Tires Ballast

Lefte · Nov 27, 2013

I just bought my first tractor, a Kubota 7510. It came with the tires already filled with ballast Sodium Chloride I think.

Well both tires started leaking around the rim once it got cold and now both tires have separated and are free wheeling.

Easy to take them back in and get them re-ballasted, but my question is why did this happen?

The tractor was delivered from North Carolina and I'm in North Dakota and about 8 years old. Only has 50 hours so it can't be too much work.

Thanks in advance.

Lefte
AKA Tom

k0ua · Nov 27, 2013

The tire pressure was probably very low to begin with and when it got a little colder it became less. Calcium chloride should never be used without tubes. And that said I will never use it again. It is saltwater and if you ever have a leak it sprays your tractor with salt water which causes a rusting problem you can deal with for sometime after you get the leak fixed. Without tubes it is working on your rims all the time. There are so many other better safer things to fill your tires with.

RFB · Nov 27, 2013

Same as K0ua's counsel.

Rim-Guard or Bio-Tire will not eat the rims.

MHarryE · Nov 27, 2013

Are you sure about the ballast mixture? Would likely be calcium chloride, not sodium chloride, but CaCl has been used for decades. Soil compactors for one - about 10,000 sold every year, all with tubeless tires and all with calcium chloride ballast. Since we northerners have had some fairly cool temps already is it possible the tires were filled with plain water having come from the south and freezing popped the tire off the rim? Much more likely than a calcium chloride problem. I have had customers run the tires as low as 6 psi for traction with no leak problem. Your description of spinning on the rim(as I interpreted it) sounds suspiciously like water or windshield washer fluid filled tires used in the North country.