Calcuim Froze?

RLA · Feb 27, 2014

A friend of mine has a 520 John Deere
along with many others. This tractor
has a John Deer snow plow on it & get
used when the farm drives need plowed
so it's not everyday? Yesterday morning
needed to move it & there sits the tractor
with a split 12 to 14 inchs long & both
rear tires are froze solid. He's owned it
for 16 years & 13.9x36 6 ply. Firestone
that were purchased new Oct of 2000. They
still look like new? Has anyone ever heard
of this? Neither tube has leaked a drop &
never froze befor? Is there a Shelf life/
time limit for Calcium in tires? It was removed
from the old set of tires & installed in the
new set in 2000... He said beet juice is going
back in...
So We remove the plow of the 520 & put it on
another tractor for time being so he has a
snow removal unit. moved the tractor slowly
to a area where it can be heated, so now the
wait of thawing it out.

J.Wondergem · Feb 27, 2014

Sounds like it was mixed to weak, or had water added to it. Might have slushed up before and you couldn't tell, this time it got colder.

glennster · Feb 27, 2014

depends on the pound per gallon ratio of calcium to water. if he was running less tha 2 lbs per gallon of calcium, it will freeze solid at about -20 deg or less. i run 5lb /gallon mix it is slush free at -53, and will freeze solid at -62.

old harv · Feb 27, 2014

Someone cheaped out on the calcium. I have reused calcium in 10 or 15 year old tires on my JD 2130 and very old cracked up tires with calcium on my D14. It has been -45 with a wind chill of -61 and my tires didn't break. When they changed the tires on the 2130 they added calcium and water to make up for what was spilled when the tire leaked. If they don't add calcium when they add water what happened would be the likely result.

Mike M · Feb 27, 2014

Tire shops around me in Ohio went away from the beet juice because they could not pump it when it was cold and that made changing tires near impossible for them.
They are all going to the windshield washer type fluid sold for tires.

RLA · Feb 27, 2014

Well this is what I thought. Because I have a
Model A with OLD time 13 x 38 tires that my
dad had filled with the tires were new.
These tires were old when dad passed since
11/6/1973 & they have never Froze.
Neighbor did say it's combo of Beet & washer
Solution?

I still have hard time believing it has
swelled enough to split the tires. I figure
everything must have been froze, brittle.

hd6gtom · Feb 27, 2014

The calcium that came in Dads 1955 WD 45 is still in use today. It was miss blended or filled with water.

DeltaRed · Feb 27, 2014

Sounds like someone pd for calcium that they did'nt receive.I take it that it's never been that cold before?

Allan in NE · Feb 27, 2014

Yep,

Sounds like water.

Allan

Sid · Feb 27, 2014

I alaways thought the damage came from the ice cutting up the tubes when tractor was moved. Around here the old timers would put water in tires at beginnig of season and drain it at the end of the season. I remember one year a neighbor forgot. The tires where not damaged. He was fit to be tied cause he could not use his tractor for early spring work, He was also one of the first to put calcium in when they did thaw.

Brown Swiss · Feb 27, 2014

Always use spring water!

paul · Feb 27, 2014

The calcium chloride is a salty granular deal, it dissolves in water.

It does not ever weaken or wear out.

Someone in 2000 either goofed or cheated you and got a lot of water in the mix.

I'm not sure the mix of the CC and the beet juice was a good idea perhaps that caused separation and issues right there? I would sure not want a mix of the two.

Anyhow, it got mixed wrong or separated or diluted with water.

I presume its not so cold where you are, and this is the freaky cold year that it showed up.

Typically the stuff turns slushy, not froze up solid, so I'm going to guess it got mixed quite a bit too weak....

Paul

gene bender · Feb 27, 2014

It wasnt mixed strong enough they added too much water.

wilamayb · Feb 27, 2014

Those wheel weights sound pretty cheap right about now...

showcrop · Feb 27, 2014

(quoted from post at 15:26:25 02/27/14) Those wheel weights sound pretty cheap right about now...

Wheel weights are always cheap.

ss55 · Feb 27, 2014

I've seen very old tires pull apart trying to move implements that were sunken into frozen to the ground. Could the tractor have been parked in deep mud that later froze around the tire lugs? Where did the tires rip?

I'm surprised it took 14 winters before the problem showed up so catastrophically. If the tires are frozen solid, he must have been running with mostly slush in those tires during other winters.

If he re-used old fluid from another tractor, did he check the strength of the old fluid, or add water to it when it was transfered? Calcium cloride is not too expensive, most farms in the midwest used the maximum 5 lb/gallon mix to get the extra weight.

Calcuim Froze?

RLA

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J.Wondergem

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glennster

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old harv

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Mike M

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RLA

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hd6gtom

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DeltaRed

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Allan in NE

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Sid

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Brown Swiss

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paul

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gene bender

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wilamayb

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showcrop

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ss55

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