Putting water in tires is a terrible idea on a skid steer. First of all you do not get much counterweight action. Second the rims will rust making tire removal difficult, and if you get a hole it is a pain to plug it. I have seen tractors where they mix lime with water and fill the tires, but a tractor is a totally different animal than a skid steer. A better way to counterweight skid steers is to build a bracket on the rear of the machine and add weights from excercise equipment or use axle-mounted iron weights. Adding steel tracks over the tires also works because they add stability and more weight than filling the tires. A friend's 743 had its capacity increased by adding 4 50 pound plates to each side of the machine behind the rear tires.

 

If you have a bobcat, they make an excellent set of axle weights. They bolt on over the axles and look good. You can get about 300lbs extra weight that way. The rear door can take two plates for an additional 75 lbs or so. foam filling tires helps but the ride is awful and it's real heavy after that.

 

I've even seen people try to fill their rear tires with lead shot, now that's was an interesting idea.
But the water and lime idea is also a bad idea even for tractors, they can be real fun to watch from behind as they travel at max. speeds and the mixture becomes unbalanced.

 

Dont add water
get counter weight kit for it

 

On my first machine, I had my tires foam filled. It may have aided stability to a degree but the main purpose for foam filling tires is so you don't have to fix flats all the freakin time.

The ride firmed up a little but nothing like a rigid track machine.

I would also recommend against using water for weight. Just too many things to go wrong and not enough benefit.

 

Fluid filled tires have there place but skidloaders are probably not one of them.

But as far as rim rusting, it takes a long time, we have tractors with calcium filled tires that are 30 years old with no ill effects.

 

Water filling is a bad idea where water freezes. Also, its not water plus lime, its water plus calcium chloride which forms a slush at about 13 degrees F. Calcium chloride is road salt, and you know what that does to steel. Tires that are filled are self balancing at speeds a tractor will go, not out of balance, unless they are froze hard. There is also methanol, commonly used around here, came along about the time we put the second set of tires on, less rust inducing than CaCl3, but same problems with repairs. Also, there is a new product made from Beet pulp, called rust beeter, but it still shares the repair problems. All my farm tractors, as they need repair, are getting steel weights, new rims as needed, because most came from the dealer with CaCl3, which was the most economical at the time of delivery. After 30 years of eating away at power adjust rims, it aint so cheap anymore! Steel is your best bet for ease of repair, and maintenance. Anecdote: A few years ago I bought a huge backhoe cheap to dig out a pipe behind our pond, hung the hoe on an ancient JD 440 industrial tractor, with loader. Even so, had to put a 1000 lb counterweight on the front, to keep steering weight on the front end of this contraption. Was driving along, kept hearing a clicky, doing noise, hear the clicky, feel the doing in the right fender, on the third clicky, I looked over the clamshell fender, just in time to see an ever expanding hunk of innertube fill the space between the fender and rotating tire, rapidly escaping the confines of the tire through a split in the inner sidewall, and unload about 60-75 gallons of mostly methanol, with just a taste of calcium chloride, right into my face! Lesson learned: If I hear clicky, doing, I stop, get off the machine, carefully look at the tire, from a safe distance!:laugh::laugh: