First time cleaning the inside of a tire.

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

I had a slow leak from some old plugs and decided to finally fix it over the weekend. Pushed the old plugs in and installed new ones with rubber cement. Now it's a fast leak... 2nd plug in each hole. All good, but the soapy water fizzed up along half the bead. I guess dirt got in there when it got low.

Broke the bead with the loader, pulled bead in with nail puller pry bars, wood clamps to keep the tire out of the way to clean the rim, dis and re mounted the tire with pry bars to clean tire bead, soapy water for lube. And success. At some point I probably need to get better tools for this job...

 

[Chewwy]

Your ingenuity is impressive! So is you assortment of clamps.

I would not have replaced the plugs. Once you got the tire off the rim it would be simple to patch them from the inside.

 

[Too many Kubotas]

Safety Seal plugs would've taken care of the punctures, then avoid using water as a lubricant.

Tire irons are cheap, by the way, and less likely to damage the tire bead. Also, if using a Hi-Lift to break the bead, the wheel could stay attached to the tractor. Same with a tool made for the purpose, but those are a bit costly.

 

[Chewwy]

Tire plugs are ok if you can’t or don’t won’t to dismount and remount the tire from the rim.

In my experience, plugs will almost always leak. Properly applied patches seldom do.

 

[Too many Kubotas]

Tire plugs are ok if you can’t or don’t won’t to dismount and remount the tire from the rim.

In my experience, plugs will almost always leak. Properly applied patches seldom do.

Not that it matters on a tractor, but a repair must (legally) include inspecting the inside of the carcass, and have a patch or other sealer installed from the inside.

On the other hand, I've used Safety Seal plugs on just about everything, including to fix punctures on cars with 200+ mph top speed. So far, only had one leak out of using those plugs maybe 50 times, probably more.

It's much faster to plug a tire than to change to the spare, so that's my preferred method even it it's not on the side of a narrow road. My filled rear tire on the tractor had a minute leak, only noticeable because of the resulting small wet spot. Yep, plugged it.

Now, there's a reason I wrote Safety Seal, which is different from some plug kit available at Walmart etc.

 

[Chewwy]

. . .

On the other hand, I've used Safety Seal plugs on just about everything, including to fix punctures on cars with 200+ mph top speed. So far, only had one leak out of using those plugs maybe 50 times, probably more.

It's much faster to plug a tire than to change to the spare, so that's my preferred method even it it's not on the side of a narrow road. My filled rear tire on the tractor had a minute leak, only noticeable because of the resulting small wet spot. Yep, plugged it.

Now, there's a reason I wrote Safety Seal, which is different from some plug kit available at Walmart etc.

Cars that can go 200+ miles per hour don’t usually worry about a slow leak. The tires on such vehicles also likely get changed much more often than those on my tractors or my other vehicles.

It IS much faster to plug than to patch. That is a given. That is why some tire places will only plug. It requires much less time and labor, is thus cheaper to do.

 

[Too many Kubotas]

Cars that can go 200+ miles per hour don’t usually worry about a slow leak. The tires on such vehicles also likely get changed much more often than those on my tractors or my other vehicles.

I dunno. Having a completely flat tire on a tractor is probably far safer than coming in a bit hot in a curve, then find out that there's severe over or understeer because one outside tire is 4-5 psi low.

Around here the result could be ending up wrapped around a tree, going into a cliff face, or (worst case) loosing several hundred feet of altitude by going over the side and into the abyss.

Either way, our tires generally age out before wearing out, despite the spirited driving. Too much time spent with tractors, not enough driving the fun cars.

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

I had not even thought about patches. I was not planning on removing the tire until i had already plugged the tire and saw the rim leak. The next time the plugs start leaking i may look into patches.

 

[EdwardSkinner]

I had a slow leak from some old plugs and decided to finally fix it over the weekend. Pushed the old plugs in and installed new ones with rubber cement. Now it's a fast leak... 2nd plug in each hole. All good, but the soapy water fizzed up along half the bead. I guess dirt got in there when it got low.

Broke the bead with the loader, pulled bead in with nail puller pry bars, wood clamps to keep the tire out of the way to clean the rim, dis and re mounted the tire with pry bars to clean tire bead, soapy water for lube. And success. At some point I probably need to get better tools for this job...

View attachment 821060View attachment 821061View attachment 821065View attachment 821066

Intriguing approach you have there, I should give it a try myself.

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

Necessity is the mother of invention.