Water in tires

mckeddie · Mar 28, 2016

Thinking of things I'm gonna do to the new buggy while I'm prepping to wheel it. ITs rear engine, so I'm thinking of putting in water in the fronts.

My simple dumbass question first, how do I get the water in the tires? It's got new racelines. I'm thinking pull the rings, and add water. Reinstall rings and add water. I'm thinking fill the 37's half way to start.

2ndly, how much added stress does the water add to the front end?

poolman · Mar 28, 2016

I'd put the water through the valve stems, much easier. Stress, I'd say anytime you add weight you add stress bit since you don't have much weight on the front you should be OK with good axles.

85toyo · Mar 28, 2016

Water fill adapter

http://www.polyperformance.com/Trail-Gear-Water-Fill-Adapter

RebelRider · Mar 28, 2016

85toyo said:
Water fill adapter

http://www.polyperformance.com/Trail-Gear-Water-Fill-Adapter

They also have these at tractor supply;

sappmann · Mar 28, 2016

put some rv antifreeze in with the water

mckeddie · Mar 28, 2016

RebelRider said:
They also have these at tractor supply;

I was gonna check there and rural king tommorrow.

patooyee · Mar 28, 2016

poolman said:
I'd put the water through the valve stems, much easier. Stress, I'd say anytime you add weight you add stress bit since you don't have much weight on the front you should be OK with good axles.

I don't know for sure but it would seem to me that it's not like the stress of actually having a heavier tire. Since the water just sloshes around in there and would seemingly not resist torque I would think that having 100 lbs of water would be less stressful to the drivetrain than having 100 lbs of extra tire in the same diameter. For instance, I think the engine could just as easily spin the tire with water in it (except for the added traction) but would still be more weight to carry up a hill. Just having a heavier tire would make it more difficult for the engine to spin since (in addition to the added traction) as well as more weight to carry up the hill. I'm not an engineer so maybe I'm wrong.

85toyo · Mar 28, 2016

RebelRider said:
They also have these at tractor supply;

Didn't think about that. I've got water in my tractor tires but I've never had to mess with them.

Rokcrler · Mar 28, 2016

This is what I use

Beerj · Mar 28, 2016

patooyee said:
I don't know for sure but it would seem to me that it's not like the stress of actually having a heavier tire. Since the water just sloshes around in there and would seemingly not resist torque I would think that having 100 lbs of water would be less stressful to the drivetrain than having 100 lbs of extra tire in the same diameter. I'm not an engineer so maybe I'm wrong.

I agree with this. I think the increase in torsional resistance would be minimal.

joshuacrowe · Mar 28, 2016

Depending on how much, it can be much harder on parts. With good parts, you might not notice, but it will help find weak links if you drive hard enough. A simple way to look at it is that you get a dead blow effect. If the tire doesn't bounce and slip as easy, there is more shock/abrupt stops/traction absorbed by other parts. Try pushing a water filled tire and you'll be surprised how much harder it is. Now try something like lead shot that doesn't "slide" inside as easy and you will really have to work for it.

It is definitely more stress on parts but the benefits can be well worth the trouble.
The fill adapters are slow but they work. We have put water valves in wheels before and that is a little better. You can find them where you find the adapter usually. If you have the rings off, dump it in and then put the rings on. Use a gallon jug or 5 gallon bucket if you want to know how much you put in and don't have a scale. For reference, we run 37s filled half way. Much less and you don't get the full effect. I know some crawlers have run completely full 37s and 40s. That gets to be really heavy obviously.

money_pit_yj · Mar 28, 2016

Put methanol in the water. Helps keep from freezing in less poisonous than antifreeze. I have a chart I can look at to give you recs on tractor tire.

RustyC · Mar 28, 2016

38 x 12.5 sx in the buggy. 17 gallons in each front tire. The buggy, rear engine, is very close to 50/50 before adding the water. So far the only weak part to show up is a unit bearing but it had been raced on and trail miles too.
I noticed back during the winter when on a smooth ledge (think boatramp) that the rear tires would spin and dry the water from the center of the tread while the fronts would just spin and stay wet.
I added the water and notice the traction is much better but it does seem to suck up the hp. I'm running a 4.3 th350 205 and 5.13 gears, the added traction has me wanting more hp really bad. I think adding another 100 to the 200 I've got should do nicely.
I do not notice any sloshing or anything. I t is odd to be used to your tires slipping/spinning on stuff and now they don't a lot of the time/

vidio1 · Mar 29, 2016

A lot of people with tractors use windshield washer fluid for their tires. It's less than $2.00 a gallon so around $25 a tire or so, plus it won't freeze solid well below freezing, just slushes. Also doesn't rust steel wheels more of a concern with tractors than crawlers. Just an FYI

sap · Mar 29, 2016

I run 360 lbs in my front tires.

TURNEROFFROAD · Mar 29, 2016

Listening and learning

patooyee · Mar 29, 2016

sap said:
I run 360 lbs in my front tires.

Sorry if this should be obvious to me, but I'm assuming that's 180 lbs per tire, not 360, right? So about 21.5 gal per tire?

Who would have thought a tire would hold that much?

If you're filling with the valve stem attachment how do you release the air that the water is displacing? And how do you tell how much you are putting in? Just put it on a scale and fill until you get where you want?

RustyC · Mar 29, 2016

I used a diaphragm air pump and transferred from a 5 gallon bucket through the pump into an adapter pictured above. The adapter has a button on it to purge the air as needed during the process.
A garden hose or "hose pipe" for us southerners can be used with the adapter without using a pump. I was able to keep count of the gallons as I filled.

If you are using the garden hose method you can clock the valve stem at 3 or 9 o'clock to fill the tire half full or 12 o'clock to fully fill.

Rokcrler · Mar 29, 2016

Re: Re: Water in tires

RustyC said:
If you are using the garden hose method you can clock the valve stem at 3 or 9 o'clock to fill the tire half full or 12 o'clock to fully fill.

This

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

84mallcrawl · Mar 29, 2016

water weighs 8.34 lbs per gallon
a 38x12.5x15 should hold a water space 36"dia x11" - 15"diax11" which is approximately 40 gallons times 8.34 gives you 333lbs