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Mitsubishi 4WD Club Trevs' Tip 32. |
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Trev’s Tips Tubeless tyre repairs
It’s been a while now since my last Trev’s Tips but a few things have come to my attention lately that I thought people may be interested in, so here we go.
I never would have thought that those round black things that our cars sit on could cause so many interesting discussions. I recently went into my local Auto one store to buy some patches for my children’s push bikes but became side tracked by some different types of glues and patches for cars that I had not come across before. The store manager, was quick to come and offer some help and we ended up chatting for about 20mins on many various issues to do with tyres. Some of these discussions I’ll bring up at another time but the one I thought would be of most interest to everyone was on the topic of tubeless tyre repairs.
We all know about the plugs that can be used to make minor repairs to tyres that have been staked by a nail or similar and many of us have used them to make effective repairs in the bush. Something I have always been curious about is the warnings that often accompany the packaging of these plugs reminding us that these plugs are only a temporary repair and the tyre should be fixed properly by a tyre repairer as soon as possible. I’m not sure how many of us do this, but I know I sure don’t. In fact last time I put new tyres on my car I counted a total of 14 plugs that had been used across the 4 tyres.
So far I have never had a problem with these plugs lasting for extended periods of time as an effective repair, however the Auto One manager made the comment that there have been reports where the plugs have stopped working for whatever reason obviously causing the tyre to go flat and in some case causing a blow out. If this happens to occur on the front wheel of the car it may result in a rollover.
The other point that I was not aware of is that (according to the manager) these plugs are illegal to use as a permanent repair and if it was ever proven that an accident was caused by a blow out from using these plugs we would not be covered by insurance and may be held liable for any personal injury to others.
My understanding has always been that tyre repair outlets just use these plugs in the same way we do to effect a repair but apparently not.
There are special plugs that should be used for more permanent repairs after we have safely made our way back to civilisation using the string plugs. One of them is pictured. The idea is that the large flat disc at the end of the plug stops it from ever being pulled right though the tyre and therefore makes them safer to use. At only $2.50 a plug they are a pretty cheap alternative to the string plugs we all use however the downside is that they need to be put into the hole to be repaired from the inside first, meaning the tyre will need to be taken off the rim.
The wire on the end of the plug is pushed through the hole and then a pair of pliers can be used to pull the plug the rest of the way through so that the disk on the end pulls up hard against the inside of the tyre. A quick note here: Before you remove the tyre from the rim put a mark on the tyre and rim so that when you put the tyre back on again in exactly the same orientation you may not need to get it rebalanced.
A good quality glue should be used with this job and they don’t come any better than Rema Tip Top (used by all the tyre shops). I have previously had lot of trouble finding it in stores and have had to resort to ordering some through the tyre dealers until I found it in the Kalamunda Auto One store. There are two main types. The tubed glue in the photo above (special cement) is specially for the plug repairs while a slight variation on this is used just for patches on tubes.
I can’t say that I won’t keep using the old string plugs in the same way I have always done but at least now I’m more aware that tyres plugged like this should not be used on the front wheels and if I do need to take a tyre off the rim for some reason then I can replace all the sting plugs with these proper ones at the same time.
Till next time
Happy 4wding
Trev Junk is something you've kept for years and throw it away three weeks before you need it.
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