Hi guys,
Got the tire ballasting done on the L2500. A year ago, I put Galaxy Earth Pro 13.6-24 tires on new 12" rims for this tractor. I wasn't sure what ballast I was going to use, so I had the rim/tire shop install inner tubes (in case I went with CaCl2), even though the tires are tubeless.
Last week, I got the Rim Guard that I needed for this installation - 80 gallons, dispensed into a 300-gallon plastic carboy, with a removable fill cap on the top and a 2" valve at the bottom. The product has the consistency of maple syrup, but it's much less sticky. Spills easily rinse off with clear, cold water. Rim Guard's advantages are that it is about 25% heavier than water, won't freeze, and is non-corrosive. 39 gallons per tire filled these tires 3/4 full and added 407 pounds, each.
The tubes in my tires had two-piece valve stems with a 1/8" hole. YES, that's very small. This job took me about 20 hours to complete, mostly because of the slow flow rate through that small hole.
Consider that what we're trying to do is to flow liquid into a closed vessel that is filled with air (at atmospheric pressure when the tire valve is removed from the stem). That means that, as fluid flows in through the connected feed hose, the pressure of the residual air in the tire increases, stopping the flow of fluid. Atmospheric pressure or gravity (aka siphoning) alone is not going to do it. The dispensing tank needs to be pressurized and then the tire has to be 'burped' periodically to let the residual air out.
My idea to create the pressure in the tank was to hook up a small air compressor to a tire valve installed in the fill cap, like this:
Then, I made a feed tube setup to connect to the outlet valve of the tank:
That's a cap from a Super UDT jug with a 1/2" hole drilled in it. I put a 1/2" hose bib through that hole and slipped a 20-foot length of 1/2" vinyl tubing on it, secured with a hose clamp.
The other end of the feed tube looked like this:
Feed tube comes in from the lower left to a brass T. The tube going up from the T is connected to the tire valve, and the short piece going into the catch bucket is the 'burp tube', kinked near the T to shut it off. Here's the short tube from the T connected to the tire valve with another hose clamp.
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To move tire ballast, I hooked up my air compressor to the tire valve in the tank cap and pressurized the tank. I was careful to not explode the tank!
Also to move tire ballast, the tire needs to be jacked off the ground. But, before I hooked up the hose, I let the deflated tire settle on the ground, to push as much air out of it as possible. Then, I connected the feed hose, opened the tank valve, and jacked the tire off the ground. Because the ballast flowed SO slowly, I made marks on the tank at the fluid level so that I could watch it drop in the tank. I also calculated that 1/8" on the fluid level was about 1 gallon. After I had flowed a few gallons of fluid into the tire, I burped it. To do that, I put a C-clamp on the feed tube:
Then, I un-kinked the burp tube to let the residual air (now pressurized to equal the tank pressure) out of the tire. I found it was better to clamp the feed tube like this for a couple of reasons. First, my hose bib through the jug cap leaked a bit, so if I shut off the tank valve, air would get sucked into the feed tube when I burped the tire. Also, the venturi effect of burping the tire would suck fluid through the feed hose. That's partly why that bucket is necessary.
Some things I learned:
I found that I had to burp each tire between 10 and 20 times to get them filled. The more often I burped, the more fluid I moved per hour. I had to burp more frequently when the tire was nearly full of ballast.
When I had as much ballast into the tires as I could get in there, I filled them the rest of the way with compressed air. I found that 15 PSI was just enough to take the belly out of the sidewall.
I developed a 'feel' for the pressure inside the tank, created by the air compressor. I would let air into the tank until I heard the cage creak. And then testing how firm the tank was to my thumb pushing on it, I could regulate the air pressure to a consistent (safe?) level, using the regulator on the air compressor.
As the tank level went down, it took a lot more air to create the needed pressure to move fluid into the tire. Not more pressure, just more volume. Some physicist can explain that to us...The tank wasn't particularly leaky, so I could pump it up, and then go do something else for 15-20 minutes while ballast was flowing.
This is a job for a VERY patient man, which I am not. I was frustrated by how long it took, and because we had a nasty cold spell right in the middle of the process. Hint: do this in the summer! And, I would expect that a brass valve stem for a tubeless tire would have a bigger orifice.
If I was to do this again, I would get the fluid dispensed into a more rigid tank (55-gallon drum?) that was not so large, relative to the fluid volume. That extra air space in the tank made it difficult to build pressure!
If I was regularly filling tires like this, I would think about putting TWO tire valves in each rim, 180 degrees apart (for tubeless tires only). That way, you could flow fluid into one while simultaneously venting air out the other.
The other discouraging thing about "home installation" is that you're going to pay the installed price; the Rim Guard dealers do not price it 'cash and carry'. And the likes of me can forget about customer support on this plan. Installed price: $4/gallon. Yeesh. But, I didn't want to haul my tractor 100 miles to the nearest dealer, especially since I don't own a trailer! And, in retrospect, the dealer most likely would have mandated different tire valves. Ka-CHING! And, I don't have to worry about corrosion... at ALL!
The best part of this job is that...it's DONE!
All's well that ends well, and I'm READY to push some snow!
I have about 5 gallons of fluid left over, which is going into the rears on the G1800.
-Paul
Got the tire ballasting done on the L2500. A year ago, I put Galaxy Earth Pro 13.6-24 tires on new 12" rims for this tractor. I wasn't sure what ballast I was going to use, so I had the rim/tire shop install inner tubes (in case I went with CaCl2), even though the tires are tubeless.
Last week, I got the Rim Guard that I needed for this installation - 80 gallons, dispensed into a 300-gallon plastic carboy, with a removable fill cap on the top and a 2" valve at the bottom. The product has the consistency of maple syrup, but it's much less sticky. Spills easily rinse off with clear, cold water. Rim Guard's advantages are that it is about 25% heavier than water, won't freeze, and is non-corrosive. 39 gallons per tire filled these tires 3/4 full and added 407 pounds, each.
The tubes in my tires had two-piece valve stems with a 1/8" hole. YES, that's very small. This job took me about 20 hours to complete, mostly because of the slow flow rate through that small hole.
Consider that what we're trying to do is to flow liquid into a closed vessel that is filled with air (at atmospheric pressure when the tire valve is removed from the stem). That means that, as fluid flows in through the connected feed hose, the pressure of the residual air in the tire increases, stopping the flow of fluid. Atmospheric pressure or gravity (aka siphoning) alone is not going to do it. The dispensing tank needs to be pressurized and then the tire has to be 'burped' periodically to let the residual air out.
My idea to create the pressure in the tank was to hook up a small air compressor to a tire valve installed in the fill cap, like this:
Then, I made a feed tube setup to connect to the outlet valve of the tank:
That's a cap from a Super UDT jug with a 1/2" hole drilled in it. I put a 1/2" hose bib through that hole and slipped a 20-foot length of 1/2" vinyl tubing on it, secured with a hose clamp.
The other end of the feed tube looked like this:
Feed tube comes in from the lower left to a brass T. The tube going up from the T is connected to the tire valve, and the short piece going into the catch bucket is the 'burp tube', kinked near the T to shut it off. Here's the short tube from the T connected to the tire valve with another hose clamp.
To move tire ballast, I hooked up my air compressor to the tire valve in the tank cap and pressurized the tank. I was careful to not explode the tank!
Also to move tire ballast, the tire needs to be jacked off the ground. But, before I hooked up the hose, I let the deflated tire settle on the ground, to push as much air out of it as possible. Then, I connected the feed hose, opened the tank valve, and jacked the tire off the ground. Because the ballast flowed SO slowly, I made marks on the tank at the fluid level so that I could watch it drop in the tank. I also calculated that 1/8" on the fluid level was about 1 gallon. After I had flowed a few gallons of fluid into the tire, I burped it. To do that, I put a C-clamp on the feed tube:
Then, I un-kinked the burp tube to let the residual air (now pressurized to equal the tank pressure) out of the tire. I found it was better to clamp the feed tube like this for a couple of reasons. First, my hose bib through the jug cap leaked a bit, so if I shut off the tank valve, air would get sucked into the feed tube when I burped the tire. Also, the venturi effect of burping the tire would suck fluid through the feed hose. That's partly why that bucket is necessary.
Some things I learned:
I found that I had to burp each tire between 10 and 20 times to get them filled. The more often I burped, the more fluid I moved per hour. I had to burp more frequently when the tire was nearly full of ballast.
When I had as much ballast into the tires as I could get in there, I filled them the rest of the way with compressed air. I found that 15 PSI was just enough to take the belly out of the sidewall.
I developed a 'feel' for the pressure inside the tank, created by the air compressor. I would let air into the tank until I heard the cage creak. And then testing how firm the tank was to my thumb pushing on it, I could regulate the air pressure to a consistent (safe?) level, using the regulator on the air compressor.
As the tank level went down, it took a lot more air to create the needed pressure to move fluid into the tire. Not more pressure, just more volume. Some physicist can explain that to us...The tank wasn't particularly leaky, so I could pump it up, and then go do something else for 15-20 minutes while ballast was flowing.
This is a job for a VERY patient man, which I am not. I was frustrated by how long it took, and because we had a nasty cold spell right in the middle of the process. Hint: do this in the summer! And, I would expect that a brass valve stem for a tubeless tire would have a bigger orifice.
If I was to do this again, I would get the fluid dispensed into a more rigid tank (55-gallon drum?) that was not so large, relative to the fluid volume. That extra air space in the tank made it difficult to build pressure!
If I was regularly filling tires like this, I would think about putting TWO tire valves in each rim, 180 degrees apart (for tubeless tires only). That way, you could flow fluid into one while simultaneously venting air out the other.
The other discouraging thing about "home installation" is that you're going to pay the installed price; the Rim Guard dealers do not price it 'cash and carry'. And the likes of me can forget about customer support on this plan. Installed price: $4/gallon. Yeesh. But, I didn't want to haul my tractor 100 miles to the nearest dealer, especially since I don't own a trailer! And, in retrospect, the dealer most likely would have mandated different tire valves. Ka-CHING! And, I don't have to worry about corrosion... at ALL!
The best part of this job is that...it's DONE!
All's well that ends well, and I'm READY to push some snow!
I have about 5 gallons of fluid left over, which is going into the rears on the G1800.
-Paul
