How to tell if my tires have ballast?

[bigsky27]

I recently bought a B2100 that is about 25 years old. The guy I bought from is some type of part -time dealer that buys/sells/trades things so he didn't know that much about it.

How can be I tell if the tires have already been filled with ballast (water, beet juice, etc)? It's there a way to do that without taking the wheels off?

I am curious because I want to know if it weighs more than the factory listed weight. And what to know for trailering purposes.

 

[mcmxi]

I recently bought a B2100 that is about 25 years old. The guy I bought from is some type of part -time dealer that buys/sells/trades things so he didn't know that much about it.

How can be I tell if the tires have already been filled with ballast (water, beet juice, etc)? It's there a way to do that without taking the wheels off?

I am curious because I want to know if it weighs more than the factory listed weight. And what to know for trailering purposes.

Depress the center of the Schrader valve with the valve at 6 o'clock and see if liquid comes out. If it does, you could rotate the wheel and keep testing until you determine the level of the liquid in the tire. You can then refer to a wheel ballast chart that RimGuard or Messick's have and figure out how much weight you have on board.

 

[bigsky27]

Depress the center of the Schrader valve with the valve at 6 o'clock and see if liquid comes out. If it does, you could rotate the wheel and keep testing until you determine the level of the liquid in the tire. You can then refer to a wheel ballast chart that RimGuard or Messick's have and figure out how much weight you have on board.

Thank you for the info. I did not think to rotate the tire and now I feel stupid.

 

[skeets]

Dont feel stupid, we all do say and ask things then we say, DOHHHH did I just do that,, welcome to the orange

 

[mikester]

You will see corrosion on the wheels around the fill valves if loaded with calcium. Metal stems corrode even more. Old ones snap off nice and easy.

 

[woodman55]

Tap the side of the tire 1/2 way down. If it is a dull thud it's loaded, if it's more of a hollow/ light sound it's only air. Same idea as finding wall studs. You can also tell how full they are this way, by taping up the side of the tire, until the sound changes.

 

[Snowman7]

I accidentally removed a Valve once thinking I was just taking the cover off. Projectile liquid ballast about 20 feet. The amazing thing is that the force did not blow the valve out of my hand. It was out of the tire for no more than 2 seconds. Shocked the crap out of me, lol. The grass was toast that came in contact with it. That is some sticky unpleasant stuff.

 

[farmerdad46]

I accidentally removed a Valve once thinking I was just taking the cover off. Projectile liquid ballast about 20 feet. The amazing thing is that the force did not blow the valve out of my hand. It was out of the tire for no more than 2 seconds. Shocked the crap out of me, lol. The grass was toast that came in contact with it. That is some sticky unpleasant stuff.

Were you using a valve tool to remove the valve stem core? Or were you removing the cap on the valve stem? Fluid should not come out if it was just the cap; if it was the core, then lots of fluid would come out.

Your tires have liquid balast if liquid came out. Make sure the valve stem is at the 12 o'clock position when you are checking air pressure or working on the stem.

If the liquid was black (or dark dark brown), smelled funky, and was sticky, I think it was rim-guard (beat juice). It's supposed to be non-toxic, so I'm surprised it killed the lawn. If it killed the lawn, it sounds like something else. CaCL liquid (another type of tire balast) is caustic but looks very different from rim-guard.

 

[chim]

If it was sweet and the cat died after drinking it, could be antifreeze.

If it was blue, could be washer fluid.