Molasses water

I'm pretty sure it here that someone suggested a molasses water mix to put inside my little tractor tires . The steel rims are already a little rusty , I don't want to rot 'em out . Any suggestions from anyone on a solution strength ?

Reply to
Terry Coombs
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Rust does not get better by itself, so start with cleaning and repainting (or powdercoating) them. At which point new good quality tubes and CaCl are a perfectly good option, so long as you fix them when they start leaking. CaCl does not "cause rust" without a leak. No leaks, no rust. However...

Molasses is probably going to be an expensive way to go. Evidently an attempt to home-grow "RimGuard" (generically, sugar beet juice) which is ~11 lbs per gallon. Roughly 1.319 specific gravity. If you want RimGuard try to find a local dealer, it's probably cheaper than buying molasses. But local supplies/availability may vary. Corn syrup is about the same weight, might be cheaper. For an expensive fill you could go with maple syrup. White sugar should be terribly expensive but is often considerably cheaper than molasses, due to some sort of market silliness. In all cases if you can order (or have ordered for you) "commercial kitchen quantities" it will usually be cheaper (50 lb sacks or 5 gallon buckets) but don't miss the silly sale at the supermarket if they mark sugar down to an absurdly low price. You'd need roughly 10 lbs per gallon of fill (mix 2 sugar to 1 water on a volume basis, heat and stir to dissolve, get roughly the same volume of syrup as your starting volume of sugar)

Or you could plant some sugar beets and grow your own;-)

Reply to
Ecnerwal

Using it for derusting, 1 molasses to 9 water.

For ballast, either straight molasses or molasses and a VERY small amount of water, based on the density of the beet juice product (molasses is about 12 lbs/gallon.) The de-rusting thread mentioned getting molasses at the feed store (horses) which might be the cheapest way to get it.

Reply to
Ecnerwal

Looks like it's going to be a box of rocks then . Maybe a couple of bags of sand on the fenders over the back wheels too . I have the stock to build a box to hang on the back , just need to figure out how to keep the trailer hitch accessible .

Reply to
Terry Coombs

Using a saturated solution of molasses, white sugar, etc will certainly get the most weight into the wheels. However, using only enough to get the freezing point below your winter temperature will allow you to get most of the benefit (the water's weight) with a much lower cost.

Reply to
Bob Engelhardt

How about a solution of water and comet bathroom cleaner (the green powder in the green can) ?

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Reply to
mogulah

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