Tire Plug Kit

[Jsf721]

So I am planning a road trip in early July and I have always kept a small compressor in the trunk for inflating slow leaks so I dont have to change a tire on a freeway or as a just in case roadside assistance is too far away.

I also carry the "fix a flat/slime" can, however I saw the mess that makes when you go to have the tire properly repaired.

I have not used a plug kit before but I plan on picking one up just in case of a nail or other simailar puncture.

I have 2 questions:

1. What are the best brand of Kit to buy?

2. What makes the plug stay in the hole? I see most kits have what looks like a T handle with a metal shaft. The metal shaft has a eye like a needle where you put the plug in. I guess you only insert it 10% into the eye, press 100& into the tire and when you pull out the 10% tail comes out as well.

Does that sound right?


Also, do you trim the tail or just drive on it?

Also picking up a pair of needle nose pliers for the kit to remove any nails from the tire. I alsoredy have gloves and a LED flashlight. Anything else I need to throw in? Car is low mileage, recently serviced and in good shape for the trip otherwise.

As always,

Thanks in advance for your advice.

 

[Buckgnarly]

Safe T Seal is the best and only kit to get.

They are not hard, it's pretty much like you said and the instructions in the kit are easy enough.

Trim the excess off.

 

[ILDurable]

Safety Seal or Blackjack are the highest quality kits.

 

[gsmornot]

When I have used those I put the plug on the T-Handle in the middle of the plug. Shove it in the hole with a little rubber cement around it and pull out the handle. I end up with two tails sticking out that are roughly the same length. I cut the excess off about the length of the tread depth. I will admit, I never read the directions on the package. I learned by watching my dad patch holes on tractor tires after running over Bodock thorns at the farm.

 

[ken w.]

The kits come with 2 t handles.One to ream the hole and one to install the plug. You need to inflate the tire to install the plug.You can get a kit at Advance auto for about $12.00. NAPA also sells a kit. The kit come in handy.

 

[The Ratchet Man]

Make sure you get a kit with T-handles instead of the regular straight handles.

 

[sberry]

You can make most of the plug kits work but agree safety seal and similar are the way to fly if nails are a real problem. My brother managed to plug a hole on the road with some kit he scrounged up, dont know the details but it worked.

As for the technology I believe they have a site that shows how a plug works. Seen them where it looked like mushrooms growing inside a tire,,, ha I never carry thay stuff for travel. its hard to beat a real spare. I have never had a flat on a freeway and a real pull over to the side flat maybe once, cant remember. If you get leaks, slow or not something is wrong, the majority are nails, lots of blame to rims when its a nail.

I had one the other day, was a 3 inch gold spiral finish nail bent like a carpet needle.

 

[Frosthy]

The plug just seals the hole off. Well, mostly. It's not a perfect solution, some still leak slowly and if it's too close to the sidewall they rarely hold air for longer than a few miles...

Get the orange plugs instead of the black plugs.
As far as coating it in sealing "cement", I never had good luck doing that. I know guys that have good luck doing it though. It's just luck, I guess.

And that fix a flat stuff is garbage. Don't even bother, the next person working with that tire will hate you.

 

[sberry]

I dont know about luck, thats the damage part, as for fixing never had a saftey seal leak a puff, have personally installed 50, maybe 75, have seen them by the gobs. They look like a piece of bubble gum stuck on the inside.

My wife ran over a piece of steel somehow with a new tire, man I thought wtf, I really couldnt believe how well it worked. had about 100 miles on it, plugged and wore it out. 5 years maybe? One time I figures something came loose,,, nail in another spot. I think I had 3 plugs in it at its retirement.

 

[trackwelder]

I carry a kit from Tech Tire. They have some of the best tire repair products
around. I try to follow up a plugged tire with one of their plug/patch combo repairs.

 

[Guns R Tools]

Also carry a diagonal cutter and needle nose plier to remove nail/screw.

 

[smith627]

I bought one of these kits locally ( $40 ) from a tire distributor who used them to plug their customers' tires, and that was 10 yrs. ago. Our family was bad about getting leaking tires from road nails and I probably have plugged at least 30 tires with it so it more than paid for itself. Be sure you inflate your leaking tire to max pressure to make it easier to ream out the hole and then insert plug. It's easy to ruin a few plugs until you get used to doing it. The hardest tire I ever did was on my 17in. Ford Expedition. You can get cheaper repair kits but I wanted to use what the professional tire dealer used. Good Luck.

http://www.nytechsupply.com/centech_radial_tire.htm

edit: my repair kit is for "at home" tire repairs and I have an air compressor. On the road I either use my spare and have called AAA for help.

 

[NHBandit]

If it makes you feel better get it but from personal experience I have had exactly ONE flat tire on the highway in the past 30 or so years and I ran over a piece of steel. The hole in the tire was big enough to stick a couple fingers into. A real spare and a AAA card are your best bet.

 

[Jsf721]

I agree about the spare tire being the best but sometimes it is not safe to change and driving on a flat tire can cause damage to the car and rim.

Thanks

If it makes you feel better get it but from personal experience I have had exactly ONE flat tire on the highway in the past 30 or so years and I ran over a piece of steel. The hole in the tire was big enough to stick a couple fingers into. A real spare and a AAA card are your best bet.

 

[ChevyEFI]

Sounds like you've got it covered.

If it makes you feel better get it but from personal experience I have had exactly ONE flat tire on the highway in the past 30 or so years and I ran over a piece of steel. The hole in the tire was big enough to stick a couple fingers into. A real spare and a AAA card are your best bet.

Would you share your 12-ply tires and rub your lucky horseshoe on the rest of us while you're at it?

 

[ImportTuner]

I have the Blackjack and ARB kits .. have probably fixed over 40 tires with these kits. I recently did one on the car for a friend (pumped up tire with a small compressor powered by his car battery with a inverter).

 

[AmericanPreferred]

If I can plug a tire on the side of the road I can put the spare on roadside too, probably faster than you can get the tire aired back up with the 12v compressor. I have also heard radial tires need to be patched, not plugged, something about makeing the belts seperate. I say put the spare where you can get to it w/o unloading the entire contents of car and hope for the best.

 

[jim bremner]

If you plug a tire it might cause more damage than good.

Shoving in a plug breaks cords and it's better to patch. Yes I understand that what cut the hole in the first place did damage but to compound it?

I'll get a patch over a plug any day. 1.2 million miles I would say close to 200k in vars that didn't have spares ( Fuel Cell in a 67 fastback mustang, no room. And a C6 corvette spec'ed for runflats but using sticky bridgestone RE11's)

 

[donthelegend]

I've plugged tires and then run them till they're bald without the plug causing an issue. I've always used the orange plugs though. As noted, make sure that they have T-handles. The straight handles really **** to use.

 

[GoodoleBoy]

The brands you can get at Walamrt are Slime, Victor & Camel all work the same IMO. The Camel brand which is what a pro tire shops use, and ive seen camel sold at some walamrts but not all stores..

Alot of leaks are caused by people not prepping the hole, use the Rasp/tire tool to get a good bond between the cement and plug & Make sure you have enough rubber cement, it needs to be completely "wet" all over for it to best chance of holding air without it leaks..

For a roadside repair the small tube of rubber cement that come in the $5 roadside kit is fine, but for home repair I buy a 12 oz can that I can dip the entire plug in,.You can get by with less but chance of it leaking go up...

 

[kamesama980]

working in a tire shop about 2.5 years I patched as many leaking plugs than you guys have posted up as working in your lives. Some people have a knack for them and have great luck. I knew a handfull of old farmers that their tires looked like inside out porcupines from all the plugs, all holding air just fine. 95% of everyone else does not. Most tire companies don't like them much and will void the warranty (not that much doesn't) if you fix a hole with a plug.

If it's safe enough to install a plug, it's safe enough to put the spare on.

Make sure your lug wrench fits the nuts though, even the security lug key (and make sure you have the security lug key if you have them. The one time (in 10+ years) I had a tire puncture on the highway, it wasn't in my car and the security lug key was a different size than the OE lug wrench. now that car has a 4-way.

Make sure the spare is aired up (donuts usually take 60 psi). it doesn't do you any good if it's flat too. Again, from my time in the shop, dozens of times people drove in on a donut (or full size) spare...practically on the rim because the spare had 5-10 psi. Saw a few with no pressure where it was basically just a little pad for the rim.

 

[sk farmer]

i personally hate the large plugs. why ream am 1/8 inch or smaller hole out to 1/4 or 3/8 so you can stick a monster sized plug in there? why force the belts out of place and do more damage to the tire?

i use a string that can be had from your local napa. it is rubber coated and sticky. i use a needle type installer with a screwdriver sized handle. pull the thread through the needle so it is centered. insert it all of the way in, give it a turn our two to creat a knot and pull the needle back out until it is clear and trim the excess. a larger hole may take two strings. i have done hundred of these repairs and some have lasted in excess of 10,000 miles, maybe even 20,000. on some rare occasions i have had to use an awl to slightly increase the hole size but not to the size of a plug reamer.

 

[TwoInch]

i have plugged many holes, and can plug a tire in a much shorter time than using a scissor jack and swapping tires.

many times i have been able to plug the tire before it goes flat, hear the ticking from a bolt or whatever, pull over yank it out, ream and plug in two or three minutes or less, and be back driving in less than 5.

i have also had larger leaks that required using more than one plug in the same hole. never had an issue later on with a plug leaking and have worn the tires out. you must use judgement on the actual damage to the tire though.

 

[rono]

I used a slime brand kit couple month ago to patch a leak and it has held up every since. Didn't have an option for the brand, as target only carried slime brand and I was in an emergency.

 

[Ed ke6bnl]

The brands you can get at Walamrt are Slime, Victor & Camel all work the same IMO. The Camel brand which is what a pro tire shops use, and ive seen camel sold at some walamrts but not all stores..

Alot of leaks are caused by people not prepping the hole, use the Rasp/tire tool to get a good bond between the cement and plug & Make sure you have enough rubber cement, it needs to be completely "wet" all over for it to best chance of holding air without it leaks..

For a roadside repair the small tube of rubber cement that come in the $5 roadside kit is fine, but for home repair I buy a 12 oz can that I can dip the entire plug in,.You can get by with less but chance of it leaking go up...

X2 good luck with the walmart ones just did a trailer tire was ready to head out in the baja bug and did a quick fix. and I have a tire changer works great.

 

[BHH]

I have the ARB kit and can vouch that it is awesome.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004P91FCO/?tag=atomicindus08-20

I ran over this last year (1/4" hollow tube, needless to say the tire deflated very quickly).

I pulled out the kit and within 3 minutes I was back to driving.

The important thing to do is drive the car for 15-20 minutes after you put the plug in. you really want to heat up the tire and plug so they fuse together. I ran that tire for at least 5000km after that hole with 0 leaks.

 

[Wangstang]

If it makes you feel better get it but from personal experience I have had exactly ONE flat tire on the highway in the past 30 or so years and I ran over a piece of steel. The hole in the tire was big enough to stick a couple fingers into. A real spare and a AAA card are your best bet.

Similar experince on the interstate...The steel was a short section of street sign post, like the DOT guy trimmed two or three inches off that stuck up over the top of a sign after installing. The hole was the same shape as the sign post, U shaped. No plug or patch would work for that.

I did have one other flat on the road from a nail, T handle plug kit did the trick.

On the farm we use plug kits for a short term fix but deflate and patch holes on the larger tractor tires with patch kits once we get some down time.

Wes

 

[stephen4785]

I used Safetseal for awhile but I ended up buying ome blackjack plugs to use. Safetseal plugs are orange and stand out like a sore thumb on tires. Blackjacks are black and they blend in. Iv never had any of them fail other than some sidewalls I tried to plug. The color difference is just prefrence. Orange lets you find it eaier and check to make sure it's not leaking. After installing 20 or so and checking them for leaks I decided it was a waste of time to check them and went with blackjack.

 

[mooseracing]

Large holes (wrenches, reailroad spikes, etc) I use patch plugs and vulcanizing compound, but that means breaking a bead. Smaller stuff I just carry whatever kit I pick up anywhere and a can of vulcanizing compound, as that seems to seal them up better.

 

[joecon]

pro shops use tech brand plugs they chemically bond to the tire and are impossible
to remove the rope type will dry out and leak. Tire plugging is very controversial .

 

[cj7365]

I love tire plugs.

 

[sberry]

Its actually quite well proven, DOT approved.

 

[Danglerb]

Sale at HF I bought two of the $2 plug kits, DNFW only time I tried them. The poke through handle was too open to push it through the tread, one side would catch. Tossed in the trash and bought I think the Slime kit where the poke through is kind of like tweezers and fully closes in the front when you push it in. I think I still used the HF rope and snot, but its was buggered and a half job. Never leaked.

I've got two old Porsches with the Vrederstein collapsed tires, like a grand to replace them if you can, and 30 years old so I don't even keep them in the car. AAA 100 mile towing, plug, or replace tires. I don't especially like it, but there it is.

Actually heard good things about the $7 yellow inflators at HF, and much better about the $25 on sale one.