear end of the tractor.

For a suction pickup in the drum, I cobbled together a piece of copper tube and fittings to a hose that connects to the pump.

Then it was just a matter of sitting around while running the pump, and pausing to occasionally bleed out the air.

You also need to jack up the tractor to take the weight of the machine, then let all the air out of the tire. Then fill it, and top off with air to the final operating pressure. I put 82.5 gal in each tire, which is 680 lbs per wheel. Total time about 3 hrs.

Other than the tire valve adapter, I had all this stuff lying around, so my cost was just the cost of the antifreeze, and my time.

 

[sandman2234]

A previous post said ballast is hard on axles and bearings. Can anyone explain to me the theory on this? My thought is that the weight is on the ground and have no bearing on the tractor parts.

I am pretty sure that post was the answer that was given by AI, which doesn't surprise me. Some things AI just can't figure out. While there is a certain amount of added load to the bearings, it is so small that it isn't even considered. Now hang that same amount of weight on the pto or the front bumper and that will make a serious difference!
David from jax

 

[ACWSPEEDPATROL]

Just thinking. There wouldn't be any problem with two valve stems per wheel with tubeless tires. They could be spaced so one of them is at 6:00 for injecting liquid and the other where the liquid would spurt out when the tire is filled to the proper level. No stopping for the tire to fart.

Close the top one first, then rotate the tire to get the "fill" stem up, remove the fill hose and close it.

Nice! I am thinking of adding a valve to the inside of my wheels so I can easily fill with air after I've swapped left side to right side when widening the stance each year. For sloped jobs I widen as much as possible and for tighter jobs where the smaller tractors won't do, I narrow up as much as needed.

 

[mrmikey]

Something I just found out about RV anti freeze which I assume is the same as plumbing anti freeze just different description?
There are two different types, for plastic pipes only and for metal and plastic. The plastic only is corrosive to metal. I was wondering why the almost 50% more in cost for different brands until I noticed the description on one that noted "For plastic pipes only" I thought wth ohhhh crap.
Sure enough, it's what I use to winterize my pressure washer once I blow the water out of it. I just opened a new jug month or so ago and poured some thru the pump and I have a clear hose on the outlet so I can see the pump is full.I went out and looked, sure 'nuff the inch or so of fluid in the clear hose had turned brown with rust.

 

[jdmeth]

AI is just an automated web search robot that doesn't know if its right or wrong.

Question... how do you know when you are at the level you want?

You just rotate the tire to where the tire valve is at the level you want. As you fill and release air when just water comes out keep releasing it until air does come out. You are then done.

 

[skramer360]

When I wanted to fill the tires on my tractor, I just took the tire off the tractor, laid it on its side and broke the bead on the top. Then I just poured the fluid in from the jug by making a small gap between the tire and the rim. Trying to pump gallons of fluid into the tire through the tiny valve stem just seemed like a huge waste of time.

 

[qualsite]

I used old coolant from a truck shop, which they were glad to get rid of instead of paying somebody to haul it away. Rotated the valve stem to the level I wanted, used a small pump feeding into a small piece of small diameter thin-wall tubing inserted into the valve stem with the valve pulled out. Room for the air to escape, still plenty of flow into the tire, and you know when it's full to the level you want when the coolant starts coming out of the valve stem. It's been in there for 20 years.

 

[Crank Shaft]

A previous post said ballast is hard on axles and bearings. Can anyone explain to me the theory on this? My thought is that the weight is on the ground and have no bearing on the tractor parts.

Well I am not a mechanical engineer but my logic dictates that if the ballast gives you more traction than you used to have without ballast, then that means more torque is getting to the wheels which means the axles and bearings will have to deliver that extra torque.

Whether that extra torque could ever break the axle I suppose depends on what safety factor the manufacturer used for axle strength.

 

[WinterDeere]

A previous post said ballast is hard on axles and bearings. Can anyone explain to me the theory on this? My thought is that the weight is on the ground and have no bearing on the tractor parts.

This horse was beat to death decades ago. It's been shown over countless years and examples, that tractors can carry very substantial weight in their tires, with little or no impact on wear or failure of the running gear.

Well I am not a mechanical engineer but my logic dictates that if the ballast gives you more traction than you used to have without ballast, then that means more torque is getting to the wheels which means the axles and bearings will have to deliver that extra torque.

... the same torque to which those components would be subjected, whenever not on a slippery surface? Those components were already sized and selected to handle the maximum torque your machine can deliver.