Loaded tires?

[T.R.K.]

From my experience, the 'wet' tire will squat a little more with the same air pressure in it. So the tractor may lean a bit to the 'wet' side. Dad's Farmall Cub is like that. The right side tire has a lot more water in it than the left. My Cub, on the other hand, has no water in it at all. You could also remove the valve stem and blow most of the water out of the other tire.

 

[Jim.ME]

From my experience, the 'wet' tire will squat a little more with the same air pressure in it. So the tractor may lean a bit to the 'wet' side. Dad's Farmall Cub is like that. The right side tire has a lot more water in it than the left. My Cub, on the other hand, has no water in it at all. You could also remove the valve stem and blow most of the water out of the other tire.

If the tire has calcium in it, one likely wants to get a hose on it and capture the fluid to dispose of out of the way. Just letting it blow out can lead to a sticky mess leading to rusting or other damage that it might get on to. JMHO

 

[Blackhole49]

No pump necessary for filling tires. I filled them on my Funk (avatar)15 years ago with washer fluid from a 55 gallon drum with a small siphon hose. Laid the tire on its side on a 4x4 with the stem on the 4x4. Took a while, but worked fine. Hardest part was standing the tires back upright by myself.

 

[cjunrau]

Yep. Good short-term fix. Have to go beet juice by November...

I have run my loader tractor for years with one full one empty of fluid. As long as you don't need the weight for traction or keep the rear end down I would not worry about it. The other thing you could do if you want a little in each is split what you have between the 2 tires. My guess is if you emptied the other and ran them that way you would never miss the fluid for what it sounds like you do. I prefer dry tires and weights of fluid filled.

 

[DanielW]

I'm with cjunrau: For the work you describe, I don't think you need the ballast. Dragging logs would be the hardest task, but I still think you'd be fine. We do a lot of skidding at our Northern farm - with two sawmills on our small woodlot operation and getting firewood for our four houses heated by wood. And although we'd want the ballast for some really heavy hardwood skidding (skidding out full tree-length stems to be graded and broken up later), I've still skidded a heck of a lot with smaller tractors without ballast. If all you're doing is shorter (16' and under) logs, you should be more than fine. A 50 has enough pig iron in the rear end with that axle and those cast centres that it should still have reasonable traction.

We had a Massey 44 for years with one loaded and one unloaded tire. Not really by intent - had a flat one day and my grandfather just needed to get it goin asap and threw a tube it quickly with no fluid. Stayed like that for years. No notable difference in how it looked or for anything we used it for (pulling loaded hay wagons home, raking, some log duty, etc.). These days I don't load any of my tires unless I really need them loaded for heavy tillage. Even then, if I can get by with some cast weights, I'll add some of those instead.

 

[Ultradog MN]

I had two 55 gallon drums of CaCl out in the back for several years. Tried to give it away on craigslist a few times but I never got a call.
I put new tires and tubes on my mowing tractor a year ago and without any ballast it was pretty worthless. Cast iron is hard to find and expensive if you do.
So I said to heck with it and put the calcium in them this spring.
I definately prefer some ballast on my rears.
Way better traction and while mowing my tippy side hills and dales believe ballast makes for a much more stable platform. From my own experience buying old junk and from reading these forums for years I know that you need to keep an eye out for leaks and I do that.
Ballast: I don't leave home without it.

 

[Ray,IN]

From my experience, the 'wet' tire will squat a little more with the same air pressure in it. So the tractor may lean a bit to the 'wet' side. Dad's Farmall Cub is like that. The right side tire has a lot more water in it than the left. My Cub, on the other hand, has no water in it at all. You could also remove the valve stem and blow most of the water out of the other tire.

My tires are filled 70% with WW fluid. Neither of them show a sidewall bulge at the bottom; that's with 10PSI air pressure in them, and they are radials. I wonder what the effects would be if I lowered pressure to 8PSI, I'm concerned about slipping a tire on the rim and breaking the bead seal. I've had it belly deep in mud a few times.