Plugging a tire..

[falconbrother]

Scenario: You're out on the road, pulling the travel trailer and discover a screw in your rear tire. What do you do.

I pulled the screw and stuck a plug in it. So far so good. But, not sure it's a great idea to do a lot of towing on that..

Thoughts?

[mkirsch]

philh wrote:
I bought the boulder kit, and it's extremely well constructed
https://bouldertools.com/products/56-piece-heavy-duty-tire-repair-kit

LOL, I love how 52pcs wasn't good enough so they threw in four of those worthless valve extension caps...

[Samsonsworld]

I've had plugs go 40k miles with no issues and I've had plugs develop a slow leak after 10k miles or so. Usually depends on location or type of tire. I'm about 50/50 on or near the sidewall where you get a little more flex but sometimes, it beats a new tire. And higher the ply, the better they seem to work....but the harder they are to get in.

[philh]

Campfire Time wrote:

philh wrote:
I bought the boulder kit, and it's extremely well constructed
https://bouldertools.com/products/56-piece-heavy-duty-tire-repair-kit

That's a cool kit. Amazon has it.

ppine wrote:
Plugs nearly always leak.

I guess you didn't read any of the responses in the thread...

I got that kit directly from the mfg (they had a sale going on) after struggling with getting my cheap kit to get the tire plugged on my wife's garage queen.

On my wife's garage queen, it's gone a few miles, at a few mph... nary a whisper of a leak 🙂

[time2roll]

ppine wrote:
In 1969 I was in Sundance, WY getting a tire repaired. The guy looked at the plug in it and said "Let me show you the Wyoming way." I never forgot that. He patched the tire from the inside with a lot of scuffing and he lit the glue on the tire and patch and put it together hot. It never leaked. Plugs nearly always leak.

Hot patch is classic old technology.
Now we have RTV glue... Room Temperature Vulcanizing.

[falconbrother]

Back when we were young, stupid and poor I plugged tires and rode them till they were slick. Never had one of those sticky string one's fail. I did have the rubber kind fail. I once plugged the tread edge of a sidewall. Finally took about 4 plugs to stop leaking. Got me home before it finally leaked too fast to go anymore. These days I tend to just replace the tire if it's halfway to worn out. But, this tire still has a lot of tread on it. Heck, when I was young and much crazier than I am now I plugged a front tire on a Gold Wing and rode it 1000 miles home. That was stupid.. But, it did the trick.

[bgum]

Wyoming way has not been seen since the '50s. You forgot to include wiping the area with a gas soaked rag before the wire brush and the the hot patch. Worked at a real service station during school days. Fixed everything from large truck tires to car tires. Didn't have a cage so we put large truck tires under car lift to air up. We gave the customer a choice between patch or plug when fixing car tires. Different charges also. Never had a plug leak. We did have some tubes that were patched leak. But tires didn't last as long as they do now. Both ways are ok.

[BenK]

Okay...TV's, so not going to be running over 100 MPH...or often...

Just noodle why tires speed rating goes out the window when it is patched/plugged/etc and need to ask the tire OEM if it is still speed rated for what is molded on the sidewall...

[Campfire_Time]

philh wrote:
I bought the boulder kit, and it's extremely well constructed
https://bouldertools.com/products/56-piece-heavy-duty-tire-repair-kit

That's a cool kit. Amazon has it.

ppine wrote:
Plugs nearly always leak.

I guess you didn't read any of the responses in the thread...

[ppine]

In 1969 I was in Sundance, WY getting a tire repaired. The guy looked at the plug in it and said "Let me show you the Wyoming way." I never forgot that. He patched the tire from the inside with a lot of scuffing and he lit the glue on the tire and patch and put it together hot. It never leaked. Plugs nearly always leak.

[philh]

I bought the boulder kit, and it's extremely well constructed
https://bouldertools.com/products/56-piece-heavy-duty-tire-repair-kit

[Grit_dog]

If a shop is plugging tires, they're old school. To my knowledge shops aren't allowed to plug tires anymore.
That said, I've used boxes of tire plugs over the years. The odd 1 here or there may leak, but if given the ability and tools, I'd plug a tire on the vehicle before changing it on the side of the road.
I'd plug a tire at home unless the tire won't hold a plug.

Reminds me, just plugged a tire on a car we bought a couple weeks ago. Found a screw in tire the night before my wife and son were leaving x country with it. No tire shops open at 9pm or 4 am!
But I need to get more, only got 2 left!

[Nomadac]

This is what is recommended.
https://www.tireindustry.org/tire-maintenance/tire-repair

[Tvov]

"My" mechanic at the local shop says it has been decades since he has patched a tire from the inside. Besides the plugs holding fine, if the hole/damage is too big for a plug and possible a patch would work, they go ahead and replace the tire. Liability / insurance reasons mostly.

I actually don't use cement/glue on my plugs - I found that many times it can make the plug too slippery. "Fresh" plugs are gooey enough and hold just fine... I have found that plugs can dry out and be worthless. I usually don't find that out until I really need one........

[eHoefler]

Alot depends on the quality of the plug. You Walmart no name may work or not. I have been using Camel plugs for radial tires for years, never had one fail. Matter of fact, they are low temperature vulcanizing, which means, the will become permanent after a heat cycle in the tire. They become almost impossible to remove.