Four Safety Considerations for Your Next Tire Ballast

Safety is key when operating heavy duty machinery. Whether you manage thousands of acres of crops, keep a hobby farm, run a commercial landscaping business or prep your land for gardens and planting, safety is important. Safety not only applies to yourself or your employees, but also to the environment and any animals that may live on your property.

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When choosing a tire ballast that helps add weight to your tractor and keeps it balanced, safety should be a top priority. Here are four things to consider when choosing the right liquid tire ballast for your unique needs.

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1. Is it safe for animals and the environment?

Most tractor owners are conservationists by their nature.   They love their land and value their natural resources.   Whether those natural resources are soil, water or wildlife, they recognize the proper choice of inputs will help their property flourish.  The use and potential discharge of the wrong chemical risks creating damage to crops, livestock, waterways and even equipment.    

Stewardship and conservation is at the heart of every farm.  Farmers and ranchers do not need regulators to instruct them on how to conserve their resources so that the farm is sustainable for generations to come.  They inherently know excessive levels of any product can become a pollutant.    

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One-way farmers and ranchers are mitigating risk is transitioning from calcium tire ballast to the environmentally sound choice Rim Guard Beet Juice Tire Ballast. The ballast’s proprietary mixture is made from a byproduct of the sugar beet manufacturing process, making it natural. In fact, should any of the product spill, you don’t have to worry. Rim Guard is harmless to animals and may even be beneficial for plants.  

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Scott Sylvester of Union Farm Equipment in Union, Maine, had this to say about Rim Guard.  

“When you compare Beet Juice to calcium chloride, calcium kills grass and rusts out rims and Beet Juice will not. Beet Juice is non-toxic to animals, which is something you can’t say about calcium. If you were transporting Beet Juice and a spill occurred, you would not have to worry about it causing any environmental damage because it is environmentally safe.”

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2. Does it give your tractor enough weight and traction?

When installed properly, liquid tire ballast is extremely effective in balancing the weight of heavy-duty tractors and equipment. The added weight in the tires lowers the center of gravity, preventing tipping on the job. This is especially important when operating your tractor on a sloped landscape or utilizing a bucket to lift and transport heavy items like fertilizer, feed, gravel, or trees. When choosing a liquid tire ballast to provide this weight and balance, you have many options, such as methanol, windshield washer fluid and water, but you should consider Rim Guard.

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Rim Guard Beet Juice Tire Ballast is the heaviest, non-corrosive liquid ballast on the market at 10.7 pounds per gallon, with only chloride — a corrosive and toxic compound — equaling that weight. This important choice offers the weight necessary to safely operate your tractor in a variety of environments for a vast number of jobs.

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Justin Hess of Hess Farm Tire in Andover, New York said, “Rim Guard Beet Juice is the heaviest non-corrosive tire fill option. When people load their tires, they want the most weight possible. As an example, windshield washer fluid is 30% lighter than Beet Juice. Comparing the same number of gallons of each, they are getting 30% more weight with Beet Juice.”

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He continued, “We live in hilly terrain and filling tires with Beet Juice puts the weight lower than if you had iron weights bolted on the wheel. It makes the tractor much more stable, which is very important when working on side hills.”

3. Is the product non-toxic?

Commonly used chemical liquid tire ballasts — including methanol, windshield washer fluid and chlorides — are toxic to the environment, to livestock and to the people who handle these products. 

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Windshield washer fluid usually contains methanol, posing many of the same risks to animals and humans, and is unsafe if it leaks into groundwater. Ingesting chloride is also a serious safety and health risk. It can cause burns to the mouth, throat, and stomach. Direct contact with the skin can result in irritation or burns. In addition to the risks that chloride poses to animals and humans, it can contaminate soil and groundwater and rust anything metal that it comes in contact with.

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Sylvester commented on his past experience using calcium chloride. “When you are mixing calcium, your skin is exposed to the product and that is very hard on your skin, clothes and equipment . . . and if you have a cut on your hand, you will know it!”

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If you choose methanol, calcium chloride, or even windshield washer fluid as your tire ballast, you have to be extremely cautious during transportation, installation, and disposal. It’s not just ingestion or skin exposure that can be harmful — sometimes simply inhaling the vapors of these chemicals can harm animals or humans.

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With the increased risks to humans comes increased costs in the form of safety precautions and time. For example, both calcium chloride and windshield washer fluid require tubes to be utilized in the tires for safety. If and when spills do occur, they must be remediated right away to minimize contaminating the surrounding area.

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4. Is it flammable or corrosive to machinery?

Harsh chemicals not only harm plants, animals and humans; they can also corrode your machinery itself, resulting in frustrating and costly repairs or eventual replacement of your equipment.  

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The most commonly sold liquid tire ballasts are corrosive. As mentioned earlier, chloride is a harsh compound, making it highly corrosive, even in smaller amounts. This compound requires tubes for installation in your tractor tires, but tubes are not fail-safe. Leaks can occur, resulting in destroyed rims and valve stems. In fact, chloride ballasts can rust through some tractor rims after just a few years of usage.  

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Methanol is flammable, corrosive, lightweight and can degrade tires. Windshield washer fluid is also corrosive and lightweight.  Both methanol and windshield washer fluid weigh less than 8.5 pounds per gallon.

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It’s a good thing that corrosive chemicals aren’t your only option for an effective tire ballast. Beet Juice Tire Ballast is the heaviest, non-corrosive liquid ballast on the market today, as noted in AG Daily (https://www.agdaily.com/technology/rim-guards-beet-juice-leading-liquid-tire-ballast-option/) . The natural makeup of beet juice is what makes this raw material such an effective liquid tire ballast. In fact, Beet Juice Tire Ballast provides both significant weight and freeze protection, staying in liquid form all the way down to –35 degrees Fahrenheit.  

Why it matters

We know that safety is important to you, and that this principle extends from yourself and your staff to the environment, animals, and valuable machinery. When choosing a tire ballast that’s not only effective but serves as a viable alternative to harsh chemicals, you can make an investment in health and safety while improving performance.

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If you’re interested in getting Beet Juice Tire Ballast, just head to https://www.rimguardsolutions.com/find-a-dealer find a dealer near you.

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‍(For more comparison of available ballasts, go to https://rimguardsolutions.com/post/comparison-of-tire-ballasts)

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We hope this article on choosing and using a non-corrosive liquid tire ballast has been useful! ‍

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If you have questions, concerns, or want other helpful hints about Rim Guard Beet Juice Tire Ballast, please call us at 616-608-7745 or email info@rimguardsolutions.com.  ‍

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If you want additional information or are interested in becoming a dealer, please fill out the form at https://www.rimguardsolutions.com/become-a-dealer or email info@rimguardsolutions.com to schedule a quick, 15-minute phone call.

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