this past weekend i had the family car in the driveway, and my brother happened to be over. we noticed a nail sticking out of the tread near the sidewall and it didnt look to be in all that deep.

i pulled it out and sure as ***** the air started rushing out of the tire. in almost the same time it took me to think 'crap, i'll have to yank the tire off, find someplace open, and go get this patched' my brother had the tire fixed.

he ran into his truck and pulled out a red plastic case. it had two tire plugging tools in it. one looked to be twisted like those 'old time mechanical rotating screwdrivers'. the other straight. both i think were made out of aluminum and looked solidly made. the kit had some sort of lube in it and a bunch of rubber plugs.

he had it patched before 1/3 of the air was out. what looked like it was going to be a big pain in the butt turned into nothing in a matter of seconds.

i searched online over the weekend and ordered one for myself. whats weird is though, none of the regular online auto stores seemed to carry this. the company is called safety seal, and i did find their homepage, but i am wondering maybe if its the same gig as the folks who sell amsoil.

whatever the case, i found a few places that sold it and i ordered one, and it was around 39.99. for the amount of flats we get, i think this thing is going to be a godsend (in agravation alone). the thing worked like a charm, and looks to be real well made. my brother has used it before (new york state) and says the thing has come in real handy. think this will be a good thing to keep under the back seat.

 

Keep in mind that a repair like that will void the speed rating of the tire. Also a lot (if not all) tire manufactures state somewhere in there fine print, that the only official way to fix a tire is a patch/plug from the inside of the tire. Anything else voids the tire warranty.

 

interesting that you would say that.

over the course of the past year or so have taken flats for repair to several different tire shops, depending on where i was drivng at the time, or due to the hour of the incident.

i have gone to goodyear, asked for a patch, paid for a patch, then saw that the tire was plugged.

went to a northeast area chain and told them i wanted a patch, and watched them plug the tire (paid for a plug)

i have also dropped tires off and picked them up later, but it seems to be real hit or miss regarding if i get what i asked for.
i know they charge more for patching, but maybe they dont want to go through the hassle of pulling the tire off the rim? i hate to say this, but i am trusting the folks that did the repairs.

be that as it may,i have never had a problem with any tire due to a plug going bad, and am not worried about it at all.

i much rather be able to do this myself, and avoid the aggravation. i have plugged some of my own years ago, but never saw a product as nice as the one i ordered.

please dont take this as a 'dig' cause its not intended to be, its just interesting to read what you have to say cause i always used the word 'patch' when i brought this to a tire shop, and thats not always what i received. i would be more worried if this just happened at one place, but it seemed to be pretty wide spread.

i do appreciate the response though as i wasnt aware of it possibly voiding a warranty.

 

We use what is called a plug/patch. This is both a plug and a patch. You take the tire off the rim, and push the plug through the hole from the inside, the path is part of the plug. So at least some of the time when you thought you were getting a plug only, you may have got one of the plug/patch's

You are correct the plug's do work well, and to be honest I have never not honored someone's warranty because of a plug. I do however like the plug/patch better.

 

The only things I would worry about are tire balance and that one tool you described sounds like a boring/drilling tool so be carefull if you need to place a plug through one of the belts in the tire, they (the belts) can degrade quickly once you work that tool around.

other than that it sounds nice and could save you from leaving the truck on the side of the road.