sodium chloride tire ballast

I recently purchased my first tractor, a 1966 International 504 with a front loader. It had a broken crankshaft, I'm a experienced engine machanic so I bought it at a good price and repaired the engine. It runs good now but I'm curious about the sodium chloride liquid in the rear tires. The stem crecked on one of my wheels and I lost a couple of gallons before I could temporarily seal it up. Is that stuff expensive and is it allways used inside an inner tube due to its corrosive property?

It is oly a few dollars a gallon so it is expensive to fill up large tires completely. It is corrosive but it is not always used inside inner tubes.

it is almost certainly calcium chloride, not sodium chloride. It isn't very expensive but it can be tricky getting it in. It is corrosive in the presence of air. If you have absolutely no leaks you can get by without a tube but corrosion will develop around the smallest leak.

Yeah,

I was wondering about that salt shaker deal too. :>)

Allan

a lot of guys around here are using used anti-freeze,usually pretty cheap, and non corrosive.
Check with you radiator repair shop.

depending what you are doing, you might not need any, however it makes a big difference,much more traction with the liquid in the tires.

i run cal chloride in a few of my tractors, especially the ones with loaders. you need the extra weight. my m has both rears loaded and 6 weights hanging on the rear wheels. i run tubes in mine too. if yo break em down to replace a tube, clean the rims real good with hot soapy water to get any calcium off them, then i brush on 2 coats of por 15 rust converter. dries hard as nails and the chloride wont affect it. also , when installing the valve stem, i put a abundant amount of silicone grease on the o rings to slow down any corrosion. here is a link to loading instructions and a calcium mixing chart. when you add the chloride to water, its gets real hot. let it cool down before pumping it in the tire. here is the link
calcium chart

I forgot where I saw it but a loader tractor was "holding" a 55 gallon drum filled with concrete via the 3-point hitch on the tractor (!) (Some apparent mods to the barrel to improve strength via heavier steel hoisting framework, etc)

James: Liquid weight in tires is the best possible weight to give stability on a loader tractor. The game here is to lower that center of graviety. Whether you use chloride, used anti-freeze or beet juice is your choice. Chloride just requires a bit of looking after. Change the valve stems every 5 years.

James, Congrats on the 504. I have a 1962 504 diesel and put a Koyker loader on it January 2008. Pretty good match for a 6' bucket. I have plain ol'e tap water is my tires filled up to the valve stem when at 12 o'clock. Beet juice, Calcium Chloride, Anti-Freeze, ect is helpful in freezing climates. Here in Louisiana, even if it gets to 25 one night the tire will not freeze.

Calcium Chloride is heavier than H2O, hence a good choice for ballast. I have one set of weights on right now and I have another that I plan to install when sandblasted and painted. Calcium Chloride will rust ANY THING it touches if in free air. Inside a tire should be devoid of oxygen. My tires have been on the 504 for 25-30 years and have never been dismounted, no leaks, no problems, I run tubes.

Link us some pictures of your Farmall 504. Here is mine.







As for the 55 gallon drum and concrete, my father built one. he torched out holes for a piece of rod to go through the barrel, this is the lower link. He then ran a length of chain to the rod and welded it on. He poured the concrete in (from a slab job) and troweled it down with a crown on top to shed water. So you have a thru rod for the bottom and a 3/8" chain poured in the concrete for the top link. The barrel was just a form and could rust completly away, no strength loss. Pretty cool, I'll have to snap a pic next time I am at his farm.

Good luck, Charles

James,
I am not a fan of chloride because of its corrosive properties. A friend came across about 7 barrels of windshield washer and we filled our tires with that. Beet juice is the best for the environment.

As far as a barrel of concrete for added weight. I have always believed that if you are going to add weight, add it to the tires or rims with juice or wheel weights. In my opinion adding weight to the chassis is adding unneeded weight and stress to front and rear bearings.

Dell

Del: Those bearings were engineered to withstand the heat of all day drawbar pulling. You couldn't add enough weight to damage them at loader speeds or distance of travel.

If I were going to do ant serious loader work even with a 40 hp utility, it would be tires full of chloride, two pairs wheel weights and a barrel of concrete on the hitch. The barrel of concrete serves as counter weight to the loader, very much needed as the front end is the weak link in the whole machine, even if it's 4 wheel drive.

I've read that fluid in the tires also helps smooth the ride and improves load-carrying ability and that's why they started using it in place of wheel weights.

It moves inside the tire and acts like a counterweight to any bouncing. How noticeable it is might be questionable. We ran fluid in everything but the b, a/c c, and fwa 1066. It had bias plies and everything else of size we had radials on so it woulda been tough to try telling.

Thank you all you guys that responded to me about the tire ballast, I wonder if I really need the liquid in my tires, my 504 only has a narrow manure bucket on the front and I don"t plan on doing heavy work with it anyway. I would prefer not to have the corrosive stuff in my tires and would be willing to add wheel weights if I needed them later. What do you guys think?