Mondays at the tire shop

[KEliasz]

Teed off girlfriend did this one

[wmtire]

Customer just came in here with this tire. Said her mechanic plugged it for her, but it still had the big bubble on the sidewall. Wanted us to "fix" the bubble....which you can see where the original penetrating object did much damage to her sidewall near the bead. I also quit counting the number of string plugs that were inserted, as it looks like an octopus.


I did fix it, by selling her another tire.

This is another good example why tires need to be dismounted and checked internally. She was lucky it had not blown out while she was traveling down the road.

[Iwannacamp]

I still am a total idiot when comes to tires.....heck a lot of things, but this forum and some other friend/experts are helping teach me.

Thanks for what y’all do.

[ependydad]

Originally Posted by wmtire

I also quit counting the number of string plugs that were inserted, as it looks like an octopus.

Do you mind explaining this a little differently? Are you saying she had a lot of plugs done?

[TitanMike]

Originally Posted by wmtire

Customer just came in here with this tire. Said her mechanic plugged it for her, but it still had the big bubble on the sidewall. Wanted us to "fix" the bubble....which you can see where the original penetrating object did much damage to her sidewall near the bead. I also quit counting the number of string plugs that were inserted, as it looks like an octopus.


I did fix it, by selling her another tire.

This is another good example why tires need to be dismounted and checked internally. She was lucky it had not blown out while she was traveling down the road. Attachment 218800

Looks familiar. Was at one of our stores in Montana years ago when a fisherman came in with a tire that had a small piece of wire sticking out of the tread. Asked if our store operator could "plug it".

None of our stores plugged tires and didn't even keep them around. Mgr explained the tire had to be dismounted, inspected, and repaired from the inside. Fisherman was OK with this and when the tire was dismounted that small piece of wire turned out to be a section of barbed wire about 7-8 inches long. It had whipped around inside the tire and cut a nice crescent shaped groove on the inside of the sidewall.

Fisherman then said "no more plugged tires for me".

Still a little mystified how the wire was able to "spear" the tire like it did but then again ???????

[CAT-RN]

Enough plugs in that tire to have to re-balance it !!! Lol. I replace my 4-wheeler tires last year. Probably 7 year old tires. Plugs in all of them. One had 14 different plugs. Bean stubble pokes holes in them. But that for sure no road vehicle.

Russell

[TitanMike]

Originally Posted by ependydad

Do you mind explaining this a little differently? Are you saying she had a lot of plugs done?

For years a tire repair tool that looked like an old flashlight with a large sewing needle on the end was sold. A spool of rubber coated string was inside.

To "plug" a tire string was threaded through the needle, pushed into the tire, then pulled out. String remained in the hole and the process was repeated until no more string could be forced into the hole.

It did stop leaks, sort of, but the "string tended to wick water into the tire plies causing rot and rust. Tires eventually failed and the worst part of this (and any other external repair method) is that hidden damage inside lake Wmtire pointed out.

The reason it looks like an octopus is that whoever fixed the tire had to stuff a lot of string in the hole.

Plugging, with the proper material, works ok on off road vehicles but when their tires fail it's at speeds far slower than 60-80 mph and people are rarely killed.

[dbledan]

My sister had an old honda we called the clown car because the driver door would not open. It sucked to move it when she parked behind you as it was a stick you had to climb over. As a result she parked on the curb a lot. I noticed one day her tires were low on air when it was cold so I told her and she filled them up....I saw the car later and saw some things sticking out of the side wall. She had filled the tires rated at 35psi to over 90psi and the 4 "plugs" that you speak of were being pushed out by all the pressure on one tire. They had been cut even at the sidewall to hide them but were now sticking out about an inch each...yes the sidewall.

I dropped the pressure on all to 35 and then went and swapped the tire out for her. She is a smart person but knows nothing of tires. When I said she needed air she put it in until they would take no more. She spent a fortune in quarters doing it too...sigh. as for the plugs they must have been done by the previous owner because she had never done anything to them.

I never thought a Honda wheel would take that pressure and the tire was an even bigger shock. I am suprised she made it home from the gas station.

When the riding mower had a hole in the tire my dad tried to take it to get it patched and they would not because it was too close to the sidewall in the tread...so someone would patch the car sidewall that went 80mph but not the mower tread that went 3mph.

[wmtire]

Originally Posted by dbledan

When the riding mower had a hole in the tire my dad tried to take it to get it patched and they would not because it was too close to the sidewall in the tread...so someone would patch the car sidewall that went 80mph but not the mower tread that went 3mph.

Depends on if you go to a reputable tire shop or not. We have one that opened near us that will do anything for a buck, as we have seen firsthand when customers come to us and we ask who did that.

They mount ST tires on vehicles, mismatch tire sizes and heights, plug any and everything, paint tires to cover up age/dry cracking..... and we have even seen them sell temporary use tires for normal driving. That person got like four days service out of the tires, and had no idea that was what they sold them.

This place also sells used vehicles. If they do tires like they do, you could just imagine what they do to vehicles.

[TheWolfPaq82]

Originally Posted by CAT-RN

Enough plugs in that tire to have to re-balance it !!! Lol. I replace my 4-wheeler tires last year. Probably 7 year old tires. Plugs in all of them. One had 14 different plugs. Bean stubble pokes holes in them. But that for sure no road vehicle.

Russell

Sons ATV tires look like a Porcupine inside. Got 3 in one tire on our UTV...which isn't really much. I'll do ONE in a car tire and that's it. Anything near the side wall....New Tire...no question.

[wmtire]

Well, it seems our first customer of the day is going to be interesting. She is in a Jeep Cherokee. Said she flipped it yesterday, and her tire is leaking due to grass and dirt stuck between the bead and rim.

Waiting for the air compressor to pump up, to see if that is indeed the problem. May get more details to add.

[Iwannacamp]

just break the bead... blow out the chunks and she will be fine....

[Mr. Dan]

Originally Posted by Iwannacamp

just break the bead... blow out the chunks and she will be fine....

I doubt if a long-time tire store owner needs these instructions.

[Flybob]

You need to hire a film crew. You could produce a REAL reality TV show.

[Iwannacamp]

Originally Posted by Mr. Dan

I doubt if a long-time tire store owner needs these instructions.

I love puns, irony and tasteless jokes...

[wmtire]

Ok, got all the details. She did not roll over or flip the Jeep. She just rolled it up on one side. There was stuff wedged in the rim, which actually did cut the tire bead. It wasn't too bad, and we used a bead sealer we have that should get her fixed up. She said this happened to both tires on that side, but she got the other one fixed yesterday evening......at that place I just discussed this morning.

I may be seeing her again.

[TheWolfPaq82]

Originally Posted by wmtire

Ok, got all the details. She did not roll over or flip the Jeep. She just rolled it up on one side. There was stuff wedged in the rim, which actually did cut the tire bead. It wasn't too bad, and we used a bead sealer we have that should get her fixed up. She said this happened to both tires on that side, but she got the other one fixed yesterday evening......at that place I just discussed this morning.

I may be seeing her again.Attachment 218846

Would that work on a old front tractor tire ?? Talking 1953 Super "M". Tires not that old. Well....not sure how old.

[TitanMike]

Originally Posted by TheWolfPaq82

Sons ATV tires look like a Porcupine inside. Got 3 in one tire on our UTV...which isn't really much. I'll do ONE in a car tire and that's it. Anything near the side wall....New Tire...no question.

Back in the 90's Tech Inc., a company that makes tire repair materials that are used in many passenger and large truck tire repair shops, did a demonstration of how sidewalls could be repaired safely when using proper materials.

They took one front tire off several of their field sales rep's cars, drilled a dozen or so holes in the sidewall, then repaired using their "Permacure" product. Unlike most plugging material of the day it was a piece of nylon reinforced cured rubber that was coated with a self vulcanizing seal material. Rather than just running a round rasp through the hole to make it big enough to stuff a plug in, they used a carbide cutter that cleaned up the hole and made it uniform. The "Permacure" was inserted in the hole that had had some "cement" added with a probe.

The repair material would then move into any irregular areas in the hole and with the help of the cement and normal heat generated by the tire, the repair material was vulcanized to the tire body.

These salesmen drove all over the country with their plugged sidewalls for months and the tires were then removed for inspection and "training".

Not a single failure.

The tire industry still hasn't endorsed sidewall repair because it has to be done with the correct materials, and by people who don't shortcut. Something that doesn't always occur in the tire industry.

Different story in the large commercial tire business. When something goes through the sidewall of a 59/80R63 XDR tire (from a Cat 797 Haul Truck) that costs $42,500, it gets repaired.

[wmtire]

I'm a firm believer in TECH products. That's about all I use.

[frank4711]

Plugs and Slime ... running 4 trucks and 4 trailers and 15 lawn mowers for many years those 2 things kept me in business .... flat tire in lawn maintenance and you are done .... we put solid tires on front of all tractors they worked and got better over the years ... put slime in all tractors rear tire ... slime slows the leak and allows you to get back to trailer to pump up and plug also shows you were the leak is .... 16 trailer tires on the road daily is a real liability ... we plugged as many times as we could before changing I paid for quality plug kits and the most plugs ever counted when a tire was changed was 11 .... we changed our own flats and always had spares on the trailer ... we made the ramp out of wood... we could do a tire in a couple minutes ....used Carlisle trailer tires the were good ... we had extra rims at tire store so all we had to do was drop off and pick up .... rear trailer tires were the worst front trailer tire picked up and flipped stuff back into rear .... also dealt with "Customers" was good to be the owner "sir/mam we will not be able to help you and will not be back" customer is not always right ....