Lessons learned plugging a tire

Here is an interesting picture of a standard tire and a runflat. You can see where the steel belt tapers off into the sidewall.

 

This is where my punctures always seem to happen:

 

If you look at the other half of the picture you can see where the steel belt looks to become thinner at the sidewall.

And then there are the people who run old tires and I was one of them.
I didn't know how old this tire was and drove from Indiana to Florida to see Mickey and Mini and on the way home this tire blew and came apart at the exit ramp on I 75 in Gainesville Florida. Running old tires at high speed on hot days don't mix. I put my spare on and it was on a Sunday and drove to the nearest tire shop which turned out to be a Walmart and put four new tires on my van.

 

I've used more plugs than I could count. Never had one fail. But if it's on or near the sidewall, I would only plug it so I could get to a tire store or home.

 

Agree, too bad manufacturers don’t put thicker tread in that area instead like the old balloon tires

 

I seem to average one every two years and usually from parking lots.

 

I'll stick with a spare thank you...it's faster.

...and it's always better to repair a puncture off vehicle and off rim.

 

+1.....mostly.

When I'm on a motorcycle I don't really have the option of carrying a spare but I do carry a patch kit and some means of pumping up the tire (CO2 inflator and/or compact pump) so that I can get the bike home for a normal repair.
Once on my V-ROD I had to do the 'plug and play" thing and it pretty much worked out.
People always think that a motorcycle tire will explode or something if the plug fails but I'm thinking that the air till just woooosh out the same hole that was there before.
Since M/C tires are much more expensive and a bit harder to replace, I wound up keeping that tire in service for several thousand miles and operating the cycle a little bit less enthusiastically.

Pro Tip: (ish)
If anybody out there is thinking about getting a M/C, lean towards models with tubeless tires, which are generally those without spoked rims.

You can't plug a tubed tire....

 

Ok, but as someone who has had several motorcycles and spent quality time fixing flats beside the road, I think I should mention that getting the tire and then innertube off the wheel on the tube+tire motorcycles I had was at least feasible and allowed a relatively thorough patch to the innertube and a thorough inspection of the inside of the exterior tire carcass for other possible problems. Having a tubleless tire makes removing the tire carcass much, much more physically difficult in my experience , so external plugging is the only feasible roadside repair. The well-done innertube patch is better than a plug, IMO, but the downside is correcly getting the innertube back into the carcass without pinching it or having a lip of it extruded between the rim wall and the edge bead of the outer tire carcass, either of which errors can lead to sudden blowouts that cause loss of control in many motorcycling situations. Hmmm. Have to think this over when buying my next bike, as I think the total energy loss due to hysteresis and related effects is generally more for a tubed tire than a tubless tire, so all else equal the tubleless tired bike would be more efficient. (I’ll stop rambling now.)

 

Patches > Plugs.
Period.
All Day.....Every day.

However (comma!!!) this is only true if you're able to get to the tube (or the inside of a tubeless tire,) and while it's theoretically "possible" to yank a 180/70-15 tire off of a spoked rim, it's not something that I'm willing to try on the side of the road - even if I had whatever tools that one might imagine that could accomplish this task in my ruck.

I actually saved the tire that I plugged from the V (200/55-ZR18) as a spare, but then I gave to to someone for a 'burnout' tire, since I cannot possibly change that tire without taking the rear wheel off of the bike and finding a shop that will swap them out.

For a car?
It's easy.

Spare tire > Patches, plugs, or goo.
Period.
All Day.....Every day.

 

...and faster than a cell phone too.

 

... and the speed difference gets much larger in places without cell phone coverage. Yesterday for me, that was about a 100 mile road segment from loss of signal until a waiting message dinged in.

 

Instead of taking the jack apart, just get some 2x6 and drive the wheel(s) on them. You can screw two sections together making a ramp to get more height if need be. Should give enough clearance for the jack.


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