Filling Tractor Tires with Methanol

[alldodge]

Last couple time out pulling the Batwing I noticed the tractor would slip a bit. First I thought it was just because it had been so dry. We had some rain and things greened up but still noticed the slip every now and then on steep climbs.

Stopped on the level and had the valve stem at 1 o'****, all I got was air. Rolled tire to 2 o'clock, still nothing but air. Roled to 3 o'clock and got some liquid. So not only did the guy who replaced my tires and busted the parking paw, he only 1/2 filled the tires.

Never filled a tire before, until today

Picked up a 55 Gal drum of -20 windshield washer fluid from local auto parts place and put together the stuff needed to fill.



20 Ton jack and blocks to support when air is let out



The lucky part is managed to get them filled up to 75% and have around 5 Gal left

 

[matt167]

Fun stuff. Tractor/Ag tires used to be part of my day job. I still help my father in law with his tractor tires when he needs it. I filled one of his last year after a valve got knocked off. I didn’t build the tube going back from the pump to let the air out. I just use the air bleed on the fill valve. I would have built it but didn’t have time. At the shop we used what was basically an air operated oil pump converted for calcium/ tire filling and it had a flow control where it just switched back and forth as needed to let the air out.

 

[alldodge]

My first make up worked pretty good with first tire. After doing first I realized I was over thinking it. The initial Y valve was to watch when pressure increased so I could stop and open upper valve to bleed air and liquid back to barrel. This worked pretty well but was really not needed, the pressure hardly changed.

I hind sight, I could have just used a single hose and the air bleed valve on the tire fitting. The bad part about that is once your over full the liquid needs to come back out. It doesn't come out quick but comes out fast enough to cause a mess. The upper Y valve allows the bleed back to barrel and just let it take it's time

Seems after pumping tire over full, it is a real slow process to bleed it back out and can take more than 30 minutes if you wait long enough. Think it's caused by the foaming of the Methanol and expansion of the tire.

 

[matt167]

Yup. It does foam up quite a bit. There are a couple ways to see where the liquid is sitting so you get the 75% fill.. the easiest is on a hot day it might condensate and show you as you fill it with cold liquid. And second is simply a hammer to tap. Neither is an exact science

I forget if my FIL has one more we have to do. He talked about it so if we do I’m going to have to get one of those Y valves. The pump we use kind of lets us know when it’s got too much air pressure just using a y valve and cracking one of the valves open should let it pump continuously