Calcium substitutes

I have drained the calcium ballast out of two of my tractor tires due to a corroded valve stem in one and a HUGE rust hole in the other. I am looking to try used antifreeze next. A friend mentioned old antifreeze becomes acidic. So should I pursue this? Also, I read on the internet that baking soda will neutralize calcium on metal to prevent rust. So, why not just add baking soda to the calcium or even put it in the old antifreeze? I want inexpensive fluid ballast that doesn?t eat up rims or valves. Thanks.
 
Calcium weighs in at about 12 pounds per gallon. Water comes in around 8.35 Antifreeze is going to be the same as water, or close enough to it. Beet juice is a non corrosive alternative but some rubber tire makers don't like it for possibly damaging rubber. Windshield washer fluid is another alternative other than anti-freeze. Just make sure it is rated for winter temps if you go that route, below 32 degrees.
 
This subject has been going round and rount on this forum. You will get plenty of ideas. All of my garden tractors are fluid filled now. 6our problen with the calcium is it is terribly corrosive. A lot of todays valve stem will slowly dissolve. If you change over.... yo7 should remove the tire, check for corrosion and sand blast it. Understand NAPA has a product that stops rust ans neutralize the calcium. Make any needed repairs. Next buy a new tube. Now you can safely put in a far less corrosive ballast. I used junkyard anti freeze. Crumble a couple of TUMS and add them to the antifreeze. Also buy a coulpe of bottles of MAC 1300 at NAPA. This stuff treats the antifreeze. The worries about what stuff will do to your tires is negated with useing a tire tube . Only warning is monitor your tires now and then for leaks. Watch out for hurting animals. Guys have listed other stuff to use but some tire places just use methanol and water now. Cheap and simple. Filling a garden tractor tire and product.
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I will continue to use calcium. It is cheap,it is heavy.It does the job and it is not poisonous/hazardous to animals. I monitor my tires. If I see any wetness,I get it fixed. I keep tractors a long time...My SuperM,has had calcium since I bought it in 81.It has calcium before I bought. The original rims are still ok.The problem is neglect,not the calcium.
 
Try CAST IRON weights. Won't corrode rims, easily removable, easy to repair flat tires. Completely recyclable.
 
My 5th generation sells/services every kind of tire imaginable (aircraft excepted) dealer put 6 gallons of antifreeze in a 55 gallon drum with water and filled the tires on a new tractor's 16.9x28s; one per tire. Fills them just a tad over half full....easy to tell on certain high humidity days when the tire is colder than the surrounding air.
 
(quoted from post at 03:36:26 04/23/18) Try CAST IRON weights. Won't corrode rims, easily removable, easy to repair flat tires. Completely recyclable.

BINGO!!! If two or thee sets of cast iron weights is not enough, maybe you're asking your tractor for too much.
 
You mix an alkaline like baking soda to an acid like vinegar to neutralize it, and when the reaction is over, you end up with water and a type of salt.

Calcuim chloride is a salt, not acid or alkaline. You can't mix anything with it to "neutralize" it.

There's no "magic fluid" that doesn't have a downside. Methanol, you may as well fill the tires with helium. Antifreeze will kill any animal that drinks any spills, except woodchucks, who won't touch the stuff. Anything containing water will eventually rust the rims, even beet juice. Calcium has the advantage of being the heaviest and cheapest.
 
Put the calcium back. Get a good rim and if you no not have a leak the you do not take care of the rim will outlast you and I don't know hold you are. I would never use anything else. And you cannot add enough cast to equal the liquid weight and everything else is not going to give you the weight of the calcium. And I ran calcium filled for years with cast weight as well.
 
Methanol with water is over 7lbs gal.,Helium must have gotten a lot heavier since I took chemistry.But I'm glad there are people still using CaCl I have sold dozens of rims to them, I'll have to say its made me a lot of $$$$ over the years.
 
Baking soda might offset the acidity in antifreeze, but baking soda will not change the corrosiveness of a salt like calcium chloride.

If you switch to a lighter ballast, can you get by with the reduced weight, or will you need to add extra cast iron to maintain the same weight?

It seems to take 20 to 30 years after a leak occurs and is not repaired correctly before rims corrode enough to be a problem. At $0.50 to $1 per pound for cast iron weights, a new set of rims, new tubes and new fluid will still cost less than replacing the fluid ballast with cast iron weights.
 

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