The Fordson Tractor Pages Forum

Did a search but came up empty handed; What's your opinion?

IMHO, by all means fill your tires with a solution of water and antifreeze ***IF*** you are pulling heavy loads. If you are performing light duty work it would be best to just keep the proper air pressure in them. btw, they get kind of heavy once loaded with liquid and a pain to fix when you get a flat. Just my 2 cent's worth.
Great to see another Major Owner in NC. I finally made it over to Denton this year for the annual show and saw only TWO Majors.
Best of Luck to ya with your Major
brownsmule Mooresville NC USA

Naildriver,
I had my tires loaded with calcium chloride (salt). Brownsmule is telling you right, take his advice. I'm going to the tractor dealer this week to take one of my loaded tires to get it fixed. They do so much better loaded if you do a lot of ploughing, they even ride better loaded. If I had it to do all over again I still would have them loaded only with a mixture of anti freeze and water mix instead of salt.

Naildriver, we need to know what you are doing with your tractor first, before you decide if you use water for ballast in your tires. Some applications benifit ballast , some don't.Personally, I don't like water in rear tires as I do some swamp work, and ballast/front end loaders on tractors in swamps don't mix TSG.

Are we talking Majors or Dextas?

Water/calcium chloride balasting has its place if you are heavy pulling or using a front end loader.

When I got my Dexta, the wheels were filled and bl**dy heavy. I transfered them to my TE20 with a loader and this is now a great tractor and will go anywhere in the cow yard or around the muck heap.

The Dexta now has unbalasted rear wheels and handles my two furrow plough with ease, just using the draft control.

Water loading makes the tractor more stable and I prefer it to wheel weights as these make the tractor wider than some of the places I have to get in. Its a pain when you get a puncture but, in the stoney land of Norfolk, it also helped to reduce tyre wear.

Ooop's, my error. I think his tractor is a Dexta. Not sure if it's a standard or super.

btw, the rear tires on my Super Major (loader tractor) are loaded and a counter weight so that I can keep the rear end on the ground.

brownsmule Mooresville NC USA

I'll be bush hoging fire lanes and disking food plots on my deer hunting lease. I wonder how much difference in traction can water possibly make or is it for other things as well?