Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat Tires for stucture: your vote?

I'm curios to know how many of you have used tires in your lake vs. those who have not.

I have not used any to date, but I'm considering it more and more. In my mind, it seems a tad unnatural (not like the wood pallets I put in are natural), and I wonder if there's any potential chemical breakdown years down the road. I'd like to hear your collective input.

And Dudley...great suggestion on the garden hose/tire thing. That will come in handy if I go the Goodyear/Michelin route.

I am using tires for structure and don't feel there are any ill effects. They will last for a very, very long time and should not release any harmful chemicals... certainly not in any quantities if they are good clean tires. Try to make sure the tires are clear of oil, tire patch goo or other obvious contaminants before putting them in the water. Tying them together in a means by which will keep them upright so they don't just become more 'debris' on the bottom is always a good idea. Unless you are using tractor tires which might make for good catfish spawning habitat if laid on their sides. If they float you can always drill a few holes in them to release air. Or weigh down the bottom half and use the air lift to hold them upright.

We have used lots of tires. Small tires, car tires, tractor tires you name it. We cut a hole in each side so that they will easily sink. We normally place them in the shallower water. We have watched bream, bass, and especially catfish all use them for spawning. You cannot see the tires under the water. We do not stack them for this reason. There are tires in our ponds that have been in there for 15-20 years. No negative affects that we know of.

The other good idea as far as tires go is one that was posted here on another thread. Cut the tire in half down the tread, attach something (fabric, etc) to cover the hole where the rim would've met the tire, fill with pea and egg sized gravel and you've got a great spawning bed.

WE also use tires in our small ponds if catfish are desired, seems one of the few ways to get them to spawn.Tires offer some good protection.WE anchor them (rimless)in 2-3 feet of water.

How do you cut a hole in the sidewall?

Dave -
Small hole - Drill
Medium Hole - Jigsaw with metal blade or grinder with metal disk
Large Hole - Saws-all

When I was a district fisheries biologist in Kansas, we used a lot of tire structures. Typically, we tried to make them as 3-dimensional as possible. For example, we would stand 6 tires upright, and use a thin steel cable to bind them together. Then we'd do a second row, and set them side by side. Then, we'd cable those two rows together. Then, we'd set a third row on top, and all of a sudden, you have 60 inches of height, rather than 30. All tires were punched (holes), as indicated by others, to let out gas bubbles.

We also made a big floating tire breakwater to cut down on wave erosion along an exposed shoreline. Again, a big (can't remember, must have been 3/4 or 1 inch steel cable that we got from miltary surplus) was used to hold the tires in place. These tires were not punched, as we wanted them to float. The anchors were big steel pipes that were anchored into deep concrete auger holes.

My primary point here is the steel cables to hold them together. There is nothing (in my opinion, I guess) that looks worse than tires floating up along your shoreline. Looks like trash to me. Don't tie the tires together with nylon rope or nylon straps. Eventually, they'll break, and you'll have a clean-up chore.

Dave

No need to cut or drill to sink a tire. Insert one end of a piece of garden hose into the air pocket while holding the other end out of water. The air will be released and the tire will sink.

Dudley -- I think that I neglected to give you enough information. The holes in the tires are not simply to allow them to sink. When organisms, such as bacteria, build up on the inside of the tires, they release gases. Probably the most commonly released gas is just carbon dioxide, the same as humans breathe out. Other gases can also build up (examples might be hydrogen sulfide [that rotten egg gas smell] or methane). Anyway, as these gases build up, they will of course rise to the highest spot in the tire, and an unweighted or unstaked tire will actually float to the surface. So, that's the reason for the holes -- to let gases escape over time.

Dave

I've never had a tire rise after sinking, David, but your point is undoubtedly valid. Well done!

Dudely,

Even if it's not the proper way to do it getting the tire to sink by using a water hose as an air outlet was at the very least a momentary stroke of guiness. Did I spell guiness right? Allowing harmful gases to escape down the road never entered my mind. I drilled, sawed, or poked holes in tires simply to get them to sink.

Gases of anabolism,
Gases of catabolism,
Gases that offend the nose;
The fact remains,
That to sink a tire,
Best use a garden hose.

Many thanks, Swampstalker. Hope you appreciate great poetry as well.

So it's basically two thumbs up for tires and some poetry to top it all off, garden hose or not.

So now I'm planning for the area of my lake to soon be called the Pallet & Tire Gardens...a palatial living community with minimal municipal taxation,...perfect for bass & cats featuring shaded & sunken upscale condos and circular, rubber studio apartments. No subletting of course...pets not allowed....subject to the frequent visits of sunbathing snapping turtles.....crayfish welcome...

You have me wanting to rent one, Sunil.

Dudley -- An aquatic poet! How rare. I am quite impressed. :-)

Dave

Just a note on tires when we sink em we prop open the beads of the tires for more surface area and this prevents them from closing up after time. They are great stucture and can be bolted together in different arrangements. Some we only leave beads open approx3" to give the little guys a safe spot.

Scott,

What do you mean by "beads?"

Cecil, I believe he means the portion of the sidewall that contacts and subsequently seals the tire to the rim. (The Bead as it is called)

Pottsy,

That's what I figured but wasn't sure.

Aw, shucks, Dave, it weren't nuthin. (You'll note that all the greats share the trait of modesty)

Pottsy:

I would like to create a few small piles of tires in specific areas along my dock out to the islands. The water is 5-7' deep. My goal is to watch the perch, bluegill, LMB and SMB possibly spawn in the clear water of the gravel pit or habitat around these fish attractors. How did you tie these tires to keep them upright and approx. how many did you use.....to create this. A more detailed process would be greatly appreciated. I will place on the ice beside the A. 60-70' of dock out to the island. A GREAT PlACE TO FISH AND WATCH IN BETWEEN THE UPCOMING WORK THIS SPRING, SUMMER AND FALL.

Thanks

Rowly

Rowly -

How big of a structure are you looking to build with the tires? I used wire and decking screws to hold the 'groupings' together.

Using the largest tires I could find (Which happen to be pickup, dumptruck and backhoe tires), I lined up a bunch of them in a row, sidewall to sidewall after drilling holes in all of them to ensure no air would be trapped. Then I ran 2x4's along the sides and used decking screws to secure the boards to the tires (The tread portion in this case), creating a long tube type of structure. Then I screwed more tires to each side of the 'tube' with the sidewall facing in. Then using more screws and wire I attached random pieces of metal, smaller spare tires and tree branches to the 'structure' to fill it out. You could make similar items by connecting a row of tires together sidewall to sidewall to make a 6 foot or greater length, then attach 4 more tires to the side of the connected ones making a pseudo automobile/rolling sausage shape.

Have any of you guys used shipping palets to create structure? They usually are oak and there are many free sources of them.

I think I have about 20 pallets in my pond right now.. most were pine... seem good once I got them to sink by weighting/pegging them down. The funny thing is I live across the hwy from a company that makes pallets and all of mine come from other sources. They have stacks of old pallets enough to fill my pond completly if I ever get around to asking.