Water for ballast in tires

Had a friend tell me two gallons of concentrate antifreeze is safe for the 11.4 X 24 tires filled the rest of the way with water on my compact 4310 JD.
I have no idea how many gallons of water it takes to fill the tires, but I intend to sample and check with a antifreeze checker to see if there is any protection at all.

I was wondering if any one else uses antifreeze in tires and if so how much?
Thanx; Tom S. in Tn.

1/3 antifreeze 2/3 water protects to zero, which is good enough in western Washington. Don't know how cold it gets in your part of Tennessee, but since antifreeze is expensive, I think I'd premix with water at whatever concentration you feel comfortable with and pour it in, rather than put them in separately and then discover its not concentrated enough.

You'd have to use more but it might be cheaper to use RV antifreeze plus its non toxic.

The toxic part would bother me. It's always the favorite dog that gets into something like that.

Tom I have been a dealer here in TENNESSEE also and we use a mixture of 1/3/ methanol to 2/3s water and have never had anyone complaining about tire freezing. There is a chart that will tell you how many gallons the tire holds.

You are going to hear from the wobegon sayers. Now what I did. If you have tubeless tires you might get some rim rust if you do not take some prcautions. Go to NAPA and buy some MACS 1300 rust inhibitor and you will need a bottle or two per wheel depending on volume. Read the label. On my garden tractors it is one bottle per wheel. You want to fill the tire to the top of the rim. That will give you about a 3/4 full tire. You must have enough air so the tires can flex. If you fill to the top it will be like riding on bricks. Now if you have tubes you can skip the rust inhibitor. Here is where a lot of people part ways. Rim guard "beet juice", water and methanol mix "denatured alcohol ". This mix you will want to stick a sample in your freezer and check a couple of hours latter to make sure it stays liquid. RV antifreeze or windshield wash fluid, both of which are non toxic, and lastly regular automotive anti freeze. My neighbor works in a junk yard and I hand him empty 5 gallon containers and he returns 35? below mix for free. As long as you do NOT have any leaks then kids and animals are safe. Just be aware of that potential problem. Jack up your machine and remove the Schrader valve core. You want that valve in the 12 o'clock position. Take a little vinyl tube with a funnel and tywrap that funnel up as high as possible like a ladder or something. Before you start pouring you need another person to "exercise" the tire. Push on it to get as much air out as possible per push. Now release and start pouring. When the tire gets almost back to shape, stop pouring. After your tube clears, exercise again and repeat. Fill till you get the tire 3/4 full. Fill the tire with the normal air pressure and when ever you check from now on you must have the valve up at the top. Also just put a tiny puff of air from your air hose into the valve to clear any fluids. If you don't it will mess up you pressure gauge. Water in la2n tractor tires make for a much less tippy machine and increases the grip of tires. The picture shows the pattern of turf tires in the sand. You can see how sharp the pattern is with the fluid. That is everything I can think of on a quiet Sunday morning to tell you. Have fun.

Thanks to all for the advice.
Tom S.

Your not going to need a real strong solution down south. I will second either RV antifreeze or what I have used many times is Washer fluid. I watch and catch it on sale an buy the cheap $1 a gallon stuff.

For putting it in smaller tires an easy way is to take the tire off and lay it down flat. Then just break the tire down of the bead on the top side. Then you can just hold the bead down a little bit and pour the liquid in. Since the tire was just mounted it will go back on the bead easily when you air it up. I do this a lots of times as we load the tires on about all the mowers we use because of the sloping yards.

A 11.4 x 24 tires should hold 24 gallons. That would be 192 Lbs. if straight water. Washer fluid and most Antifreeze is a little heavier. So you can easily get 200-225 lbs. per tire.

So like I said washer fluid would not be very high cost if bought when on sale.

(quoted from post at 06:20:57 04/08/18) Thanks to all for the advice.
Tom S.

Click to expand...

I have straight water in mine. It gets down in the low 20s here for a week sometimes. I just don't use my tractor if there's a chance it's froze. I have some friends that farm a couple thousand acres and they do the same in their big 4 wheel drives.

Ollie, I live in middle Tenn just west of Nashville. You must be farther south than me.
Big question is what kind of damage will be caused when these wheels and tires freeze?
Thanx; Tom S.

JD, I'm wondering just how much protection is required. What happens if the wheels and tires freeze?
Thanx; Tom S.

I?m a little west of Nashville I have two gallons of antifreeze and rest water in each rear tire of my ole H for least 10 years without problem

how many years does it take calcium to rust out rims? just wondering

I made an "air tank" years back with a two inch pipe neck welded on. When I want to fill a tire with fluid, I fill the tank, then apply just a little air pressure to get it in the tire. My tank holds five gallons. It is a bit quicker than gravity feed.

I would say on average about 60 yrs. When I had my welding shop going I fixed all the rusted ones for local tire shop. About 6 per month. 9 out of ten of them were from old wd allice and they were about 60 yrs. old.

"how many years does it take calcium to rust out rims?"

Forever if the tubes don't leak.
If the tubes leak and you don't fix the leak, it's much quicker.
The previous owner told me the rusted out rims I took off my 851
had been leaking through 3 ownerships. Grandpa, father and him.
They were in bad shape. Had the leaks been fixed, well, that's speculation.

Terry, this is exactly what my friend told me. 2 gal is just enough not to have problems, but I just wonder what happens if we get below 0 some night. What would the ice damage?
Thanks; Tom S.

No damage if you do not drive the tractor while they are frozen. If you do drive them you can ruin the side walls. If the tires have tubes in them they can pull the valves stem off the tube if driven. Your should be tubeless. Even a little antifreeze will usually make them just slush up and not freeze solid.

I have bought tractors form the south that had pure water in them. You will sure know that they have frozen if you go to drive them down the road. They will shake you right out of the seat. LOL

that's what I figured I don't have tubes in mine but had to break the bead a few years ago and was surprised how clean it was in side mines a 2000 new Holland I'm 60 so if it last 20 more years I'm good