rsmith335

I am getting new turf tires this friday for my 51 8N. I pulled out the tractor manuel to see how much fluid to run with my appliciation. Which is pulling a finish mower, cultavator (small garden),brush hog, blade (light work), disk and a carry all. The manuel was no help, it gave me the percentages and what they weighted and told me the less I installed the better fuel econmey would be result. I sure the fluid is the sodium and don't want to reinstall, so the less new anti freze I buy the better for my wallet. But I don't want to be spinning all over the place. The tires now have 90% fluid. Thanks Rick:

smallfarm

For what you are going to do I would try it without fluid. That stuff is so corrosive I would see if I really needed it. Weights might be a better option since you can remove them if you want.

wjjones

They say the rv windshield washer fluid is non corrosive and makes good tire ballast and does not freeze.

rsmith335

Got my new turf tires, When the tire shop removed the old tires we found the rims had some rust so we temp mounted the tires and didn't put any fluid in them. Now I will be looking for some orignal rims or try to repaire these, anyone tried this? Winter project.

63FordGA

If your old tires were ballasted with Calcium Chloride solution (apparently the most common), the rust on the inside of the rims might be from the ballast. When they changed the tires, I hope they rinsed and dried the rims very well before putting the new tires on. Once the Calcium Chloride solution is removed and the metal exposed to air, they will probably rust very quickly. I have read about this problem with the Calcium Chloride ballast a few times, and it ain't pretty. Good luck.

rsmith335

I got to try out the unballasted tires last night. We had 4.5 inches of rain in two hours the night before and the drive way was a mess. I was plesently surprised. I 'm going to fill the tires up with balast up to the top of the transmition when I get my rims fixed. I read somewhere, that will keep the center of gravity low and give traction on off camber situations. Makes sense. And they did have Calcium Chloride in them, it's literally down the drain. Another thing I was surprised about was how well the turf tires hooked up with the blade on the tractor