Been fighting this issue for about 6 or 8 months. Finally decided to dig into my daily or multiple day reairups. Found that it’s the inside bead at what looks like where the rim was welded together. I have dry sand in the tire (60 or 90 pounds?) What ever a bag was. It’s been like this for 12 years. Trying to figure out if I need to pull the sand out and just put air back in with some sealant? Or if I can pop the bead and get it resealed with the sand in it. I can always add more weight to my three point hitch if I do pull the sand out. But I’ll probably not get all the sand out without taking the whole tire off the rim. Then I’ll have to do it to both tires. Any advice?
Not sure how the sealant and sand would work well ot just mess things up for the next time you take tire off. If you just try popping the bead it would seem you might have a problem with sand getting where you don't want it. I'm not really sure.
My advice is not what you want to hear. Why constantly chase the problem? Pop the tires off, get the sand out, clean the tires and rims. There is an old working man's adage: Why is there never time to do things right, but always time to do them over?
Im just trying to figure out the best route. I’m tired of blowing it up all the time. That’s why yesterday I finally took it off to check on it. I figured I ran something through it. But no, I loaded the tires for a reason, since I work my loader fairly hard. But I do have the heavy cast wheel weight on them. Plus 6 suit case weights on the back end.
Can the leak be welded up/patched from the outside? Think the sand wore through it? The local OPE dealer here loads tires using elcheapo windshield washer fluid...
I used winterizing stuff for campers on my old Craftsman mower. That was fun to put in… Might try to take a picture of it tonight..
Sounds like the surface of the wheel where the bead sits is not smooth enough to seal airtight? If that's the case, you need to pull the tire and sand down/smooth the rim and repaint. Then you should be able to use the sand again.
I haven't heard of sand being used to load tires either. Washer fluid, RV antifreeze, sure. I would think the sand would just be abrasive and cause more issues. It sounds like the leaks need to be found, then welding needs to be done. Maybe it can be done from the outside and you can get lucky and not have to dismount a tire?
I bet the bead can just be broke down on that side and some bead sealer applied...problem solved. Unless you are saying that it is leaking right through the rim...like pin holes?
Dry sand as tire ballast is a first for me - but for something that never sees high speed.... interesting. Sure doesn't look like it's the cause for your problem. I'm surprised there's paint inside the rim, I would've thought years of sand in there would have it to a mirror finish! My opinion on loading small tires - rarely can you get enough weight in them (with liquid) to make it worth all the hassle that can come down the road. Even small tire and valve stem repairs can be complicated by the presence of (liquid) ballast. The 26x12-12 that's normally on that tractor is pretty borderline as far as being "worth it". If you have two bags of sand in the rears, that's typically 80lbs/bag. So I'll do some back of the napkin - rough guesstimating. I don't know the exact geometry of the hitch for the X720, but just guesstimating, I'd say about 3 42lb cast iron weights (standard) would easily make up for the loss of 160 lbs of wheel ballast while lightening the load on the front axle by 55ish pounds. Bonus!
Well let me pose this question. Say I take out the sand in the tires. That still leaves me with my "normal" weights: (2) 72lb rear wheels & (6) 42lb quick attach for my 3pt hitch. Would it be more beneficial to add an addition 50'lb wheel weight on each side (I have them already) or to add additional weight to the 3pt hitch.
3pt hitch weight always does double duty of adding ballast and reducing front-axle load. All good stuff for loader work, as long as the front isn't too light with nothing on the loader. Think of your tractor as a 1st Class Lever with the rear axle as the fulcrum, that's how ballast behind the rear axle will affect the tractor. The wheel ballast will certainly contribute to traction and help hold the rear down, but contributes nothing to lightening the load on the front-end. That's not a bad thing, that's just physics. And there's plenty of reason to want to add ballast and not make the front lighter, but I do like to keep the front as light as practical with the loader mounted and empty. If you aren't popping wheelies and/or having steering issues with an empty bucket mounted, I'd add ballast to the 3pt until you reach the 450lb capacity of the 3pt hitch or run out of room on the weight bar. (Heavy Hitch?) If you are out of room or capacity on the hitch, then I'd go ahead and add your wheel weights.
That rim looks bent to me, like you have ran something over & tweaked it. I would take the tire off & clean everything thing off & check that rim for round, then refill it with sand & carry on. If you only have to mess with it every 12 years it’s a non issue.
Took it over to the Uncle’s he had a bead breaker. Took some muscle to get it done. Where it was leaking the tire had like glued itself to the rim. Cause once that portion broke the rest just fell off…. Cleaned it up and put some bead sealer on it.
