Your method of tire ballast
 

What have you found that works best for tire ballast. I've been reading from sand to windshield washer fuild what did you use? Did you do it yourself or pay to have it put in?

Most everyone uses WW solvent,
it is inexpensive, easy to obtain, and is not very messy.
It most generally is pumped into the tires with a fill adaptor readily avail from Ag tire suppliers or Tractor supply co-- About $10.00
a cheap harbor freight drill powered pump works,
also some have used a pump type garden sprayer and pumped it in that way.
You are only limited by your imagination.

It is generally accepted that chloride is just a big mess, & corrodes the rims.

Although I do use it in all my large farm tractors with tubes.--
I have used it over 45 years, but there are corrosion issues.
I would not recommend it for small tubeless tires.
they also have a beet pulp that is pumped into tires,
it is non corrosive but more costly than WW fluid.
I have pumped in used Sierra antifreeze also.( the friendly type)
rather than just dispose of it.

A lot of my tires are filled with WW Fluid, but I have started using 8oz. of Dawn Dishwashing detergent per tire, then adding water. Believe it or not it will not freeze, although Betsy did give me "that look" when she came home and found a wheel & tire in the freezer one evening.

I always use tubes in my loaded tires.

I use washer fluid. It would also be a good idea to put it in a tube so you don't make a mess if you knock the tire off the rim for some reason.

Rimguard (beetjuice). Good stuff and heavier than the other stuff.

I used recycled diesel antifreeze that is environmentally safe.I made my own filling unit(as you could easily) and did it myself.Took about 1/2 hour or 2 beers per wheel to complete. I didn't use tubes though..

I use the rimguard (beet juice) in mine with tubes. A 23X10.50X12 ag tire weighs about 100lbs all together, although nice and heavy, they are a pain to put on the tractor. I then bought three 7/16" fine threaded bolts, cut the heads off of them, and cut in a screw driver slot. I thread these into the axles, slide the wheel on, put in two lug bolts and then remove the "studs" one at a time and replace with the lug bolts. Sure makes lining up those loaded wheel/tires on them.

Duncan, why not just make the studs and leave them in?

:) that's what I do.

Scott

I must have had too much practice changing rear wheels because I've never had any trouble lining up rear wheels, loaded or otherwise. I think the trick is to use one of those little scissors jacks that come with cars. They can be adjusted in very small increments to get things perfectly lined up.

Thanks for all the responses :ThumbsUp: Ok now where to get the beet juice from?

Thanks for all the help!

the beet juice is called rim guard, and i just had my rear ags fill and new steel valve stems installed for 57bucks but prices where all over the map so pays to shop around

I want to do rimguard on my new ags but the local dealer is the most expensive place are for anything. JD dealer. Want's $60 labor per 2 tires + the rimguard. I'm going to keep checking around.

you'll need to keep looking. The place I used charged 50 bucks total for both tires including labor. A place about 30 miles from there wanted twice as much!

i use the same as my large ih tractors (cloride)

I would not recommend using Calcium Chloride, as it will completely destroy wheels. There are much better solutions today as have been mentioned. You don't want this to happen:

RV antifreeze works great, doesn't freeze, you can buy it fairly cheap in the fall (everybody has it on sale) and it seems heavier than plain old washerfluid. We use it in radiant floor heating systems so the iron pumps don't corrode.