# Ballast in tires



## welderskelter (Sep 30, 2012)

How hard is it to take liquid from one tractor tire and put it in another. Harold


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## Ed Williams (Jun 13, 2019)

Very difficult. You have to remove ballast thru valve with gravity into shallow container then transfer to a bigger one to reload with a pump. Pumping is many times faster than gravity draining. You will lose at least 10% of the ballast due to the position of the valve and tire. I mixed my own CaCl ballast at 31% and reloaded a 13.6x38 tire for $98. Collecting and reusing the old ballast just wasn't worth the time and mess. Mixing the solution generates a lot of heat and you must allow extra time to cool down before loading. I used 4 ea 5 gal buckets for mixing. 4 gallon at a time. By the time the 4th bucket was mixed, the first was cool enough to load. The pump I used was an old power steering pump powered by an air ratchet. I regulated the flow to the small reservoir by gravity and a pinch clamp on the hose The whole thing worked very well. It took about 5 hours for the whole job for 54 gal of mixed ballast.


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## bmaverick (Feb 20, 2014)

welderskelter said:


> How hard is it to take liquid from one tractor tire and put it in another. Harold


EZ. Take a straw and then a deep breath.  Walk over to the other tire and spit some in. Repeat the process 1,436 more times or until you faint.  

Or you can have the liquid tire with valve stem at the ground and the other tire with valve stem at the top of the tire rotation. With an air hose connection on each end and 2 people you can get a fair amount transferred. 

Question, what is the liquid ballast in the current tires now? Calcium Chloride? Beet juice (pet safe)? Propylene Glycol (pet safe)? 

I avoid calcium chloride due to corrosion issues with metals, like the tractor wheel rims, bad for breathing it in the air too long, people will have an allergic reaction to it, and if in the water table it will harden your kidneys like cement. 

Beet juice tends to be great IF you can get it in your area. Propylene Glycol is that pink antifreeze sold this time of year to store RVs and close up rental cabins for the winter in the drains and holding tanks to prevent freeing. It works really well for tractor tire ballast too. In fact, OSHA requires it's use as a tire ballast vs. other solutions. 

If you have livestock and/or domestic animals or even a garden and/or well on the homestead, I would highly advise using water and RV/Marine propylene glycol (pet safe) as the tire ballast. This will prevent toxic chemicals from entering your soil or water table. 

As for adding the pink pet safe propylene glycol, make sure the valve stem is at the top of tire position. This way, it will not leak out due to gravity.  Then place back in the stem insert to fill with air. 

Propylene glycol is FDA approved as a gelatin and sweetener in salad dressings to gummy bears. When was the last time you ever saw Swedish fish frozen. LOL


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