Screw in front tire, no air leaking, should I worry about it?

[3Ts]

+1 to Ovrszd post #17

I was parked in my field and when I came back to it, i noticed that there was a nail in the tire, but it wasn't leaking. I decided to leave it there and drive home. Got a couple miles down the road and the nail came out with a BIG whoosh and lost all the air! As in really Flat! No shoulder on the road so I was parked in the road changing a tire. Fortunately there was no traffic. Since then, I've never left anything in the tire. Better to change it in the parking lot than on the road.

 

[ovrszd]

Years ago I realized most of my flats came in the last quarter of their tread life. Now I try not to run them down to the wear markers any longer. As cars move to the NO SPARE concept not milking them dry even makes more sense to me.

I had to think about this for a few seconds. Last flat I had was on my GN, blowout hauling two buggies five years ago. Truly cannot remember the last time I had a flat on the road with a vehicle. I rarely run on the wear marks.

 

[sixdogs]

Murphy's Law is at work here and I have done it both ways. If the tractor is never really needed for important things, that screw is good forever. An emergency or important use means that screw will start to leak as soon as it's put into service for a problem and will go flat at the wrong time and in the wrong place and then not hold air. My vote is to fix and get it over with.

 

[Texasmark]

Farm tires, screws sound good to me. On nails and thorns, depends. If really bad, plugs, if so so, Berryman's tire sealant, if iffy, leave it in. If an R1, R2 and stuck in a lug or rib, find something else to worry about.

 

[NYCheese]

Welp, I left it alone since my original post, and it seemed fine. But yesterday I went to use the tractor, and that front tire was almost flat....had only been sitting for about 48hrs since last used. But, it went from 75 degrees one day, to 26 that night...perhaps the large temp. swing had something to do with it.

I put some air in it, and it held long enough to do the little work I needed to do, and I checked it today, seems to still be holding. I've got a plug kit, and I've got a can of tire slime. I hate using the slime, so I'm gonna try to plug it first.

 

[ovrszd]

I think we talked about this early in the thread.

You will be forced to deal with this at some point. You can choose to do it on your terms. Or the screws terms. It's your choice.

Slime has nothing to do with this decision.

 

[sixdogs]

Over the years, I've done plugs at times if the hole was round and smooth and I didn't want to take the tire off. If the hole was clean and simple, plugs mostly work. Some screws or irregular things don't work and usually made it known a mile back in the fields from the house during a hard fall rain. Then, as oversized notes, it's on the tire's terms and you're out of the loop. Bottom line is that almost any flat or potential flat these days gets removed and fixed with a patch from the inside.

 

[NYCheese]

I think we talked about this early in the thread.

You will be forced to deal with this at some point. You can choose to do it on your terms. Or the screws terms. It's your choice.

Slime has nothing to do with this decision.

You're not wrong.

I decided to leave it alone, since the screw hadn't gone all the way through the tire. Always a chance that a plug will leak, so figured I'd leave it for a while and see. I did pick up a plug kit and a can of slime though, so I'd be ready. I plugged it today.