I use methanol at 99.9% in the race car, for fuel. That's what it is-a motor fuel (and a solvent) and it works good for both. One major reason I don't like it for ballast is that it's flammable and you cannot see the flame in the daytime, at night you can see a faint blue flame from pure (99.5%+) methanol but during the day it is invisible. Secondly, there is pressure inside the tire which is exactly what happens inside an engine, air and fuel are pressurized before it is ignited, and when it does ignite, it expands rapidly. So basically you have sort of a bomb inside your tire. Think about that next time you drive kinda close to a burn pile, or if you drive INTO the burn pile. I've seen tractors die or stop while very close to burn pile (burns the battery cable, snags a cable, brush snags a fuel line etc) and I certainly wouldn't want methanol near a fire. Make fire bigger. And if you're standing in a puddle of it and it ignites you will burn up and never see the flame. But hey the good news is, you can put methanol fire out with water unlike gas/diesel, so in that sense and in that sense only, it's less dangerous. Yes I'm aware that it's mixed with water for ballast and that does reduce some of the tendencies for danger but it's still methanol which is a "dry" fuel, and can aid in corrosion and degradation of rims, tires, and valve stems. Old boss used to push a lot of it because it was cheap but although cheap initially, it became expensive later on when a rim was rusted prematurely or a tire basically fell apart while still in warranty. Dealer had to eat that stuff. They then switched to antifreeze/water mix and that would freeze up in cold days causing an uncontrollable tractor if driven at any speeds (like down a road). Rim guard is probably about the best for this application with all things considered.
