Posted: 6/19/2016 9:15:35 PM EDT
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So I bought Cooper 10 ply Discoverer RTX. Good compromise between off road and street since I am 98% street.
First trip to the desert about 5 hours after buying them, a piece of shale punctured right rear. Dammit!!!! In all fairness, I was off trail on open terrible landscape. Used fix a flat and it did seal. Barely made it to a small gas station at Delle. Now, I'm told it can't be patched. What to do? New tire? Plug it anyway even though no shop will plug it anymore here? |
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Fix a flat leaves the inside nasty and it can be difficult to get a proper patch.
where did you buy it from? sometimes they come with a roadside warranty (I got a tire from costco a while back, next day I hit something on the way to work and split the sidewall/bent the rim. costco replaced the tire free of charge) i think sams does the same thing. Plug it, and check for leaks, 5-10 mins at 55 then save it as a spare or keep it on your right rear until you trust it. |
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Quoted:
Shops do not want to touch a tire that has fix-a-flat in it. The tire shop around here charges an extra $89 if they have to deal with it but they usually tell people they should take it elsewhere. Patch it yourself. I always have a patch kit handy. This. When I did tires nothing was funner then busting the bead on a tire with fix a flat. That shit went everywhere and is sticky. I won't ever use fix a flat. I carry a plug kit and an air compressor. Eta, hole might be too big or too close to the shoulder. |
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Well, if you used fix a flat but didn't have a way to air it back up the rest of the way before driving, it is likely you damaged the tire driving underinflated. There is no way for the tire guy to know if that is the case or not until the tire explodes, either in his face or 5 minutes after you drive away. Even if the tire is fine, that stuff is a mess to clean up. So, the $20 or whatever they'd get to patch it isn't really sufficient motivation anymore.
Patch it yourself or get a new tire (road hazard warranty?). |
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I may have the road hazard. Big O. Not open Sunday, will know in AM.
How are you patching yourself? I can see installing a plug OK, but patch?? Puncture is 2 rows in from the sidewall. Not a edge issue. I just do not want to rely on the FAF only, needs to be a proper fix. |
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I used to charge $15 to fix a pickup tire, and $50 if you used fix-a-flat. It's a bitch to clean it out of the tire and properly dress the area to be patched so the glue sticks to the tire. Where's the hole? The tires I've seen split by rocks are incredibly hard to patch. It usually causes a split compared to a hole, and it's possible the tire will split further and fail. And if it's too close to the sidewall many shops will refuse to patch it. I would put patches where the sidewall meets the tread for very good customers that I had an agreement with that it's not a guaranteed repair. I patched a few sidewalls on my own tires too. It can be done, it's just a liability issue. I'd plug it for now and patch it myself when I get time. |
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Quoted:
why you no spare tire? I got Coopers on my Tacoma and paid extra for the road hazard. If they don't want to patch it fine, give me a new tire then It was like 98° in the desert. Was not going to swap a tire when the FAF held fine so far, but didn't know it would mean all this mess. |
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Quoted:
Well, if you used fix a flat but didn't have a way to air it back up the rest of the way before driving, it is likely you damaged the tire driving underinflated. There is no way for the tire guy to know if that is the case or not until the tire explodes, either in his face or 5 minutes after you drive away. Even if the tire is fine, that stuff is a mess to clean up. So, the $20 or whatever they'd get to patch it isn't really sufficient motivation anymore. Patch it yourself or get a new tire (road hazard warranty?). I'm not going to try and pull a tire off a wheel. Way easier to take it to the Mexicans and drop a tubman. |
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Quoted:
I may have the road hazard. Big O. Not open Sunday, will know in AM. How are you patching yourself? I can see installing a plug OK, but patch?? Puncture is 2 rows in from the sidewall. Not a edge issue. I just do not want to rely on the FAF only, needs to be a proper fix. Dismounting and remounting a tire with a pair of tire irons isn't fun but, it is entirely doable. It is easier if you have something heavy to pop the bead off with. Check on your warranty status before you try... |
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Quoted: I may have the road hazard. Big O. Not open Sunday, will know in AM. How are you patching yourself? I can see installing a plug OK, but patch?? Puncture is 2 rows in from the sidewall. Not a edge issue. I just do not want to rely on the FAF only, needs to be a proper fix. Deflate the tire, break beads, dismount, install patch, mount, and air it up. Prybars can be used to mount and dismount, and they make special hammers for breaking beads. They're made for truck tires, but can be used in most tires with very careful aim. That's how I broke the beads on every truck tire I changed, and I used tire bars to mount and dismount. Unless you have the tools and knowledge to do it I would leave it to someone who does. It's very easy to destroy a tire when buffing an area to install the patch on. FWIW a good tire bar can be used to break the bead by hitting it with a hammer. It must have a blunt edge to prevent tearing the bead though. |
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Why use FixaFlat?
Always carry a full sized spare and buy a plug kit and rubber cement to throw in your truck. Find a place with air and water hoses and fix it yourself...fix it on the car if it's a slow leak....no need to patch the inside. In the good old days any gas station would plug your tire for $5.00 no matter how old it was. Then, as now, one was shit out of luck with a sidewall puncture...or a tire full of Fixaflat. Of course the lawyers got greedy and began representing people who are too fucking stupid to know how to handle a car when a tire blows out... |
| Fix-a-flat is just plain nasty to try and deal with. At least it's not dangerous now. Back in the olden days the propellant used in fix-a-flat was butane. People were maimed and killed trying to service tires that they either didn't know had fix-a-flat in them or thinking that it would be OK. |
| Some shops won't patch because they're still afraid of a spark igniting it(old FAF had butane in it IIRC). Others because it's a pain in the ass to clean that shit out of the tire-If I owned the shop FAF in a tire, or a bunch of rain/ice in a carry-in tire you want mounted would be a $10 cleanout fee. |
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Quoted:
It was like 98° in the desert. Was not going to swap a tire when the FAF held fine so far, but didn't know it would mean all this mess. Quoted:
Quoted:
why you no spare tire? I got Coopers on my Tacoma and paid extra for the road hazard. If they don't want to patch it fine, give me a new tire then It was like 98° in the desert. Was not going to swap a tire when the FAF held fine so far, but didn't know it would mean all this mess. Not wanting to swap a tire because it's hot or cold out sells a lot of tires when the customer finally makes it to the shop and they've chewed the lining out of the tire by driving underinflated. |