Go BottomCalcium or Magnesium in the tires
 | kba7023
Join Date: Jul 2003 Posts: 11 ma 
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2002-04-14 37413
Has anyone ever heard of using magnesium in the tires for weight instead of calcium. I was told by the dealer he would us magnesium because it will not rot the rims.
What do you think?
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| Morgan
Join Date: Jul 2003 Posts: 126 Albany, NY
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2002-04-14 37414
If the only purpose of using calcium or magnesium is to prevent freezing, then why the heck don't they just use regular antifreeze with rust retardant in it? That stuff sits in engines with cast iron blocks for years and never rusts anything. Why calcium? The price is not the reason, they charge an arm and a leg for the stuff. The price they charge for calcium cloride solution is a rip off, you can buy a whole bag of the solid (they sell it for melting ice on your driveway) and mix it in water yourself, it's dirt cheap, and you add water, which is basically free. Where do they get off selling 50 pound bags of "calcium" for $39? that's almost a buck a pound? It's just water with a little CaCl in it. Cripes, you can mix your own for calcium solution for probably 39 cents for 50 pounds! ....
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| Roy Jackson
Join Date: Posts: 1
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2002-04-14 37417
I'd be really curious to know how the magnesium is mixed in with the water. I wasn't aware that magnesium is even water soluble.
I do know that it's pretty easy to light off as a powder or dust...burns quite hot, too. ....
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 | BillMullens
Join Date: Jun 2000 Posts: 649 Central West Virginia 
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2002-04-14 37419
Magnesium is a metal. I can't imagine how it could be used as a tire ballast. I'd love to hear more about that.
Antifreeze is used as a tire ballast, but some people don't like to use it because it is poisonous to animals that may drink it.
Bill
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| TomG
Join Date: Feb 2002 Posts: 5406 Upper Ottawa Valley 
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2002-04-15 37422
I've never heard of magnesium in tires either, but it sounds expensive and several pretty well established alternatives are available. The dealer probably was thinking of a magnesium salt. I think most chlorides are water-soluble.
A salt like magnesium chloride probably is less corrosive than CACL, because magnesium is a more active metal than calcium, which provides a more neutral balance for the fairly strong chlorine ion. Please don't hold me to details though, I’ve been away from basic chem for a long while.
Actually, I've never understood the corrosion issue. I thought most people who load tires put tubes in them. Unless there's a puncture I can’t understand why there’d be any corrosion except for some dribbling around the valve stem hole.
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Add PhotoCalcium or Magnesium in the tires
| Morgan Wright
Join Date: Posts: 1
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2002-04-15 37428
Hey Roy and Bill, calcium and magnesiom are BOTH metals!! They don't fill tires with calcium metal either, just the cloride. Calcium metal is soft, even softer than lead, you can cut it with a jack knife. You never see calcium metal because it's so reactive, it oxidizes quickly if exposed to air. When you put calcium metal in water it fizzes and turns into calcium hydroxide and hydrogen gas.
Magnesium is almost as reactive as calcium, but magnesium solutions are common, such as milk of magnesia and magnesium sulfate and magnesium cloride that you always find in hard water, it's one of the minerals in tonic water. ....
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