Water ballast

[Joohn]

Hi all,

I have a Fordson Dexta has anyone any thoughts on water blast in the tyres?

I think it would help me on a fairly steep field?

Joohn

 

[rrlund]

Where do you live? If there's any danger of freezing at all, don't do it. If you drive it with ice in there, you'll destroy the tubes. Use calcium chloride or beet juice.

 

[buickanddeere]

Hi all,

I have a Fordson Dexta has anyone any thoughts on water blast in the tyres?

I think it would help me on a fairly steep field?

Joohn

What size of tires ? Calcium Chloride is an aggressive salt that corrodes just about anything metallic . Windshield washer fluid does alright . Do not fill above the valve stem.

 

[DanielW]

A commonly discussed topic on here. Some folks will argue nothing wrong with CaCl ballast as long as everything's maintained right and you fix all leaks promptly. Others argue that it'll inevitably cause rusting of the rims.

I'm a little more inclined to the latter: Although it theoretically shouldn't cause any trouble if everything's properly maintained and promptly cleaned if it ever leaks, I don't deem it worthwhile on old equipment anymore. And seldom are you able to do a proper clean/prep job if they leak, without taking the tractor down for several days as you pull the tires/tubes, strip, clean, and paint the rims. But it also depends what you're doing with it. Most old tractors had CaCl-loaded tires (and tubed tires) at one point. And many lasted (and are still lasting) decade just fine. So it's not really that major of a concern, as long as everything's done/maintained right.

We have a lot of very steep side hills at our Northern farm. All our tires used to get loaded for stability. Now I prefer to set the tires out wide for stability and not load them. But only if the added traction isn't needed and the spacing can be widened for the equipment that tractor's running. For tractors used for tillage where traction is needed, or where the tires have to be kept narrower (say, to get the right line of draft on a plow) we still load them. But for our smaller/older tractors just pulling rakes/tedders/mower/wagons, I'd rather avoid liquid ballast. Especially in old/antique/hard-to-find rims. Setting the tires out wide does just as much for stability as loading the tires.

A few other aspects to keep in mind:

- Windshield washer fluid as mentioned above is a less-corrosive alternative. Not quite as dense as CaCl, but not enough to make an appreciable difference on a Dexta.
- A popular alternative offered by many tire shops is a ballast fluid made of beet pulp (no, that's not a joke). Less corrosive, and almost as dense as CaCl.
- Depending on where in the world you are, it's common practice in some countries to just load with water. Wouldn't work here as they'd be frozen solid for four months of the year, but something to keep in mind if you're in a warmer climate.
- A Dexta is a pretty popular unit. If you need more weight and don't want liquid ballast, it shouldn't be to hard to find cast weights for it. And if you feel like it, you can typically make cast weights from other makes/models work. Typically requires blowing some holes in them and some grinder/torch work, but usually quite doable.
- No matter what type of liquid ballast you use, if you're running tubes, it can sometimes accelerate corrosion - especially if the inside of the rims aren't painted. In these cases it's not (necessarily) the liquid in your tubes itself that causes the grief, it's the water vapour that condenses between the rim and tube when it comes in contact with that loaded, cold tube, and wicks its way between tube and rim. That doesn't mean you have to be really concerned about it: Most old tractors (and indeed, many still being used) have liquid ballast in tubed tires. It's not going to cause immediate or vastly-accelerated corrosion, but it's not going to be doing the rim any favours either. If you're going to have liquid ballast, it's 'theoretically' best in tubeless tires, and in those cases better to maintain the ballast level above the valve stem when at the 12-o-clock position, because that way the rim is always submerged and not exposed to oxygen. But I've never done that: With our farm being so rough/rocky and us using many of our tractors for bush work, I have no patience for tubeless tires. It only takes one case of running up against a rock/stump or groundhog hole to push a tubeless tire off the bead and then you're down for the day. So I have tubes in all tires, regardless of whether they're loaded. And never any problems. Just be sure to prep/paint the rims whenever you have them broken down and they'll outlive you, regardless of what you have for tubes/ballast.

Ultimately: Can't go too wrong either way. If you need both stability and traction, loading them will help both aspects. And if you paint your rims well while they're broken down and make sure you clean and repair any leaks promptly/thoroughly, it really won't make too much of a difference what liquid you have in there, nor if they're tubed/tubeless.

If all you need is stability however, and you have freedom to play with the wheel settings, I'd consider just setting the tread out wider to get more stability without loading them. Also worth keeping in mind any detrimental aspects to all that extra weight (I'm guessing loaded rears in a Dexta would add 800 - 1000#). If you don't really need the traction and have a lot of hills, that's a fair bit of extra baggage for a small tractor to be hauling up and down slopes unnecessarily.

 

[Joohn]

Thank you for a good reply I will look at widening the track, I now don't think it is worth it, I fitted new rims last year there was a lot of rusting by the mounting bolts

 

[560Dennis]

I don’t recommend water.