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.
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