I recently drained what I thought was water out of my loader tires. When I talked to the tire guy about replacing the leaking valve stems he said that it was calcium chloride in the tires!! He said that it is used for added weight and it doesn't freeze. I can't imagine what it has done to the rim!!! Should I expect it to rust thru at any moment?? Is there an alternative?? RV antifreeze maybe?? Regular engine coolant??
Only experience I have had, tires have had tubes in them. One tube got a hole in it and rusted the rim around the valve stem to the point the rim needed to be replaced, only took about a 18 months. I think using anything else would be expensive. Tom
As long as the tires were filled properly, the wheels would not have started rusting until you drained the fluid and didn't replace it. When filled properly, the wheels are immersed in the fluid, so they cannot rust-because rust requires air.Have the tires refilled if you need the ballast, if not have them dis mounted and the wheel pieces(depending on the age and size of the loader either gonna be a 3 or 5 piece wheel) cleaned - power washer or at least good water pressure to completely remove traces of calcium - and most importantly DRIED then remounted and you shouldn't have any issues.
This practice of ballasting is decades old and tried and true. Just has to be done right.
If the tyres had calcium chloride in them before I would personally recommend that all the metal metal parts i.e. rim, flanges, bead seat bands, and lock ring be shotblasted first before being closely inspected for signs of corrosion (pay particular attention to the O-ring and lock ring grooves) and then re-painted with red oxide primer followed by your colour of choice. Check out this photo. The upper of the 2 grooves is the lock ring groove and you can clearly see the crack in it. If that crack had not been discovered during a routine tyre change and instead the rim had failed the results could have been fatal. That is the level of risk you are running. Of course your other option is to put calcium chloride back into it. Done right it will not give you any problems. Doing nothing is not an option...........
Truer words have never been spoken. You have to address the issue.
So the tires were FILLED with calcium chloride before?? What happens if I have a tire that appears low and I need to pressure it up?? That's how this all started. Do I need the ballast?? It is a Case W20B loader, how much advantage does this ballast give me??
Ballast can be the difference between good traction & tyre spinning. 2 common ways of doing it are by adding steel ballast blocks or plates to the machine frame or by putting a liquid fill into the tyres. You obviously didn't know you had ballast in the tyres. How long have you had the loader..? If you went without it now you may find you're in trouble. Maybe the previous owner can shed some light on it if you contact them. Generally the tyre is not 100% filled with the water/CaCl mix. A certain weight or number of gallons of the mix is put into either just the rear tyres or all 4 and after that they are aired up as normal. If a tyre ballasted with CaCl is a bit low on pressure you air it up the same way as a normal tyre, although IMO it's better to air it up with the valve stem at the 12 o'clock position because in that way you are putting the air in through the valve above the level of the liquid. Was it all 4 tyres or just the rear ones that had calcium chloride in them..? It's not so common (but not unknown) to see it in front tyres. Did you drain the liquid from all the tyres or just the one that was low on pressure..?
It was in all 4 tires. I drained all 4 tires. I've had the loader 1.5 years but it spent the first year still as I had work to do on it. I noticed it when I went to fill a front tire that was low. Rusty "water" came out - so I drained it and put in air. 2 weeks later I checked and drained the other 3 tires. Before I bought this it sat for 3 years or so. I thought the tires went low and rain water entered them. I'm not opposed to putting "suitcase" weights on the back. I've been wanting to do this on my Cat 955H for a long time. I will mainly be loading loose material with this loader. However, when I put the 955 down to do the brakes, the Case will have to dig.
I bought new tires and had "rim guard" put in the rear tires. I chipped, wire wheeled, and repainted the inside (w/rustoleum paint) ofthe rims. I started digging yesterday and it seemed to work well.
I bet the wheel had no trace whatsoever of paint on them, right ..?
I've seen this product used with a lot of success. http://www.rimguard.biz
A couple of my farm tractors use calcium for weight. It makes a world of difference when you are working them. The problem I've seen is typically around the valve stems where water leaks and rusts out. Mine are with tubes that separate fluid from metal as long as they don't leak. You should check and replace air with the stem at the top of the tire. I've had tractors with fluid in them for 25 years and have had to replace only one rim. Also have a tractor that has the rear tires foam filled, now that's the way to go. You can't flatten these tires but the process is not cheap. PS. On tractors this puts the weight at the bottom where it is most beneficial.
used anti-freeze is and excellent substitute for calcium chloride. non corrosive and almost as heavy.
Funny you mention that, I have 110 gallons of used antifreeze blend that I was going to use on the replacement rim and tire.
The rear tires on our 980c are filled with beet juice. Aparently this is a alternitive to chloride.
beet juice is non-corrosive and safe for the enviro if you have a blowout or puncture. also heavier per gallon than anti-freeze or cal-chloride i believe.
Not a trace! 2 rims had scaling that I had to chip off.
Did you look real close at the 2 grooves after scaling and cleaning, especially the outer one where the lock ring fits..? If you have a crack start from the base of that groove you can potentially lose the outside part of the wheel rim in a totally uncontrolled blowout that could easily dump themetal parts 100+ yards away. I wouldn't want to be anywhere near that if it happened. Go back to my photo on Page 1 of this thread to see what I mean.
Surprisingly both O-ring grooves were in good shape on both rims that were in poor shape.
http://www.rimguard.biz/products/ I have never used the product, but I know a tire guy that has used it. Its was two or three times more than calcium. We have used calcium as ballast in the past. Its ALWAYS been in a tube. Haven't had issues with the rims rusting out. Have had rust form around the valve. If cleaned up quickly its not an issue.