Home made Rimgard?

[Kenn1320]

I emailed a local dealer and they want $105 for Rimgard for (2) 33x12x16.5 subcompact tires and another $50 to pump it in(I bring them the tires). Rimgard is called beet juice and sugar is made from beets among other things. I just looked and a 25lb bag of sugar at walmart is $14. What could the possible difference be between Rimgard and mixing a few bags of sugar with water? I googled sugar and water and adding it does raise its freezing point. Are we being duped here, or is there a possibility that Rimgard has something added to keep the sugar in suspension? How do you determine the gallons needed(just do the math and subtract 10% or something)? Rimgard is 30% heavier then water, so 8lbs for water plus 30% is 2.4lbs of sugar added.

 

[Kioti Tom]

According to the Rimgard website, It is made from a byproduct of the sugar beet processing. So, I would think that
The majority of the sugar has been removed. This is most likely in my thinking that it is the resulting fluid after
they have removed the sugar. www.rimguard.biz

Tom

 

[Grumpy Old Man]

I emailed a local dealer and they want $105 for Rimgard for (2) 33x12x16.5 subcompact tires and another $50 to pump it in(I bring them the tires). Rimgard is called beet juice and sugar is made from beets among other things. I just looked and a 25lb bag of sugar at walmart is $14. What could the possible difference be between Rimgard and mixing a few bags of sugar with water? I googled sugar and water and adding it does raise its freezing point. Are we being duped here, or is there a possibility that Rimgard has something added to keep the sugar in suspension? How do you determine the gallons needed(just do the math and subtract 10% or something)? Rimgard is 30% heavier then water, so 8lbs for water plus 30% is 2.4lbs of sugar added.

why bother ? rv antifreeze is $3.99 a gallon and good to -50 mix with water and be done with it .

 

[Gary Fowler]

It would be simple enough to check. Mix up a pint of water with .3 pounds of sugar and set it in the freezer or just set it outside if it is cold enough. See if it freezes. I did read that sugar does ****** ice crystal growth. Likely the major cost of rimgard if packaging and transport fees plus low demand = high price = rip off price for a waste product that normally would be going into cattle feed

 

[Gary Fowler]

why bother ? rv antifreeze is $3.99 a gallon and good to -50 mix with water and be done with it .

If you can get -20 WSWF for $2 per gallon vs pure antifreeze @$8 which is cheapest I have found off brand, then unless you can use it at 4 to 1 ratio, it is cheaper to buy the washer fluid. To get -50 protection with antifreeze you have to mix 50/50 ratio so that would be $4 per gallon cost to install. If one could find a place that sells methanol by the drum one could mix it themselves and save even more. WSWF is not pure methanol and I found this info on internet.

+20 F Washer Fluid - Contains approximately 7% methanol.

0 F Washer Fluid - Contains approximately 23% methanol.

-10 F Washer Fluid - Contains approximately 28% methanol.

-20 F Washer Fluid - Contains approximately 35% methanol.

-25 F Washer Fluid - Contains approximately 38% methanol.

-50 F Washer Fluid - Contains approximately 62% methanol.

 

[Mike1369]

Why can't you just add something heavy like sand. It's not like you are driving on the highway and need the tires perfectly balanced.

 

[kco]

One reason not to use antifreeze is the danger to pets if a tire develops a leak.

 

[PhilY]

I hear there are setups that you can get out there to fill your own tires. If you do, fill it so that the whole rim inside the tire is just covered. This way you have enough squish in the tire for when you run over a rock or hit a rut and the rim is not exposed to the air in the tire. Oh, and if you have the dealer fill your tires for you when you buy a brand new tractor, the $ should be about $0.60/gal. This, I think, is an at cost price, and they only do it with new purchases.



Edit: Price Correction - I meant to say the at cost price should be about $1.60/gal. My dealer said he put about 50 gal in per tire and that both tires would cost me $150. My tires are 420/70-24.

 

[Kenn1320]

why bother ? rv antifreeze is $3.99 a gallon and good to -50 mix with water and be done with it .

Assuming Rim guard is $3 a gallon based on the searching Ive done on the net, there is no reason to put in a lighter more expensive alternative like Rv antifreeze. I did a search on the Rv stuff and its good to -50 and ready to pour in at $4.89 a gallon locally here. You could dilute it some as there is no need for -50 where I live, but Im not sure of the rate of dilution without seeing a label.

 

[Kenn1320]

I hear there are setups that you can get out there to fill your own tires. If you do, fill it so that the whole rim inside the tire is just covered. This way you have enough squish in the tire for when you run over a rock or hit a rut and the rim is not exposed to the air in the tire. Oh, and if you have the dealer fill your tires for you when you buy a brand new tractor, the $ should be about $0.60/gal. This, I think, is an at cost price, and they only do it with new purchases.

View attachment 296589

Good info PhilY, seems easy enough to rotate the tire so the valve stem is slightly above the rim, say 10 oclock and just fill till its full. I checked with 2 tractor dealers, neither does their own filling and 1 of them only uses Calcium Chloride. Ive seen 2 different methods for filling on your own that I have the quipment laying around to do it. One is using a portable air tank and removing the plug and filling with the solution and then pressurising it with air. The faster method is an automotive electric fuel pump submerged in a bucket of your solution. The first method said it can take hours, where as the fuel pump was emptying a 2 gallon bucket within seconds. Do a youtube search, plenty of them out there. I think with either method its important to only put in so much at a time and then burp the system or your going to be compressing the air in the tire which makes it harder to pump in your solution.

 

[PhilY]

Also, I was just thinking about the size of the tires that you mentioned. It seems like they could be front tires. If so, I hear that fronts shouldn't be filled if you have a loader on the tractor. I think this could be due to excessive pressure inside the tire since there would not be enough air volume inside to distribute the rise in pressure. With your tires, you should probably put about 21-22 gal in each to hit a 75% fill. At $105 dollars to fill both tires with Rimguard, it works out to be about 2.40 a gal. Not too bad a price considering even Windshield washer fluid is at least $2/gal. I would say the price the dealer quoted you is fair if this tire fill is not being done at the time of the tractor purchase.

PS. I could be over a bit on my gal/tire calc. as I am not sure how thick the tire is. I took off an inch, but I may still be high.

 

[PhilY]

I hear there are setups that you can get out there to fill your own tires. If you do, fill it so that the whole rim inside the tire is just covered. This way you have enough squish in the tire for when you run over a rock or hit a rut and the rim is not exposed to the air in the tire. Oh, and if you have the dealer fill your tires for you when you buy a brand new tractor, the $ should be about $0.60/gal. This, I think, is an at cost price, and they only do it with new purchases.

View attachment 296589

Edit: Price Correction - I meant to say the at cost price should be about $1.60/gal. My dealer said he put about 50 gal in per tire and that both tires would cost me $150. My tires are 420/70-24.

I put a price correction in my response in post #8. Sorry for the confusion.

 

[puckgrinder85]

The fluid is likely what they get after they extract the sugar from the beets, its like a mollases juice type stuff and thats probably what they are selling, there should be no sugar in the fluid as thats the whole point of growing the beets. RV antifreeze shouldnt be toxic to pets if you choose to use it.

We have rimgaurd and it is a dark brown watery mixture.

 

[kco]

Attached is a comparison chart from another site. The environmental and safety advantages of beet juice are what steered me to it. However, you need quality valve stems or beet juice will make them fail after a year. There are threads on that.

 

[Kenn1320]

The fluid is likely what they get after they extract the sugar from the beets, its like a mollases juice type stuff and thats probably what they are selling, there should be no sugar in the fluid as thats the whole point of growing the beets. RV antifreeze shouldnt be toxic to pets if you choose to use it.

We have rimgaurd and it is a dark brown watery mixture.

So I looked up the process for making sugar from beets. After most of the sugar is removed(not all is removed) you end up with beet molasses. Interestingly this molassess is dark brown and is soluable with warm or cold water. OK, so now we have the color that is the same or similar to the rimgaurd product you described. Beet juice weighs 30% more then water. OK, water is 8lbs per gallon and beet mollasses weights 10.5lbs per gallon. 8lbs + 30% gives you 10.4lbs per gallon. I think we have a winner. Its said farm co-ops sometimes sell by the gallon, bring your own container. They as well as farmers use it to flavor various foods for livestock.

 

[Steave]

Here's a link that will help with the gallons per tire.

As far as the sugar/water, antifreeze, RV fluid, windshield fluid anything I said would be a guess
so I guess I can't comment.

Hydro-Flation Table for AG Tires - Rim Guard - Liquid Tire Ballast

 

[SPYDERLK]

Why can't you just add something heavy like sand. It's not like you are driving on the highway and need the tires perfectly balanced.

Sand is abrasive, wet or dry. While mobile in a water slurry it wouldnt be too bad, but would grind both tire and rim constantly and would also sap power due to friction. It would settle out virtually instantly when you stop and give a problem starting back up. ... Dry would be worse. A real bad choice all around.
larry

 

[Gary Fowler]

One reason not to use antifreeze is the danger to pets if a tire develops a leak.

Propylene glycol is pet safe antifreeze. Ethylene glycol would be bad for animals if a major leak occurred so as to have standing water mixture. Have to be a pretty bad leak for that to happen.

 

[Gary Fowler]

Why can't you just add something heavy like sand. It's not like you are driving on the highway and need the tires perfectly balanced.

Best way to use sand on a tractor tire would be to mix it with some cement and rock and cast yourself a wheel weight. Any other uses would be ill advised for many reasons-abrasion to the tire and rim, vibration, assuming you could some how get the tire completely filled with sand so it wouldnt be sliding around and around, it would be like riding an old steel rim tire with absolutely no rebound from rough terrain.