Mesquite Thorns: Slime vs. Ultraseal

[perdurabo]

I'm about to buy a new compact tractor to maintain my 23 acres in central Texas. I've got a fair amount of pasture with tons of small <3" mesquites that need shredded down pretty bad. I plan on getting R1 Ag tires since the soil is pretty sandy (I still don't have any definitive proof that R4 industrial tires offer any more puncture protection, but I suppose that's another discussion entirely). I'm hoping to have the tires filled with some flavor of puncture seal since I know sooner or later Im going to need it but I'm not sure which is the best option, especially since the price on this stuff is outrageously high.

A lot of people seem to swear by the "Ultraseal" stuff sold by Gempler's. Looking at the application/use data it appears that to fill ONE 11.2-24 Ag tire tire you need 117 ounces of this stuff. At $0.46/ounce shipped for the "bulletproof grade" stuff, it would cost me nearly **$150** to fill all four tires on my tractor! Oh, and apparently if you buy the 5 gallon container, it doesn't come with any kind of application pump, so you have to buy the aluminum application pump for, get this, **$165**. Thats absolutely monkeyslap insane! How can they justify prices like these? I realize the "commercial grade" is somewhat cheaper, but its still pretty stupidly high. In what way is this stuff actually worth the extremely high cost?

Now Slime seems to be selling on the internet for about $30/gal which is much much cheaper than the Ultraseal, plus the aluminum pump for Slime is only about $20. Using Slime's online calculator, it would only take 170oz to fill all four tractor tires at a total of about $42 of Slime. Thats much much much more reasonable.

Is there any reason why I should want to use Ultraseal over Slime? Is Ultraseal really worth all that extra cost? What are the performance differences, if any, between the two products? How well will either protect my R1 tractor tires from mesquite and occasional honey locust thorns? Anyone out there with any specific experience with either product doing its job under similar circumstances?

Thanks in advance for your advice.

 

[aczlan]

on the R1 vs R4 issue, if you look R4's are generally thicker tires (generally 6-12 ply vs 2-6 ply R1's) and the larger lugs of the R4's mean that more of the surface area of the tire covered with lugs (and really thick rubber) than the R1's have.

there are advantages and disadvantages to both.

Aaron Z

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Recommend you read here. Shredding is not the best option always.

Brush Busters Brush Control Program

 

[perdurabo]

I know all about spraying with herbicide and to be honest I'm not willing to wait until next summer before I can start spraying these mesquites... they will have gotten way too big by then. Also, I'm not willing to pay OVER $100 A GALLON for the Remedy and Reclaim herbicides. Thats just way too much. I'm going to shred my pasture down for now and then sometime this winter Im going to rent a dozer with a root plow to dig up my entire 6-7 acre pasture so that I can plant it the next season.

 

[mikim]

I have slime in my tractor - but it doesn't work .... I put the gemplers bullet proof stuff in the wife's golf buggy - and it does work. I'm in Bastrop county....I'd rather use what works than use all the plugs out of my plug kit. That said --- I haven't had a problem yet on the rears (R1s) but the fronts are all plugged up. They slow leak too. When I change 'em - the fronts will get Gemplers.

ps ---- 23 acres? .... did you just buy it recently? --- I know about 23 acres next to me that recently changed hands.

 

[perdurabo]

I'm in Caldwell county, just a little south of the community of McMahan. I bought back in the summer of 07. I'm leaning heavily towards buying a Kubota L2800 from Lanford equipment in Austin. Lanford offered to put Slime in my new tires for about $26 a gallon installed. They also carry this stuff called Multi Seal (MULTI-SEAL CORPORATION Home) which is apparently very similar to Ultraseal, however this stuff has an even crazier price: ** $0.70/OUNCE ** installed. At that price I can buy a brand new tire, its crazy.

 

[mlauk]

I use Berryman's tire sealer which works great. It costs about the same as slime.

 

[DieselPower]

I used Slime at one time and learned my leason. Here's a good post where tire sealants was gone over. http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/parts-repairs/100282-tire-slime.html#post1141702 I have not had a problem since I installed TRC's Tireseal in all my tires. Cost $111.60 for a 6 gallon (not 5 gallon) pail (that's $18.60 pr/gal) and the 6 gallon pump cost $76.25. Even the Tireseal II PG which is the enviromently friendly version only cost $136.50 for 6 gallons .

 

[RWolf]

I'm in Coryell county and have used slime in one of my front tires which had a major leak (wouldn't stay inflated for more than an hour) without any problem. I've got the R1's because my tractor is used for ag work and I want the traction.

 

[texasjohn]

Perdurabo, sounds like you know what you want to do and how to do it.

Hope it works out for you.

Lanford Equipment is a good place, I have known about them for maybe 20 years, used their services on several occasions, always have been satisfied.

I've very successfully sprayed mesquite in the fall ... those sprouts that come up in the late fall, like right now, are very susceptible to a proper mix of reclaim, diesel, water, surfactant, dye.

You know your pasture best, but if you are going to rent a dozer anyway to plow up for a field, why not just do it all with the dozer?