kenojoe":3hksb383 said:
Just pulled my rear tire off and had it pumped out. Luckily the rim is not ate up too bad. I will grind ,blast and put 3 coats of paint on again. My question is, how do you guys deal with thorns? I wanted to put a reliner in but the tire guy and several neighbors said that they tend to move around and wear holes in the inner tube. We have honey locust trees around here and its near impossible to avoid getting a thorn once in awhile. If I didn't need the weight I wouldn't use the calc. chlor. . So far its cheaper to fix the tire every couple of years but a pain in the butt. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks Joe
By the looks of the replys, I don't think anyone else on this board runs calcium chloride weight in their equipment but me. Heck I knew exactly what you were talking about right off the bat. :nod:
Some tractors run calcium chloride (salt water) in the back tires for added weight, or ballist, for more traction. This type of setup is usually tube type, because nobody in their right mind would keep salt water against metal for a long duration of time( just asking for a major case of rust) And as far as I know, you can't mix stop leak directly in with the calcium chloride. (and besides, if you could, how many gallons would it take to become effective on a large back wheel tractor tire??? $$$$$$$
Stepper's comment on treating the locust trees was pretty good, but around here (and I assume everywhere) honey locust trees have very short thorns (about half inch to one inch) The Black locust trees have very long thorns anywhere from an inch to seven inches. Those are probably the ones that are giving you trouble. Black locust trees have a tremindous amount of root energy stored up. If you cut them down, they will turn into a huge thicket of black locust trees, growing up from the roots, sometimes as far as 15 feet away from the main trunk. Black locust trees are very subseptable to spray. I use a hot mix of Tordon, 24D and Remidy. The problem is that you have to get all the foliage to kill the tree, and a 20 foot tree is very difficult to spray, so I cut down or girdle all black locust trees that I can on my farm, then spray the thicket that comes up later the same year, (and the second year, and the third year) if you dilligent, that should wipe out your locust problem in a few years.
But now for the present. I too had problem with thorns getting into the tires of my main mower tractor. I switched out the front tractor tires (two wheel drive) for used airplane tires. (haven't had a flat since) The back tires don't have calcium chloride in them. One thing you can do is switch from calcium chloride to a cast solid wheel weight.
I do have some tractors with fluid in them though, and yes, it's a pain in the asterisk to have to deal with pumping out the fluid and patching the tire. In fact, I have a "tire guy" who comes out when ever I have a fluid filled tire to deal with.
On my own personal little utility vehicle (ok, it's just a golfcar, poor men got poor ways) I did use a truck tire liner between the tube and the tires. I cut it down to fit neatly inside the tire, then put in the tube and aired it up. I too was worried about the tube sliding around, but I run about 40 psi in those tires (ya they are just lawnmower tires) and I havne't had to pull a thorn out of the tire since. The extra rubber of the liner, and the higher pressure tends to keep the torns out of the tires really good. ( I don't recomend this remidy for the tractor though)
Personally I don't like using slim, becuase I have the same issues with it as calcium chloride against the rim, they seem to rust out eventually.
