Suspension issues....

[mrsmackpaul]

On 4/29/2025 at 7:02 AM, 70mackMB said:

l remember seeing him at New England Dragway in Epping NH a long time ago.

 

When we pulled garden tractors we always loaded up the beak to keep the nose on the ground. That way you maintained the 12" hitch height to pull down on the drive tires. The trick was as to how much weight you hung out out there to get it to float the front axle just off the ground.   

Chamberlain farm tractors, a Australian brand of tractor 

Anyway, the owners manual used to say that exact thing 

Fill the tyres with water, both steer and rear tyres 

Hitch the implement high enough that the front tyres are touching just enough to allow steering 

Those old Chamberlains would pull like a 16 year old, really bog down and pull

A couple of photos for reference of Chamberlain tractors 

 

Paul 

 

 

[Joseph Cummings]

21 minutes ago, mrsmackpaul said:

Fill the tyres with water, both steer and rear tyres

We used to use calcium chloride here. It was good for ballast, but corrosive as hell. If you use it in tubeless tires it destroys the rims

[Brocky]

Actually the calcium chloride was to keep the water from freezing.. before perminamate antifreeze.. Most of Australia does not have that problem..

[Geoff Weeks]

I always hear it was Methanol that was used, and that was the reason for 160 deg 'stats, to try to keep from boiling the alcohol out of the mix.

Calcium Chloride would eat the block, I would think, esp when heat is added to the mix.

Calcium and or magnesium chloride are used a ballast in tires, but can be hard on the rims.

[Brocky]

Geoff, I did NOT make myself clear!!! I was talking about tires,, Not cooling systems.

[Geoff Weeks]

Just now, Brocky said:

Geoff, I did NOT make myself clear!!! I was talking about tires,, Not cooling systems.

The fault may be mine also. I thought we were talking engines, and I see tires was the topic.

[Joseph Cummings]

2 hours ago, Brocky said:

Actually the calcium chloride was to keep the water from freezing.. before perminamate antifreeze.. Most of Australia does not have that problem..

It's also about 35% heavier than water and relatively cheap

[70mackMB]

Beet Juice. Says it's about 11 lbs a gallon. https://www.rimguardsolutions.com/      .....Hippy

[other dog]

I had a Muncie 4 speed in my hot rod Nova that I had when I was a kid (18), then I put it in a 70 Chevelle SS that I bought. I had a Hurst Competition Plus shifter on it, but when I saw some guys small block Vega with a vertigate shifter in it I thought I had to have one, just because it looked so cool.

But it wasn't nearly as quick as the Hurst, had a longer throw too, but it did look cool!

[Freightrain]

I have two of those shiftera under the bench.  Ran them for year with 4 spds.

Same basic shifter for the Nash 5 spd I used to run.  Reverse was back from 5th gear so no extra handle needed like in a 4 spd.