Question About 4wd'ing - Putting Water In Tyres

Hi all,

As a lot of you probably know, I'm an avid 4WDer.

I was talking to someone I recently met, who said they put a mixture of air and water in their tyres for better traction, as well as lowering tyre pressures (which is what you would normally do - without the water in the tyres).

I've never heard of this before and am wondering if it's (a) feasible (b) would actually improve traction (c) would cause any damage to tyres and (d) how you would actually do it?

Has anyone ever experienced this technique before?

I googled but nothing came up.

The person I spoke to said 4WD clubs frowned upon the technique. I don't know if that's because as a club they wouldn't even entertain such an idea, or if there's a reason ie safety or damage to tyres. Given tyres are so expensive these days (mine were nearly $3000) I'm not sure this sort of technique would be such a great idea, but I'm curious.

 

I've never heard of this before. I wonder if it would negatively affect road handling as it would give an unbalanced weight at lower speeds?

 

I have no idea. I don't think it would be very good to drive on once you got off the forest tracks and hit the bitumen. I certainly wouldn't fancy doing 100kph on tyres half filled with water (let alone 80 or 60 for that matter).

And what on earth would it do to the tyres? And how would you get the water out?

I sent the bloke a message and asked him how on earth you fill tyres with water. This was his reply (he advocates for only filling the back tyres with water and air to give more traction):

"when you let your back tyres down make sure your valve is at the top, unscrew valve slide garden hose over valve, make sure you unscrew hose nozzle first hold it on tight turn tap on half fill tyre then pump air in to the pressure you want".

 

The person you spoke of is right to frowned upon such technique. If you need traction you either adding fixed weight or if you were stuck in the mud use wooden planks tied to the tire's.

Water vapor inside the tire is bad for so many reason, adding fluid water into it will only make thing worse. In fact my personal practice is to suck all the air (including any water vapor) and re-pressurized using nitrogen, which is similar practice to that in aviation.

 

Unfortunately for you, not everyone living in Doomy-Gloomy such as you do. And most people (including myself) have more optimistic world view compare to those of you guys from Anglophone countries. Moreover I'm one of those folk whose been there, done that for real, while a lot of doomsayer on the internet forums haven't been there for real (merely theoretical)

 

Thanks varuna. I can't see how it can possibly be good in any circumstances.

Never heard of tying wooden planks to the tyres I have to say.

 

Well, that depends how much diesel you've stocked up ...

 

If anything happens where I am and I can't stay for whatever reason, I'll have enough diesel to go to another remote bush location.

 

https://gotreads.com/


Good morning Blitz,

I'm guessing that Varuna meant to use a different word. Regardless, his English is better than many faculty members at our famous institutes of lower education.

Properly spaced planks or boards in front of and behind tires can assist getting vehicle out of the mud.

Above link is a commercial version of the principle.

There are other materials used and longer lengths for sale at the off-road stores here.

Of course everything takes space to carry.

 

Good morning Poltiregist and Dale,

Eureka ! I have found it ! - - - Although I wasn't looking for it; was next to something I was looking for needed at my breakfast meeting I'm running late to.

Next to me is:

FM 20-22, Vehicle Recovery Operations, HQ, Dept of the Army, 1962, a time when Field Manuals of only 160 pages had more information - and pictures - than the new, even more improved trash.

My 2 brothers in arms from same frat house will surely appreciate seeing FM 20-22 on a MSF.COM thread.

 

Something like this, albeit this particular product use metal instead of wood



Disclaimer : I drive Daihatsu Feroza / Rocky for over 20 years (just sold it few months ago), and even when driving in muddy terrain (as in mud from last night mudslide with over 20m high cliff on the side) I rarely need 4WD. Driving off-road is more about having the "feel" of the ground and manual traction control (driving 3 pedals), along with payload weight distribution.

BTW might wanna try filling in your tire's with nitrogen rather than air. But also make sure your not just pumping nitrogen into the tire, but also sucking out the existing air and any water vapor along with it (this is fully computerized process)

 

How interesting! I have never seen them before. They're very similar to Maxtrax, but better in the sense that you wouldn't have to keep getting out of the vehicle. Plus they're more compact. Would definitely be a good bit of kit to keep in the back in case of getting severely bogged. I like the extender bars. Very expensive though.

 

Blitz, I know here that heavy equipment uses to use a lot chloride as weight in the tires. as the tire is spinning centrifugal force actually causes the weight to go where it's needed to keep things balanced. The chloride eats out the rims after years it it got moisture in it. Here is a link that goes in to it some in regards to farm equipment. I've never heard of doing it off road, like you say we always just aired down to a low PSI to allow more of the tire in contact with the ground to better disperse weight. This is also why may military vechicles have centralized air system to allow them to air up and down their tires depending on the terrain. I do believe that back in the day arctic exploration teams would fill their tires with fuel to use the strorage space and I believe it was to help with buoyancy in bogs or possible water crossings. I know I used to read that the Rokon motorbikes often found in prepper forums were to allow you to fill their big oversized tires with fuel also.

Filling a tire with water, unless the rim is made from something like aluminum I'd worry about it rusting the rim or if your in a cold climate it might freeze. Not sure whether it gains you any additional buoyancy in swamp or marsh area over a very low pressured tire. Unless somehow it lets you keep pressure up high enough to where you don't worry about breaking a bead but if your doing a lot of off road are you running bead lock wheels?

 

Thanks! What an interesting article! I had no idea ...

Beadlock wheels are illegal in Aus. If necessary, will reduce psi to around 15-16psi without tyre coming off the bead. In the past have run them to around 10-12psi and never had a tyre come off. Depends on tyres though. I'm on my second set of Goodyear Duratrac tyres, which are phenomenal I have to say. They're really expensive though, hence I wouldn't be too keen on doing anything that would damage the rims or tyres.

 

Liquids are sometimes used in tractor tires to add weight and gain traction, but I've never heard of them being used in any vehicle that might be driven at higher speeds.

 

I didn't even know it was used in tractor tyres, so I've learnt something.
I can't see that it would be a safe practice to use at high speeds myself. Even if it was effective, what do you do once you get back onto the black stuff? Usually you just air up, but you'd have to remove all the water. I would have thought anyway. Doesn't seem worth it to me, when there's other alternatives to get better traction.