Plugging a tire..

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...

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.

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 :)

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.

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.

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.

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...

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...

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.

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