Wheel weights

[Silver]

Each tire holds 55 gallons of fluid, so I need 55 gallons of antifreeze for a 50/50 mix for both tires.

If you fill them to the top. I’ve never seen a tire filled past 75%. You need room to adjust for proper air pressure.

 

[Little Joe]

Problem with any sort of liquid ballast is you don't own it your merely renting it. First puncture and your buying it again.

It also makes tire repairs much more challenging.

Iron weights cost more but you pay once and own them forever.

That was my thought as well.

 

[Little Joe]

I sometimes till, mostly zero till now. I do pull 7 bottoms when I do decide to till. But I do like weights for loader work on uneven ground handling bales or loading my old box truck when the need arises. You can’t do all your loader work with the load on the ground.

That’s what I need it for, the back end fills a little light when I’ve got the loader raised to put a bale in the feeder or unstacking in the barn. I leave a bale on the back and put it in the feeder last.

 

[Little Joe]

are you using straight antifreeze?

No, each tire holds 55 gallons, so 55 gallons of antifreeze between the two for a 50/50 mix.

 

[Little Joe]

If you fill them to the top. I’ve never seen a tire filled past 75%. You need room to adjust for proper air pressure.

That’s still 40 gallons of antifreeze between them at around $10/gallon. And as @chevytaHOE5674 stated, if you puncture a tire or have to remove a wheel for some reason, you’re buying it again.

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

Cast wheel weights can be bought for $.50-1.00 a lb pretty much any day of the week around here. Typically sell for the $1 if someone knows what they are for and it's a common machine, the lower end if they are unknown origin.

At auctions here usually folks bid them up to $2 when they could have bought them for $1 the day before the sale.

 

[RDFF]

I took the fluid out of all of my tires. They were using calcium chloride, which is very corrosive, and usually if I had a leak, it was the valve deteriorating, which meant that the area around the valve started corroding. ALWAYS used a tube, to help protect the rim. If you DON'T use a tube (and often they don't, even with chloride), then you HAVE TO keep the fluid level up over the rim, so no there's not exposed rim area, or it will corrode inside. IF you get a small leak, the fluid level will drop, exposing the rim (usually not a big problem, because if you have a leak, your going to need to fix it... but the potential for "refilling with air" when you have a small persistent leak is there). IF you have a problem though, it'll cost you more to repair, because they have to pump the fluid out and capture it, and then pump it back in again when done.

Biggest issue is the potential for corrosion, and that added cost and hassle. I just got tired of seeing both. WAY easier to work on a tire that doesn't have fluid in it, of ANY kind.

 

[sgreear]

I'm not sure what u are doing from behind with the 3 point hitch but if you are not using that and need them for moving haw with from front end loader here you go. Tak a draw bar and punch through a 55 gal barrel and figure out how to get the top link into the barrel and move without binding up. Some foam works ok. Pour concrete in barrel. Hook and unhook will be quick and it's cheap and effective.

 

[Little Joe]

I'm not sure what u are doing from behind with the 3 point hitch but if you are not using that and need them for moving haw with from front end loader here you go. Tak a draw bar and punch through a 55 gal barrel and figure out how to get the top link into the barrel and move without binding up. Some foam works ok. Pour concrete in barrel. Hook and unhook will be quick and it's cheap and effective.

I haul bales on back and front, all’s well when the bale is on back, gets a little light when I set it down and grab with the loader to put in the feeder.

 

[RDFF]

Bigger tractor that is more appropriately sized for your task is the first go to. Then added weight, preferrably with wheel weights for more rear end weight, as long as the tractor is designed for it.

We all make do with what we have, and I understand that there are alot of guys who are trying to do more with a tractor than it was designed to do. I remember "turning up a tractor" for more HP, and bragging about how we could do X amount more work with it... In the 80's, that was "the norm"! The problem though with that is, it wasn't DESIGNED or engineered to do that much work, and at some point, you will pay the piper for requiring it to. It's much better to somewhat OVERSIZE your tractor for the job, than to undersize it. The whole driveline then will be built to take that "extra load" (which gives you added weight) that you intend to apply to it, and you'll never be sorry for that extra investment in "iron weight" throughout.

Usually, if buying an older used tractor, small "hobby farm" tractors will go for more than their larger "farm sized tractor" cousins, specifically because the demand is significantly higher for them from the "hobby farm" operators... who don't necessarily "justify" the cost that they are willing to pay through the operations they'll be using it for. And then the hobby farm owner typically will try to do more than they really are capable of (which is why your back end gets "light"). A 30-40hp rig will often sell for more than an 80-140 hp rig. I see recently that a neighbor "hobby farmer" to me here (only has about 20 acres, but does make some ditch/waste ground hay to feed more cattle than his 20 acres would support, had been trying to get by with just an old WD40 Allis with a loader) just got himself a 2470 Case 4WD... not my cup of tea for a rig, but I'd bet he bought that for less than $5000, full time 4WD, 3 remotes, PTO, 3 pt., powershift, cab, heat, AC (if it's all working is another question), and +200 hp. Obviously way more overkill than he would need, and there's no loader available for it... but still, that's alot of tractor for the money.

The point is, your first option should be to consider a more appropriately sized tractor. And THEN adding ballast to balance out the tractor. You can always put enough weight on the back to keep the back end from coming off the ground or being too light... but is your front end DESIGNED to carry that much load up front? It WILL "carry it"... for awhile... till metal fatigue starts to get the best of it, and till your front wheel bearings start breaking up, and spindles snap, etc.

 

[Rmc]

If you fill them to the top. I’ve never seen a tire filled past 75%. You need room to adjust for proper air pressure.

You are better off especially in tubeless tires to fill so that the wheel is completely covered by whatever fluid you use it is also possible depending on the amount of weight desired to fill very close to completely full of fluid .
They make a tire gauge specifically designed to be accurate measure pressure with the valve stem covered with fluid .
The tire gauge is designed to resist chemicals , it is also has a built in spring so it self purges any fluid from the gauge once it is removed from the valve stem.

 

[Silver]

You are better off especially in tubeless tires to fill so that the wheel is completely covered by whatever fluid you use it is also possible depending on the amount of weight desired to fill very close to completely full of fluid .
They make a tire gauge specifically designed to be accurate measure pressure with the valve stem covered with fluid .
The tire gauge is designed to resist chemicals , it is also has a built in spring so it self purges any fluid from the gauge once it is removed from the valve stem.

Yes, it’s good if the wheel is covered. That should give you about the 75% I referenced. Pressure gauges purpose built for fluid are a must, calcium destroys the dry version in no time.

 

[Little Joe]

Bigger tractor that is more appropriately sized for your task is the first go to. Then added weight, preferrably with wheel weights for more rear end weight, as long as the tractor is designed for it.

We all make do with what we have, and I understand that there are alot of guys who are trying to do more with a tractor than it was designed to do. I remember "turning up a tractor" for more HP, and bragging about how we could do X amount more work with it... In the 80's, that was "the norm"! The problem though with that is, it wasn't DESIGNED or engineered to do that much work, and at some point, you will pay the piper for requiring it to. It's much better to somewhat OVERSIZE your tractor for the job, than to undersize it. The whole driveline then will be built to take that "extra load" (which gives you added weight) that you intend to apply to it, and you'll never be sorry for that extra investment in "iron weight" throughout.

Usually, if buying an older used tractor, small "hobby farm" tractors will go for more than their larger "farm sized tractor" cousins, specifically because the demand is significantly higher for them from the "hobby farm" operators... who don't necessarily "justify" the cost that they are willing to pay through the operations they'll be using it for. And then the hobby farm owner typically will try to do more than they really are capable of (which is why your back end gets "light"). A 30-40hp rig will often sell for more than an 80-140 hp rig. I see recently that a neighbor "hobby farmer" to me here (only has about 20 acres, but does make some ditch/waste ground hay to feed more cattle than his 20 acres would support, had been trying to get by with just an old WD40 Allis with a loader) just got himself a 2470 Case 4WD... not my cup of tea for a rig, but I'd bet he bought that for less than $5000, full time 4WD, 3 remotes, PTO, 3 pt., powershift, cab, heat, AC (if it's all working is another question), and +200 hp. Obviously way more overkill than he would need, and there's no loader available for it... but still, that's alot of tractor for the money.

The point is, your first option should be to consider a more appropriately sized tractor. And THEN adding ballast to balance out the tractor. You can always put enough weight on the back to keep the back end from coming off the ground or being too light... but is your front end DESIGNED to carry that much load up front? It WILL "carry it"... for awhile... till metal fatigue starts to get the best of it, and till your front wheel bearings start breaking up, and spindles snap, etc.

The tractor is a 50 hp fwa, it is rated to lift well over the weight of a round bale. I used a 40 horse 2wd with fluid in the rear tires for 20 years for the same task without any problems. A much bigger tractor will not fit in my hay barn either. Barn was already here and would cost about 40k to replace.

 

[Stonewall Joe]

No, each tire holds 55 gallons, so 55 gallons of antifreeze between the two for a 50/50 mix.

I thin I'd get a tester and mix it 25/75 to see what the temp would be before freezing and figure out if you could go with a more dilute mix

 

[Dave]

I have a New Holland TC55 that I use nearly daily moving 1,200 lb big square bales. That tractor is short and narrow. I have a big heavy lots of iron back blade which stays on the 3 point. Pretty slow and careful when they are up higher. Once the bale is off the stack and I am driving I keep the bale pretty close to the ground.