Tire Slime

[Richard]

Is tire slime still being recommended?

Went out to cut some fields yesterday, front tire flat as a pancake. Found a thorn, pulled out & filled with air and off to cut. Got the field cut with slow leak but took initial fillup with air and two more trips back to house.

Taking tire to co-op tomorrow to get "fixed" and thought of the slime stuff.

Does it work that well and can I put it in AFTER the fact?

This is a 3 ribbed tire with some dry rotting. Rather not put tire on if I don't need to and hate idea of tube with known thorn in rubber (my luck is where there is one, there is usually 100)

Thoughts on slime?

 

[mrutkaus]

It would probably work. You jack up the tire, put it in with the valve on top, spin it around a bit, inflate it, and drive it and check it.

Mike

 

[dsb5610]

Richard,

I have thorny Honey Locust all over. After fixing more flats that I care to remember I started using Slime. I have it in the lawn mower tires, ATVs tires, dirt bike tires, front tractor tires (3-rib), Toolcat tires, disc tires ......

I've been told numerous times it is a mess when you do have to change one with it in but in the mean time I don't worry about flats. I still see plenty of thorns sticking out of the tires but now I just snip them off with side cutters.

dsb

 

[Oleozz]

I bought a gallon of Slime and then was reluctant to put it in because my neighbor said it could make a tire lumpy. Any truth to that?

 

[Z-Michigan]

I doubt it. I recently put slime in the front tire of our riding mower to fix a slow leak on a lightly used tire. It worked great - tire holds air, and no apparent lump, wobble, or any other problem with it. FYI, though, they recommend 16-24 oz on a riding mower tire. The quantity for a tractor tire is probably huge.

 

[heymack]

I bought a gallon of Slime and then was reluctant to put it in because my neighbor said it could make a tire lumpy. Any truth to that?

I seriously doubt it considering the stuff is supposedly safe for high speed passenger tires.

FWIW, considering the thorny mesquites I have all over my property, I use the stuff in all my equipment tires (even my wheel barrow) with unbelieveable success.

 

[patrick_g]

Except for a slight mess when changing out an old tubeless for a new tubeless tire where Slime had been used I have never seen or heard of a factual report of a downside. If you ask around you might hear all sorts of BS stories about nearly anything but try to find the guy who actually had the personal experience!

You want to have the valve stem somewhere else besides the 6 O'clock position when you gauge the tire pressure so you don't get slime in the Schrader valve and in your gauge. When you install slime you remove the valve core so it isn't a problem.

SLIME is good!!! I have thorns aplenty and haven't added air to my tractor tires in over 3 years. Great stuff for all pneumatic tire applications, tubed or tubeless if you are subject to nuisance leaks. Slime will not cure a tire that has had a big stick rammed through the sidewall. I use it in everything that goes out in the pastures off road.

Pat

 

[DieselPower]

First, my view is scewed, I sell the pink stuff.

For years and years I have used the green Slime tire sealant. I recently went to a meeting in Ft. Worth where they went over the differences between Slime and the TireSeal. They said if I had any tires that had had Slime in them for a long time I should dismount one and see what it looked like in the tire. So, being curious I got home and dismounted a lawn mower tire that I know has had Slime in it for at least 8 years. Yikes! All of the fibers were stuck in a rusted mass to the rim and there was this yucky stinky brown liquid left.

Next they said to put some TireSeal on a piece of glass and also some Slime and let them dry for a day. This demonstrates the difference when they dry with the TireSeal being much more "rubbery". Yep, it was. I then stuck those little sheets in the electric tape cans in the picture in my sample case in the trunk of my car. By the end of the day in the heat the TireSeal had turned the pictured blue color and is leaching some type of liquid, something I had not expected.

Let's just say I have spent the last 2 day's dismounting about 26 tires, cleaning rims and refilling with TireSeal.

Interesting side note and something I didn't know. TRC's TireSeal is the first and original tire sealant. They came out with it in 1965.

Click images for larger picture.

 

[deerhunterf350]

The quantity for a tractor tire is probably huge.

A 14.9 x 28 Ag Tire will require 208 oz and a 9.5x16 Ag will require 76 oz. That is according to Multi-Seal . Here is a link to a post that I inquired about Tire Sealant http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/nh-owning-operating/82165-tire-sealant.html

Hope it helps


Dan

 

[DieselPower]

The quantity depends on the product. With TireSeal the 14.9 x 28 takes 10 pints or 160 ounces and the 9.5 x 16 takes 4 pints or 64 ounces. Check the product container of whatever you use to see what the fill ratio is.

 

[mikim]

dieselpower --- so the brown yuck is slime (a product I stopped using because it didn't work for me) and the blue is tire seal ....so what's the pink stuff? I've gone to ultraseal I ordered from gemplers. bullet proof version.

 

[DieselPower]

The pink is TireSeal. The "blue" stuff is what happened to the "green" Slime after 1 day in the trunk of my car in the heat. It turned blue and started to bleed out a oily substance.

 

[mlauk]

I've always used Berryman's tire sealer.

 

[weldingisfun]

I never thought about it one way or the other, but after seeing DieselPower's pics, I'll probably get TireSeal from now on. Don't plan on replacing the Slime in the tires where I used it until it is time to replace the tires.

DieselPower, what is the price difference between the two and who carries the TireSeal? TSC carries the Slime, but I don't recall ever seeing the TireSeal anywhere.

 

[DieselPower]

TireSeal is a TRC product. A case of 24 one pint (=16 ounces) bottles is $141.36 ($5.89 per pint), case of 6 one gallon jugs is $133.50 ($22.25 per gallon), 6 gallon pail is $103.20 ($17.20 per gallon).

I priced Slime the other day in TSC and this was what they had. 24 ounce bottle (1 1/2 pints) $10.88, 32 ounce bottle (2 pints) $14.81 and a gallon jug was $24.88.

 

[Botabill]

Pretty much the first day I brought my tractor home 4 years ago and 800 hours a nail pierced the front tire. I had heard about green slime on this site so I went to the TSC store to see if they had it. In Canada it's named something else but it is a green slime in appearane. Well I filled both my front tires and that fixed up the problem and I haven't had a problem since. There is no noticable lumpiness when I drive on pavement. The bottom line is Lots of folks have had good luck with slime reported on this site. I've never heard one complaint. I wouldn't be surprised if there is a mess when you need to change a tire but I am not sure why I would need to do that. Anyway the pink stuff might be as good but I've never heard any reports on it til now. As a Canadian my tires encounter terrible cold and some pretty hot summer days and the green slime does a great job. Unless I hear testimonials from a bunch of users of another product on this site I'll be sticking with the Green stuff.

 

[patrick_g]

BotaBIll, There are several products similar to Slime. Berryman's for instance. I have no personal knowledge of any that don't work OK and have heard no claims that any don't work.

I have heard some bad comments regarding the instant spare or "Spare in a can." Still, that has its place. I'd rather have my wife armed with a can of that than be stranded. I'll suffer the aftermath later in my own good time.

Pat

 

[gemini5362]

I have used slime numerous times. I used it in a car tire that had hit a pot hole and had a bent rim. The slime was used while a new rim was being found and the tire remounted. The slime worked so well we just kept the old rim and drove it like that for a year. The tire was still holding air when we traded that car off. I saw the slime booth at the national hardware show. They have an ATV tire on display with a bunch of 1/4 inch holes in it. You can actually see the green slime where it has plugged all the holes. The tire looked like it had measles with green spots but it was holding air. Tire Seal might be a superior product but availability is an issue for me. I can get slime in any walmart, auto supply store, and a local agri store (Atwoods) carries the gallon size for a pretty good price. It has worked very well for me when I have needed it. I would point out that they do make slime for tube tires and tubeless. I dont know if there is a difference in the product but it is labeled in different bottles.

 

[gemini5362]

BotaBIll, There are several products similar to Slime. Berryman's for instance. I have no personal knowledge of any that don't work OK and have heard no claims that any don't work.

I have heard some bad comments regarding the instant spare or "Spare in a can." Still, that has its place. I'd rather have my wife armed with a can of that than be stranded. I'll suffer the aftermath later in my own good time.

Pat

Patrick I seem to recall that one of the problems with spare in a can was that if it gets hot there was one brand that exploded in trunks. You might check and see how accurate that story is and if it is a particular brand that does it.

 

[Iplayfarmer]

The first time I heard about slime was when I bought a bike in college. The bike shop talked me into putting slime in the tire. A few weeks later I rode through a patch of thorns on the trail. I didn't count how many thorns were in the tires, but I did see that there wasn't an area of the tread more than an inch in diameter that didn't have a thorn in it.

I knew I was walking home. I carried the bike about a quarter mile to a gas station and filled the tires with air just as an exercise in futility. To my relief and amazement, the tires held air. I pulled the thorns out when I got home and rode the bike for another couple of years just like that.