loaded tires

Ive seen that some use beet juice, windshield washer fluid, old antifreeze instead of calcium.  what is wrong with using plain water? I know it will freeze, but what would that hurt?

ok i guess it would be a solid ride 

you never fill them past 75 percent full anyway, tires need the other room to make their "footprint" Even here in Georgia, water in a tire will freeze, if you've filled it almost full to full, you will lose a tire, and or bend a rim when the ice expands and there's no air to compress. lots of people here will fill them then drain in the fall (you hope they don't get caught one night with a surprise freeze) but you never will get it all out. and that small bit will freeze even easier. That sharp edge of that piece of ice will lose it's grip and tumble and flop around and the sharp edge will cut a tube to ribbons and even cut a tire.
 I'm guilty of doing it too, just "drained" mine but I always add a gallon or so of RV antifreeze in to treat what remains.

info on filling, the idea hasn't changed from my 1941 WC manual other than the calcium chloride!

Fluid doesn't compress. If completely filled it would be like riding on steel. Water expands when it freezes something will give. I kinda doubt it would split the rim but I bet you'd have a nice tire left come spring. Calcium weighs more than water anyway.

John DONT do it. I have gone out and unbolted frozen tires from tractors, brought them to the tire shop and let them thaw out - usually takes about a week to do. You cannot operate the tractor with frozen tires. It is tough on tires and old tire men!

When we sold them calcium chloride was the accepted filler.  In fact, sometimes we "jiggered" the fill amount and filled to 80% of the tire.  

Sounds like a big mess. Yes when you have something catastrophic happened such is that it is imperative that the equipment gets hosed down immediately.

Gerald J. wrote: The rusting through the aluminum paint on the drive housings was in seconds. I was about 12 miles into a 16 mile trip hauling my three point back hoe to a welding shop for repairs and updating. No water available to wash it. Fortunately there was a coop tire shop less than a block from the welding shop and they took out the CaCl right away and in a couple days I found and bought some new tires and that tire shop put them on with new tubes. And it took the welding shop that long to get to the back hoe welding. Gerald J.

I call bull.

I work in a plant that manufactures Calcium Chloride. The liquid end of our plant is original 1942 construction. Properly managed it does not rust stuff out.   One key is to wash any exposed metal with HOT water immediately.

Dad recalled when they got tractors out of the South at the implement and they either forgot to drain the tires, or it froze before they could drain them.  They would put two "torpedo" heaters on the 18.4x34 tires on a 190 and it  would take about 2 days to thaw them he said.  He did say it was about the roughest ride you'd never want too since on the frozen side each lug was rock solid when it hit the ground.  Then when the air pocket hit the tractor would tip to that side since the air gave some cushion.  They onetime got a 190 in though that had the rear tires filled with powdered lead.  They have no idea where the person got the powdered lead, or even how they got it into the tire.  I personally filled all my tires with a product called bio tire, it is glycerin left from making bio-diesel.  It weighs about the same as calcium or the beat juice, but doesn't corrode like the calcium, and is thinner to pump in cold weather and not sticky like the beet juice.  I figured up what it cost me to replace rims on the tractors that had rotted, and what the fluid cost was about the same as what a set of rims cost.

DennisA (IL) wrote: Gerald J. wrote: Calcium chloride is heavier than any of the alternatives including water, but it rusts steel rapidly when it leaks and it WILL leak. Some of the alternatives like beet juice are a lot more expensive but don't rust steel. Gerald J.  I have had calcium in my tires for 16-17 yrs. with no leaking. All it takes is a little maintenance. Just change the valve core very 2 yrs.

The problem comes when the tube starts leaking somewhere other than the valve stem and the rim will be rusted thru before you realize there is a problem, seen that happen many times.