I didn't want to do any further hi-jacking in Bob Horrell's tire thread, so I thought I'd start a new one. Countryboy, I found a graph in my Ford tractor manual showing how much weight can be added to a machine with just adding chloride to the tires. You'de mentioned that they were adding "something" to the loader tires at your quarry, and that got me too thinking maybe it isn't just a tractor thing.:beatsme I'd be interested to know what other kinds of equipment are running chloride (or something else) in the tires for weight. Anyone using it in TLB's, skid steer's, skip loaders?
Thats an interesting chart you found. I know they definately use tap water cause they hook the garden hose to it straight from the faucet but I think they also add antifreeze. I say this cause when lets say the 992G tire blows, the liquid that comes out is green. I would expect we will be hearing from some of the forestry guys as they use weighted tires in the skidders and such. I'm thinking of filling my 4wheeler tires with foam, not for weight but for puncture resistance.
Huh?! It would be more expensive, but they could probobly run tubeless then. I "believe" that the Calcium Chloride has to be run in tubes only, for corrosion reason's. In Georgia freezing wouldn't be much of an issue, so they could probobly run a pretty thin mix? They had something like that for enduro racing dirt bikes too, but it wasn't filled after but rather install like a tube. A real pain to get it on the rim I bet.
They are tubeless tires :yup . You might be on to something with the tube tires and Calcium Chloride. This might be why I have never heard of it as none of the tires here have tubes. It does freeze a little down here which is why I'm tinking antifreeze, we just can't get any snow. :beatsme
We used to have the calcium in the rear tires of some of our TLB's. It made a huge difference in traction when loading. Most of the TLB's that we have now have front wheel drive as well, so loading the tires is not needed.
There is a new "enviro-friendly" stuff, can't recall the name right now. Slightly less heavy, but won't kill your field if you spring a leak. It is well worth loading tires if you plan to do anything with them, makes a huge difference. My 14.9 28's on the Kubota are loaded and it helps alot, just a pain when you have a tire issue.
Depends a lot on the machine and the use. Smaller farm tractors (say up to 50-75hp), particularly two wheel drive, or those with loaders, benefit from the extra traction the weight provides. If calcium chloride is used, it has to be in a tube, because the stuff just eats steel. Some of the guys around here are using windshield washer antifreeze, or engine antifreeze instead. Not as heavy, but easier on the metal, and sometimes they don't need maximum weight. The 'new' stuff is made as a result of processing sugar beets, (basically a waste that you get to pay $$$ for) one company is here http://www.rimguard.net/ Mark
When it comes to farm tractors, any weight is good weight. I wondered about windshield washer fluid, I suppose you could buy it in bulk and save the hassle of dealing with calcium.
The thing with calcium is that it goes into solution in the water and increases the weight of water. I do not remember the weight of a gallon of water with 75% CaCl in it, but I think it is nearly double water alone. Any help on the amount? If using water alone, it is best to put 30% or so antifreeze for corrosion protection (not to mention freezing protection)
We have our tires filled on all your lifts mainly for counter-ballance. Filling also help in ballancing the tires too. We run 14.00x24TG-16 witch must take at least 100 gallons to fill. The enduro bike insert is called a bib mousse and is made by Michelin. Basically replaces the air tube with a foam tube.
We run it on anything with a loader and rubber tires. A tire blew out on a Skip Loader and no one told me they just put air in it. The only thing that stopped me from rolling on my first bucket was the end dump I had just got my bucket over, I had to go clean my shorts. Calcium helps a lot.
We run calcium chloride (in tubes) in our Komatsu graders. They're so light they need the extra weight to make them useful. It seems to help but they're still too light to utilize all their power.
Sure, and we used to load farm tractor tires with chloride all the time back in the sixties. Troublesome to work with and it definitely rusts up unprotected iron or steel parts. Chloride is one of the easier tire loading products though. Some folks used red lead powder for a while. Very heavy, but very difficult to work with, and blow-outs were spectacular and exceptionally dangerous to the operator if he was caught in the red cloud of billowing lead. In the steel mills around Detroit and Chicago we used chloride for weight and coolant in the big loaders (Cat 992C/Hough 400C/Michigan 475's)) that dug the slag pits. The Cat Tracor-Tread units tended to weld together so were only a brief blip for loader use there. Use of Erlau tire chains was common on the loaders but they were very expensive high-maintenance items. We used chloride in the pot-hauler tires too. Big 30 ton wobbly-wheeled rollers used to use chloride for weight, but the tires were not constructed well and were always going flat, even those with self-inflation hook-ups. They were a frustrating and very difficult job to change out. Surprisingly enough, raw molasses added to water makes a very heavy gallon, about 12-14 pounds. It doesn't quite rust wheel components up so bad as chloride. There may be other water soluble weight increasers on the market, but I haven't heard much about them lately. Tires filled with chloride don't freeze very well, the chloride lowers the freeze point considerably. Small rigs like skid-steers and other rubber-tired machines of the same size usually benefit from more weight, but, skid-steers especially tend to scrub tires off very quickly. So far I'm not sure loading the tires with anything but foam is worth the trouble on these smaller units. Solid tires are probably better in the long run, and avoid the chloride. Surprised to hear that anyone is still attempting to operate Komatsu graders. Used one once in Maryland around 1987. Same problem, too much power, not enough lead in it's pants. Hydraulics were slow and tended to creep by themselves. Parts very difficult to obtain and dealer personnel poorly trained. Komatsu took it back finally. Cat and Deere are much better machines.