Yellow custard (ON topic) and DAMMIT (tire)

I'm not a fan of repairing a sidewall punture. I'd opt for a couple of new tires.

How old are they? Oops, I see it, 2005 on the truck figure they may be 2005 or older. Check the date. 6 years old and gone.

Roy

Snipped what I cant help with... My service station used to have patches that also have a "plug" shaped rubber piece integrated into the patch. Maybe another shop has these?

For What it is worth, my humble opinion: I agree that the standard answer is you cant patch too close to sidewalls normally, but I have. Even on daily drivers, but this was before it cost you 20 bucks to have a tire patched anymore, eventually they would go flat again and have to be redone, usually I got the most of the use of the tire used up though doing this. No matter what, you are probably doomed to keep a cigarette lighter powered air pump handy in the cab somewhere, until you get one or 4 tires.

So you could stick 1 or some of those rope "plugs" they are called. you might get by until after xmas, & you can do them your self, save a few bucks I guess, I've had to push 3 ropes into a tire hole to get home, not to drive for a lot of miles though.

I think it isn't likely they "suddenly lose air" and cause a crash, that one I put 3 ropes into could have I guess, but I suppose it could (one in hundreds of thousands probability?). If you plug it your self, add a bunch of the glue to the rope as you insert it into the hole, let it sit as long as possible, hopefully warm to cure the glue, and know, they can still leak down over time, until you get enough goowie & ropes in there...

I bought me some pretty aggressive falken tires, (high country all terrain) relatively cheaper, and I love them, not loud either.

work well in mud and snow for me so far, loved them last winter, but they aren't an ice tire...

So the tire is trash, right? What have you got to lose by plugging it or shooting it with fix-a-flat? Or maybe both? Years ago I would put tubes in but they seem to be getting hard to come by anymore.

On the other hand there's that age thing and tires won't be getting any cheaper so putting it off may not be the best idea? I'm putting off buying 14 tires, dually, ramcharger and trailer, I figure $200.00 average per tire, ouch! They're going to have to wait.

Were it mine I'd fix it and make sure the spare is aired up.

If it's right at the edge of the tread and along the sidewall it isn't real safe to repair. BUT you could use a string patch and see what it does. If the tires are still in good shape you might find a used one of the same breed and install it.

Legally my answer is Yes, trash the tire.

Doubt you would find one willing to do it for the above reason.

Depends on where the air is actually traveling. BUT tire slime is a NASTY thing and causes more trouble than it's worth most of the time. From rusted rims, out of balance tire from it pooling and others.

NOT TRUE. You can still run the odd sized tire AS A SPARE. Just don't run the truck in 4X4 while you do.

What size are the OEM against what you have now? Here is a neat online way to see how different they are.

As an example the wifes Jeep has 235/70-16 on it but the spare is

195/75-16. The actual difference is less than 1/4" from axle to road. Not a problem for spare use and could even be run in 4X4 without a problem.

Neat little calculator, useful if I decide to try different size tires. In this case, they're the same size, it's just that the spare has zero miles on it, and is a Goodyear Wrangler something, and the current tires have 45k miles on them and are Michelin LTX M/S. it's not the size that's the problem, it's the brand and mileage.

I'm told that it takes a fairly small difference in tire circumference to severely mess up your 4x4 system. I was/am unsure what effect it has if my 4x4 is in 2WD.

Suddenly, without warning, Roy exclaimed (12/14/2010 2:04 PM):

Got the tires in 2005, yea. 45k miles. But, they hardly show any wear at all and when I researched 'em back then, they commonly last 75-100k miles. So they're not even middle-aged yet :(

Replacing them will take a big chunk of money I don't really have available right now :(

jmc

jmc

Look at the date on the tire, they could be 2003

Not if the it is on a rear that has LS.

If they are the same size then you don't have a problem. Other than traction differences between them the rest is a moot point.

Where you run into problems is when the spare is 5% or more different in size. In this case if you need to use it as a spare your OK. You could even run it full time if the traction isn't really different.

The real big problems are not on trucks like you have. Rather it is on cars with AWD. Those require the same size tire and same traction styles because of the design.

And what's wrong with a little Lip Stick on your rear?

beekeep

I thought it was lipstick on yer dipstick

Your guy KH did real well this year.

Roy

I agree Roy! if the tire sizes don't match across the differential (side to side on an axel), for more than say "get home" you will cause a lot of wear and damage to the differential... Been there done that, btw. plus what does it do to the antilock brakes? confused it I imagine.

It won't do anything to the anti-lock brakes, they are not sensitive enough to see the differences in the tire diameter. Personally I don't think a LS diff would matter for only tire wear, though different sized tires would be ugly. But ABS, it's not going to matter.

Which my truck has.

I've already put too much money in fixing the transfer case (we originally thought it was the diff) last winter (tore it apart, was only a needle bearing, if I remember correctly. Still $1600). I cannot afford to do that again.

jmc

That's the VD that one can live with!

Yeah the boy did good. Now that I have become used to watching the yellow car he goes and changes sponsers. I haven't seen the new paint job for the bud car yet. I'm guessing it will be red like half the other cars in the field.

We don't hear much about the oil spill down your way anymore. Is it all cleaned up? Are things going back to normal?

beekeep

Red is supposedly a "fast color".

The spill is on the gulf side, I'm on the Atlantic side just north of Daytona. Could hear the cars testing at the track yesterday. Anyway, things are supposedly getting back towards normal. But there is a huge dead area in the gulf where the crude is about 3" thick on the bottom. Everything is dead, everything. Also along the marsh's and inlets the oil is everywhere. BP is screwing around with the payments to those affected. people are desparate so BP is offering a few grand to sign off on right to sueon all claims for a quick payment. It sucks and those folks are screwed imo. Hell look at the area Katrina hit, it's still a friggin' mess.

This country has a very short attention spanimo.

Roy