Agricultural chemicals are harder on wheels than weather is
Wheel corrosion is usually discussed as a weather problem. On farm equipment the weather is the smaller half of it.
Fertilizers are salts, and salts in contact with metal in the presence of moisture are a corrosion system doing exactly what it is designed to do. A wheel on a spreader, a tender trailer or anything that runs alongside them picks up residue, that residue draws moisture out of humid air, and the attack continues long after the job is finished.
The characteristic result is corrosion that is heavily concentrated rather than general. One wheel on a machine will be visibly worse than the others because of where the product landed, and the inside faces are often worse than the outside because nothing ever washes them.
What to do about it
Rinse after the application, not at the end of the season. The residue does its work while it sits. Rinsing the wheels, inside faces included, when the machine comes off a job removes most of the problem for the price of water.
Look at the inside faces specifically. That is where it concentrates and it is the part nobody sees.
Deal with it before it reaches the bead seat. Once the sealing surface is pitted the wheel starts leaking, and the tire gets blamed for it.
What refurbishing restores
Stripping, inspection, correction of what can be corrected, and refinishing, which puts the protective barrier back. The national wheel refurbishing page covers the process and why a leak is usually the wheel rather than the tire.
Wheels that have gone too far do not come back, and the inspection establishes which before work starts.
Time it with the casings
Casings going to the plant in Potosi, Missouri for retreading leave their wheels free, which is when this costs no downtime of its own. Between seasons is the moment for both.
About this store
The Jonesboro store runs seventeen services, opens at 7:00 AM, and is managed by Tony Kuehnel.
See the national wheel refurbishing page for all 42 locations.