Can trailer tires be patched?

I guess I'm clueless about tires after 44 years in the auto repair business. So sorry to interject cautions into some of ya'll's fantasies. Towing my boat to the ramp in the neighborhood? Sure. Lawn mower tire? Sure. Headed to Arizona? No way Jose.

Grit dog wrote:
@bucky, how many plugged tires you had self destruct in a short time, or ever?

I'm working on a 50% failure rate. Luckily the tires didn't fail - just the plugs!

Caveman Charlie wrote:
I've had a lot of tire plugs in my life. My local mechanic says that the insurance won't let him use them anymore. Too bad. Then the right circumstance they would work fine.

But, the picture of the tire with the big bolt in it is not something I would do. It's to big of a hole. A nail is fine but, a bolt is to large of a hole for me to feel good about it.

To each their own. Have a nice day.

Plugs are probably OK in ATV and other off road vehicles where the tires are sometimes impossible to dismount unless you have special equipment, even in a tire shop.

For a highway tire at the speeds driven, with weights carried, they are just a liability waiting to bite one in the posterior. Even retreads have almost totally disappeared from auto and light truck use due to the high failure rate. Commercial tires are often built with retreading/re-grooving planned in their future and the tire "carcass" is a lot stronger.

klutchdust wrote:
In the early days working at a gas station we used rubber plugs, then they came out with a mushroom plug you put in a device that inserted it into the tire. Kind of like what they use today with the exception of dismounting the tire and installing it from the inside.
The rag type came into play and shown good results. For every story there will be someone that had a failure, my guess is the successful plug repair outnumbers the failures. HAven't seen any accident reports with the headlines "plugged tire grenades and kills many..."
So...for those old schoolers that grew up scraping' and savin' and doing whatever it took continue with what you know works. for the others.....

... saying a driver would be fired on the spot caught with a tire plug kit..:R

Those old rubber plugs (that looked more like a rivet) were nothing like what tires are repaired with today. There was nothing holding them in place other than air pressure on the inside and also nothing to actually keep air from migrating into the tire's cord body and cause separations. Today's "Plug Patch" Combination units have the pre-cured rubber coated with a chemical vulcanized compound that hot only holds the patch unit in place but forms a barrier to air attempting to infiltrate the cord body.

Tire manufacturers and tire chains that offered warranties started to exclude any tire repaired with a plug from warranty consideration. All based on testing by the tire industry's association testing and data gathering.

Ever since the Firestone 500/Ford Explorer fiasco tire companies became far more risk averse than they were prior to that.

As for firing a driver because they carry a plug kit, the story related is a perfect example of why. Rather than waiting for a proper repair, the driver decided he knew better and ended up destroying a tire that could cost the owner up to $600 or more.

I've had a lot of tire plugs in my life. My local mechanic says that the insurance won't let him use them anymore. Too bad. Then the right circumstance they would work fine.

But, the picture of the tire with the big bolt in it is not something I would do. It's to big of a hole. A nail is fine but, a bolt is to large of a hole for me to feel good about it.

To each their own. Have a nice day.

In the early days working at a gas station we used rubber plugs, then they came out with a mushroom plug you put in a device that inserted it into the tire. Kind of like what they use today with the exception of dismounting the tire and installing it from the inside.
The rag type came into play and shown good results. For every story there will be someone that had a failure, my guess is the successful plug repair outnumbers the failures. HAven't seen any accident reports with the headlines "plugged tire grenades and kills many..."
So...for those old schoolers that grew up scraping' and savin' and doing whatever it took continue with what you know works. for the others.....

... saying a driver would be fired on the spot caught with a tire plug kit..:R

dedmiston wrote:

Grit dog wrote:
@bucky, how many plugged tires you had self destruct in a short time, or ever?

Put me down for a "zero", boss. My plugs have all held.

I have had several I suspect, and at least 3 I am sure of. Costly enough that I told all my drivers if I saw a plug kit in their truck, they where fired on the spot.
Last 1 was rated at 11,800 lbs at 130 lbs pressure. End of 3rd day, found nail hole center of tread. Told driver to call tire shop, if could not be patched safely for steer, replace it. Driver decided to plug. But what could not be seen from outside was the steel caused the nail to go in at angle. He worked to get the plug to straight in. The plug sealed the tread real good. Next morning that tire had a bulge half the size of my head. Broke it down, on the inside the plug missed the hole by half inch. If we had put a load on the truck that night the truck would of been tore all to swell.
Other times blowout I suspect caused by slow leak in a day's run.

Grit dog wrote:
@bucky, how many plugged tires you had self destruct in a short time, or ever?

Put me down for a "zero", boss. My plugs have all held.

bucky wrote:

time2roll wrote:
I would skip the dismount, push in the plug, check pressure and roll. If it is loose push in 2 - 3 plugs.

Stop 15 miles later, repeat. Order parts for body repair needed.

Done it hundreds of time. No body work.

@bucky, how many plugged tires you had self destruct in a short time, or ever?