OT: passenger tire sidewall punture - repair/why not?

Recently I managed to puncture the 2 year old, never been on the road, spare tire for my utility trailer. The spare was laying loose in the trailer under a load of scrap lumber and I suspect a small nail pierced the sidewall. THere is no visible hole but once I reinflate the tire the leak is obvious. It is my understanding that tire shops do not repair sidewall punctures. Why - is it because the sidewall flexes more than the tread? THis is a relatively inexpensive 13 inch passenger car tire. It goes against my grain to throw something away that visually still has a full life left. I am inclined to put a patch on the sidewall but I do not want to do this if the risk is too great - not that I have a bead breaker / tire dismount tool to do this with. BUt my local Harbor Freight just happens to have such an animal on sale right now for $40 - about the same cost as a new tire. Looking for some rational thought why I should not spend just as much money to repair something as to replace it (but have the tool left over, cluttering up my storeage space). TIA. Off in Google land awaiting your responses.

Reply to
aribert
Loading thread data ...

I was explained that sidewalls are not repairable because of flexing.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus18077

yea too much flex, repairs to sidewalls are only made to get you home, I think I had one flat in the last 20 years, so that tool is going to clutter up your space for nothing

Reply to
steve

Put a tube in it.

Reply to
Tom Gardner

For what it's worth I've had a few tires with sidewall punctures that were repaired and never leaked. But the gas station that did it always said that they were not supposed to do this kind of repair and that it would probably fail. The repair plugs they used were brown colored lengths of what looked like flattened cord impregnated with some kind of really sticky goo. I have used similar plugs from the auto parts store but they were black. One tire that had a large hole in the tread was repaired with two of these plugs and the guy said that if it was the sidewall there was no way he would try to fix it. The sidewall punctures that were fixed were small punctures like you would get with a nail. ERS

Reply to
Eric R Snow

You can put a boot-type plug in from the inside, or you can put a tube in it. If you use a tube, clean the valve stem hole well and use some silicone or permatex between the rim and the tube's stem to keep water from entering and rusting the inside of the rim.

I've got an old tire machine, I don't use it much any more but it's nice to have when I need it- saves driving something to town to get a tire changed/repaired. Tires can really frustrating until you get the hang of it- especially radials. Look at the bead seating tanks with a dump valve, they're about the best way to get radial beads to seat. I've not built one yet because ether works pretty good for me.. but I've had a couple of tires that were very difficult to seat with ether and the tank would have worked better.

A ratchet strap wrapped around the tread and tightened will make a decent bead expander- but be sure to slack it off as soon as possible, I don't know what kind of tension can be put on one by inflating a tire that it's compressing but I suspect it's considerable, and the thing'd be likely to damage you if it broke.

John

Reply to
JohnM

Sidewalls are so thin these days a plug is hard to manage. I have put a patch on the inside where the hole is small. Otherwise put a tube in it.

Reply to
kk

There is a patch/plug design specifically for sidewalls. It looks like a big thumbtack made of rubber. "head" is a conventional patch, the "spike" is a reinforced plug. Insertion is from the inside and fairly straightforward. Any tire shop will have them, and will probably sell you one for a dollar or so. I have used this on a road-racing tire (probably the ultimate folly) but it held up fine. Of course, this was a $125 tire, not a $25 one.

THis is a relatively inexpensive 13 inch

That HF tool is a lot of work, even on a small tire. In your case I'd buy a tire and get on with your life. At the very least pay a shop to use the proper patch, and pay them cash, no receipt so they don't have to think about liability issues.

Rex B

Reply to
Rex B

Normally, the tire shop is correct. If they patch a car or truck tire with a sidewall puncture and it fails later because there was cord ply damage, they could be found partly liable. And their insurance company might not cover the claim because they didn't follow industry safety procedures, so they risk losing their business, house and cars... So shops are understandably rather gun-shy about doing it.

But it's a stupid trailer tire. No passengers. If it fails (even a full blowout) the trailer bounces for a while. Whoopee. ;-0

See if you can find a shop with an owner who can grok 'trailer' and will patch the hole to keep the water out, and install a radial tire rated innertube in it. They have a red stem so you won't forget which one it is.

If nobody will do it, buy the tube and put it in yourself - you only have to break one bead loose, and the "jumping up and down on the sidewall" method works fine for that. And you smear a bit of special Tire Mounting Lube on the bead so it goes back on the rim easier.

Buy a clip-on inflator stem and rig a remote air valve so you aren't standing right over the tire as you seat the bead, if they blow they go mostly straight up - and you really want to be standing outside of the 'cone of danger'.

Put the patched tire on the road, so you can wear it out. Then mount the other tire as the spare under or off the side of the trailer body, so you don't end up with another flat tire. A flat spare is worse than useless.

-->--

Reply to
Bruce L. Bergman

Retired mechanic here. My understanding is that things can happen in the sidewall during a puncture that don't happen in the tread area. The sidewalls are thinner and more flexible, but all parts of the tire flex so that's not much of a problem. The side plies can separate more easily and the thread structure can be more easily damaged. Both ply separation and thread damage lead to much quicker destruction of the tire due to its diminished structural intgegrity. Don't chance it. Even for spare tire use, do you want two horrible things to happen to you in one day? (I didn't think so. You wouldn't jump out of an airplane with a -patched- parachute, would you?)

Save your money. You'll seldom use a bead breaker and far more often will be away from home when you needed it. Just buy a new tire. This is one time in 1,000 that I'll suggest against buying a new tool. (It hurts, too!)

- Woodworkers of the world, Repent! Repeat after me: "Forgive Me Father, For I Have Stained and Polyed."

-

formatting link
Comprehensive Website Design

Reply to
Larry Jaques

Yes, the side walls flex too much and the patch will not hold long. There's nothing particularly wrong with going ahead and patching the tire for use as a spare; the odds certainly are the patch would hold long enough to get you home if a tire in use went flat. Or use a tube.

I had a 100,000 mile tire still with the pips on it that got vandalized with three staples in the side wall. I covered all the holes with two smallish patches and it went a couple of thousand miles before it took to leaking.

Reply to
John Keeney

Lucky man. I've taken to doing a FOD walk of my brothers ally before taking my car to his garage or just hanging around: average haul is about four items capable of causing a flat.

Reply to
John Keeney

Reply to
JR North

Hard to get =/= (does not equal) impossible to get.

Dodo birds are very extinct, they haven't been seen in over a hundred years, which kind of rules out a hidden flock on an uncharted island.

There are radial rated tubes out there, they aren't quite dead yet. Warehouse only, but the good warehouses will keep a small stock, and they can come out as part of their next regular order.

Some busier tire shops get one warehouse delivery daily, if not several for the different brands they sell. And the rest (except for the people way out in the boonies like Earwax, East Virginia, Population Six) get a truckload of new tires at least once a week, meaning you can order a tube and the wait should be reasonable.

-->--

Reply to
Bruce L. Bergman

For decades, I've also heard that sidewall repairs can't be done. A while ago, I got curious about tire patching products, and found numerous sources of equipment used specifically for sidewall repairs, and the required materials/kits used to perform the work. I can't recall seeing a passenger car tire which had been repaired in the sidewall region, although I've seen many examples of plugs that worked well, in the tread area.

For passenger car and small utility tires, I think it's mainly an issue of cost-effectiveness. Equipment, training, labor and materials dictate that the repairs won't be cheap. Fleet tires are the main market, I guess.

formatting link
Some of the literature available at websites pertaining to tire sidewall repair had pictures of big truck tires that had long gaping holes in them (some had numerous holes), after being prepared for repair. They claim that the repairs are reliable when done properly. I didn't actually see it stated, but I wouldn't think that tires with sidewall repairs would be suitable for steering tires.

I was a bit surprised to find out that the hot patches are still available in a wide variety of sizes and quantities. These are the kind I haven't actually seen for many years, where you do the surface prep, then open the patch and apply it, then light it with a match (some sort of solid fuel is in a metal backer).

formatting link
WB .............

Reply to
Wild Bill

I was told that a plug in the sidewall will not hold due to the lack of metal cords to hold it in.

Shawn

Reply to
Shawn

Shawn wrote in article ...

Plugs held up fine in bias-ply tires for years before steel (or even fiberglass) belts were introduced.

As a matter of fact, the steel belt is known to cut rubber tire plugs......

Poof!....There goes THAT theory.......

Reply to
*

Damn. All those plugs I pushed into nylon-ply tires over the years. It's a wonder I wasn't killed.

Reply to
Rex B

Very small sidewall perforations on a non-radial tire can very often be successfully repaired with a tube patch carefully installed on the inside. You need to clean up the inner rubber very well before applying the patch. I usually use coarse sandpaper first, then "liquid buffer" before applying the cement - which I usually scrape with a razor blade while still wet( to make sure I get full coverage without excess) - then roll the patch on firmly when the glue is almost totally dry.

Reply to
nospam.clare.nce

Well, that answer is obviously wrong, because for decades (up until the mid seventies, at least) MOST tires had no metal in them. Steel belted tires are a relatively recent phenomenon in the tire world. Hot patch on the inside would be best, cold patch with stem next, simple cold patch not far behind, and a cord plug the last choice - and there are cord plug systems that will safely repair most small sidewall punctures.

Tech International has systems that will safely and effectively repair sidewall punctures in any tire. Not cheap - but nor are tires.

Reply to
nospam.clare.nce

PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.