Water ballast as weight

Hi all,
Does anyone have any ideas on how to fill up a tractor tyre with water?
I need to fill the 6.00 - 16's on our Dexta as weights are rare and expensive to get! I also am thinking of ballasting the front 8.3 - 20's on our International 383 4WD as we use it when logging with a logging arch our engineer built, and it is sometimes quite some work to keep the front end on the ground as the linkage has a lift in excess of 2 tons! We have 3 weight we keep on it, but sometimes that's not enough.

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Can I use water only and not an antifreeze as here in New Zealand it rarely goes below zero?

Thanks!
Joshua
 
If you use straight water you will most likely rust out you rims. antifreeze has an oil base and will help that problem. 25 degree weather for a prolong time will freeze water and damage your tire and rim. you can take your valve stem out and use bottle with a nipple that will just fit inside the stem and put what ever you want in there. water weighs 8.3 lbs a gallon so it might take awhile. there are people over here that has a special pump for filling tires. good luck on which ever way you go. norm
 
add water by the time rust can do any damage the tractor will be wore out anyway ,people have had calcium in tires for 30years before they had problems
 
Filling with just plain water is the easiest thing to do. All you need is the adapter and a pressurized water source. Pull up to the garden hose, stop with the valve stem on top. Deflate the tire. Remove the valve stem (It's 2-piece). Screw on the adapter. Attach the hose to the adapter. Turn on the water. Periodically stop and push the little button on the side to let the air out. When no more air comes out, it's as full as its going to get. Quickly remove the adapter and screw the valve stem back on. You'll lose some air and maybe a little water, but it's okay. Just top it off with air.

If you keep the tractor inside, and it rarely gets below zero CELSIUS, no problem. You could always dump the water if you happen to get a stretch of unusually cold weather, and refill when it warms up.
 

Water will certainly help, but be aware that it weighs only 60% of what CaCl weighs. It is true that water will rust your rims, but not so that you would notice unless you get a slow leak and are adding air every few day. Without oxygen oxidation of steel quickly comes to a halt.
 
Go to the Google search engine and google something like tractor tire filling adapter. Play around with the words as you have to hit the right word to trigger all the available responses that are stored in google.

Mine cost around US $10. The adapter fits either the standard Schrader valve or on tractor tires with the steel stem, the inner fitting (when you unscrew the Schrader), a larger in diameter reducing the fill time.

Rotate the tire till the valve stem is at the top. Jack the tractor so that it's weight is off the tire but the tire still rests on the ground....the way I do it. Let the air out and install the adapter or connect it to the hose and then the tire.

Connect a hose from your water hydrant, or if pumping a solution, from your solution transfer pump, or gravity if elevated storage above the tire, via a water hose and fitting to the adapter. Fill till the filling slows indicating that the fluid is compressing the air that was left in the tire.

Shut off the fluid source, open the air vent on the adapter and let the trapped air out. Close the air vent, open your liquid source and repeat the process till full.....defined as where you decide you want to stop filling.

It's best to use a container and pump so that you have a means of measuring your input. www has fill amounts vs tire sizes and recommended fill volumes as a percent of available inner tube volume.

Good luck.
 
(quoted from post at 08:11:31 09/14/18)
Water will certainly help, but be aware that it weighs only 60% of what CaCl weighs. It is true that water will rust your rims, but not so that you would notice unless you get a slow leak and are adding air every few day. Without oxygen oxidation of steel quickly comes to a halt.
sn't it true that the water CaCl mix gains you about 20% above straight water, because some water (~2 1/2 gal out of every 10) is displaced in adding the minus 12 deg solution of CaCl?
 
This company has quite a few adaptors and ways to get the job done. The $105 Y shaped valve is the common way to add liquid, burp out air, etc if you do it more than once..... but there sure are cheaper ways too.

My link goes to a bit of an explanation, their links go to the the products they sell to deal with water/air filling.

The real CC salt solution or the beet juice is heavier than water and will be a better ballast for you. Plain water can work if you don?t go below freezing, but is lighter. The common suggestion here to add antifreeze is troubling, as antifreeze is toxic to plants, critters, and aquifers, as well as being much lighter than water and so you don?t get as much ballast as you might need.

You need to keep a 25% air cushion in the tires so ?full? is really only 75% liquid.

Paul

https://www.gemplers.com/tech/liquid-ballast.htm
Gempliers ballast valves
 
I have a full size tractor with the salt water in it. Yes it is very heavy. All of my garden tractors have used antifreeze from the junkyard. Not as heavy but free. Liquid balast makes a big difference. Before you start go pickup a couple of bottles of antifreeze water pump conditioner. Add to each tire according to directions. Garden tractors are a snap, one per wheel. You will need a little more. Only a couple of bucks a bottle. You will never need to worry about any rusting. Jack the tractor off the ground, valve at top of rim, remove the valve core, and hook a little plastic hose with funnel up to the valve. Will take some time but you can handle it. Only thing with anti freeze is leaks and pets and animals. Toxic. Just keep an eye on the tires now and then. With straight water/antifreeze you are adding a little over 8 pounds a gallon.
 
Thats all we do here in Australia run straight water no problem. We just jack the wheel off ground. Pull valve core and use 1/2" garden hose off preasure pump to fill them. The 1/2" hose fits over the valve steam fairly well just remove it every now and again to release the built up air preasure and fill to disired amount. We fill them to 2 oclock level and water in all 4 tires no problem.
 

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