Tires chains? And tractor tires.

We're gonna get 6-10 inches of snow, so I cleaned the barn tonight. In 23 years I've never had tire chains for this tractor. My little 1720 ford 4wd is at home for snow removal, so I make do with this tractor. Tires are junk thought. Looking at my 1720 the other day I see its leaking calcium from the valve stem, and the rim is pretty badly rusted! I gotta get some to look at it, I really think it's time to switch from calicum to something else? Any advice?

Get that leak sealed IMMEDIATELY. Clean up rim, wash it off thoroughly, and repaint it right away - else you will be looking for a new rim! Calcium
Chloride is fine as long as you don't get a leak.

I use and have used winter grade wiper fluid now for well over 2 decades and not had any problem. Caught some on sale not long ago for $1.39 a gal. at Orchenlens. Plus my military discount of 5% so got it a bit lower still

I've tried a little bit of everything on calcium rusted rims over the years. A good mechanical cleaning, and sealing(painting) just doesn't do it. My pressure washer, although not a "steam cleaner", is close, and seems to get the salt residue out of the metal.
So, it's a process to get affected rims clean, and I don't know any tire guy here who will do that. When I had a tire I couldn't get off, I would hire them to come remove the tire. Then I would take it from there. Mechanically clean the major crud, then pressure wash, dry, paint, dry, and reassemble. I wouldn't even re-use an inner tube that had calcium in it.

The repair is not too hard, if you are up to it, you have a loader to break the bead, I jacked my old 850 up, put jack stands under the back, solid and wide cribbing, then rolled the tire to the loader bucket and used that to break the bead, I do have a set of spoons from TSC, some rim glide lube, and went to GCR in Menands, NY for a quality or probably the best tube available off the shelf, like its all not from china anyway these days.

I repaired the rim by welding, but the tire MUST be completely off the rim, Pyrolisis can and will detonate if you weld on a rim with a tire mounted. Left the raised weld profile on the outside, ground smooth on the inside, I used zinc galv spray on the repair area. I think you do have to change valve cores periodically, I have in the past. That last repair had a valve leaking for years, it trashed the valve hole but nothing else, valve failed though, so I had to get a new tube, and of course it just blew out and made a mess, well killed some weeds LOL. Tire guy is usually out of my budget, but I did watch and learn the last time I hired one, so it was worth it, as I can do these myself, not as quick but I don't have to wait on someone and or pay a premium. I drilled a new hole, no flat spot though, I should have heated and made one, but the tires been over a lot of acres now, held up just fine, and was just some typical repair work to do it myself.

The only thing is the special valve adapter you will need and or either a pump or set it up to fill by gravity if you can, CACL flake is cheap by the bag. Also wash and flush things real good, my friend had some kind of small garden hose size pump, worked great but it failed soon after, not sure but CACL maybe had something to do with it, and it was flushed thoroughly, I always over do things like that, maybe coincidence, tire guy has the nice pump, so when time mix up batch in a barrel, and pay him to load it if possible.

We have a 3600 on the spreader at the horse farm, same deal as you and won't mention its rims, uuuugly, of course its not mine, but it has double rings chains on it, a must have, don't believe those are loaded tires on it, but those chains help. I got a new set for my 850 last year, well worth having, even with CACL loaded tires and a real heavy cast iron weight, will have to put them on tomorrow for the winter, at least its in a heated garage LOL !

You just gotta think like Jim does. If it looks a little soft add some air, If you don't have tire chains, several wrapps of baler twine around the tire and rim will get you out of a bad spot, and then you don't go there again. HeHe.
Loren

Lol, I have to get up to Jim's soon, don't know how he made out with his tractors. ??

Thanks billy, I think that's one of the problems cheap china made tubes. I've already had it replaced once before. I was also wondering about welding the rim? I've gotta look at it better tomarrow. What's GCR a tire place or something?

I run washer fluid, some run beet juice in harsh climates.

B4 you go breaking tires off of rims, etc., try replacing the air-water valve first. Put the stem as high as you can and jack the tire up to get the weight off of it if you can. Crack the valve with a pair of channel locks or vise grips. Get the new valve in one hand, and back the other one out slowly until it's just about out, then quickly remove it and stick the new one in. You're gonna get a slight bath if you're quick, and more if you screw up. But tighten up the new valve and wash everything down good with fresh water. It may just be your valve leaking- I find I usually get 4 to 5 years out of them before they start leaking, but the problem isn't with the tube- just the valve. And it a lot cheaper and quicker to fix than a tube....

Is beat juice a salt water mix? If it is, won't that cause rims to rust? I think beet juice what some counties are putting on roads before it snows.

I use chains on my Jubilee in the winter, no ballast.

When I need ballast on my Terramite, I made 6 75 pound weights that I can put on a 2 inch pipe and pick up with the back hook. If I extend the back bucket all the way out, I'll put all the weight of the tractor on back wheels. It will lift the front wheels off the ground. I use the barbell weights when I'm doing some serious lifting.

George

Yes, they are a national chain of tire stores. I would assume there would be a tire shop much closer to you, but if you are near Albany, right on broadway, was a good drive shaft place down there too. On this tractor, when I first got it, it had what appeared to be 8 ply tires, nice tread too but hammered elsewhere, forget what exactly, so first one went, I had the tire outfit send someone out, I had a new rim on hand, he did the rest. There was a slight leak or something, he said it would stop, dummy me bought into it, and I worked out of town then, before you know it years go by. It literally blew out the valve while I was standing there one day, thankfully in my yard. That was after I had the other tire on it done, so the last repair was the 3rd time I needed a tire fixed on this tractor, on that rim, 2nd tire repair, I carefully sandblasted it, was summer, so I painted the rim with zinc galv spray, but good, let it dry in the heat, good older rim, a power adjust or something like that, new firestone 4 ply field and road 13.6 x 28, tube, loaded was $550, and that was reasonable, I think that was '04. I thought I remember seeing those tires for around $200 then, and thought well they are not too costly, boy has that changed. I decided to do the 3rd repair myself, turned out just fine, I've done several more at the horse farm, saved a service call at least, spoons paid for themselves. Experienced tire guy/gal would work circles around me for sure, but I learned to use the spoons from watching them, little bite at a time, so not to tear the chords on the bead.
GCR Tires

I did that one time, went to replace a valve core and the whole darned valve stem let loose, but it was going to happen anyway, blame those darned faulty tubes LOL ! Usually you just get a short blast of CACL, then hose everything off but good right after and its good to go, glad that one was near the weeds, killed those real quick.

Forgot to mention to Jay, if its not the core, and the stem is no good, you need that inexpensive tool that threads onto the valve and holds it through the valve hole in the rim, TSC, Gemplers etc, would have it.

just thought I would add that if you do tackle it yourself dont wear a pair of leather boots and get calcium on them. unless they are too big for your feet before you start, then mayby?

IMO and IME, ag tires are near useless in any real snow and on ice. Get a set of double ring chains Jay, it's like night and day.