Calcium chloride mess

:x

Had the rears on my 340U filled last month, then had too much rain to use it until this weekend. Went out Saturday morning to put the blade on and discovered the left valve stem (which was positioned at the bottom of the rim when I parked it ) had failed and dumped ALL 47 gallons of fluid out. All over the bottom of the rim and left a puddle the size of the tractor. By the end of the day, the grass had already turned brown. Now I have to pay $75 PLUS the "house call" fee to have it refilled and then stare at a large dead patch in my yard for the rest of the year.

The worst part of it all is I never even got to use the ballast. :x :x

I hate it when a 50 cent part causes big $$$ in damage.

Sorry for the rant. I feel better now.

You hired somebody to do the work? They should have made sure before they left that the valve was working, sounds like they did not finnish their job, And they should have made sure the valve stem was good before filling the tire. So they should have to stand the costs of comming out and refilling with depending on just what happened to the tube you possibly just paying for a new tube that they probably should have put in befor filling it.

I agree with Leroy -- It sounds like they didn't do the job right; they should have known better.

Hopefully you rinsed and rinsed and rinsed any metal parts (painted or not), as the fluid is supposedly horribly corrosive.

Mark W. in MI

The chloride had been in the tire for a month with no signs of leakage. I had not used the tractor for a few days, so I assume it developed the leak then. I'm sure they verified all was good at the time they put in the fluid, and I didn't ask them to put in new tubes as the old ones were good. I put in a new core an filled the tire with air and all is good as far as that goes. I'm going to talk with them and see what they'll do for me, but I'm not gonna hold my breath.

I hear that beet juice stuff is very expensive. I got these filled for $74 per tire + $50 for coming out to my place. I couldn't do it myself for less than that.

(quoted from post at 15:11:31 06/16/08) supposedly horribly corrosive.

Click to expand...

Supposedly?
You bet it's corrosive!
I'd even neutralize with baking soda after I rinsed it off.

As for the yard... You will have to dig up a few inches of the dirt, as the calcium has contaminated the soil and even just re-seeding will not work.

tsmith: I wouldn't be too awfully concerned about the rim. Chloride does it's damage mainly as a result of slow leaks that go on for years. I've had tractor rims last well over 40 years with chloride in them. Probably each and everyone of them had half dozen quick flats whereby all the chloride leaked out. Clean the rim up well, it will last a long time yet.

My Super A has an original rim on it, was filled with chloride until 1997. In contrast my 63 140 has both rims new. It was parked in a heated warehouse for 15 years with both valve stems leaking chloride.

I do agree with the others, the guy that filled those tires does have liability in this. That shouldn't happen within a month unless you punctured a tire. Also, I would never put chloride in a tube over 10 years old or unknown age. When I was running chloride in tires, I was wearing out tires every 5-10 years and never installed a new tire without a new tube. If I had a tractor tire with chloride and I knew it had been in there 10 years with tire still good, I'd roll stem to top, jack the tractor and change the screw in stem. Those old stems are the slow leakers that take a toll on rims.

Ctry Boy: Corrosive yes if it's left there. If chloride is washed off within days the rims will last 40 years.

Contrary to what you believe calcium chloride does not contaminate the soil. I lost the entire contents from a full 20.8x38 in the middle of a flat corn field just before planting. At no time during the growing season could anyone find the spot. I've had the same thing happen on grassland, smaller tires 13.6x38, it will burn off the green foliage, but the grass will come right back. That one is a myth. I'm not saying you couldn't kill vegetation with calcium chloride, but it will require about 10 times as much as in the ordinary tractor tire and with very little water.

For arguments sake, I'm not just re-quoting a myth. The original rim from my tractor had the valve stem rust out and the section between the ribs were rusting out from leaking. And I just assumed the dead grass where it was parked, for a few days, was soil contamination as the grass died off and I couldn't seem to get anything to grow there until I just dug it up and re-seeded. Just one lonely 16" circle.
Just a freak of nature, I guess!

Heard on the TV News the other day that a lot of the valves stems on new cars are from China and may be recalled. This may be what happened to you.

(quoted from post at 17:11:54 06/16/08)

(quoted from post at 15:11:31 06/16/08) supposedly horribly corrosive.

Click to expand...

Supposedly?
You bet it's corrosive!
I'd even neutralize with baking soda after I rinsed it off.

As for the yard... You will have to dig up a few inches of the dirt, as the calcium has contaminated the soil and even just re-seeding will not work.

Click to expand...

It sure is corrosive, but it's not battery acid--it's a mild base. An aqueous solution such as used in our tires has a pH between 8 and 9, so I am guessing that baking soda (definitely what you use to neutralize battery and other acids) is either useless or making things worse. Lots of water is the key to dealing with both metal corrosion and plant toxicity. CaCl is preferred in road salting to sodium chloride because it is less toxic to plants, but in high enough concentrations it will kill grass or anything else. Rain, irrigation, or a garden hose is your friend here.

I had a leak on one back tire last winter,and my h was parked outside on the grass.That was snow covered at the time.Anyway the grass came back just fine and greener then ever this spring.I would say water that area like crazy and see what happens.