Punctures & Repairs

So how many miles are you sure you have done on what would have been 'punctured' tyres ?

Not always, IME, especially with new tyres. Although my problems have only been with ATV and small tractor tyres. Luckily the garage next door has a Cheetah which I can borrow. (Sometimes I think I am the only person who uses it).

You mean the rope trick? Otherwise a lorry type ratchet strap is pretty good. If I get trouble, the first trick to try is to leave the valve core out (you can blast in air a bit quicker) and bounce the tyre while attempting to inflate it, or whack the tread with a big hammer, that will usually pop the bead onto the rim. I haven't got access to a bead booster (cheetah), but I can see it would be interesting to try one.

ROTFL

I assume from that you regard them as being a permanent fix- not just a 'get you home' or until you can get it done traditionally.

I do, yes. I've run a rear bike tyre with a sticky rope repair for well over 12 months and nearly 4k miles (the tyre was only days old when I put it in).

I was initially a little nervous, but now trust the repairs.

Erm, on the Sierra it would have been whatever was done between getting the puncture and scrapping the car (probably 6+ years later) and we fixed the puncture on the current car probably 4 years ago now and may do 5k/y?

The motorbikes that fixed punctured tyres did less of course but in every case the repair lasted till the std tyre change point (in one case from about 100 miles on a new tyre).

Several BMW motorcycle tourers upon return to the UK changed very worn tyres and saw tell-tale signs of what would have been several punctures.

Cheers, T i m

I've never had a problem with car tyres but on large agricultural trailer tyres a ratchet strap around the circumference gets it close. If the compressor isn't fast enough then a squirt of ether (eezistart) is best but as you say the cooling will pull the bead off unless the valve core has been removed.

Propane works well also but it is harder to judge the amount as it has a fairly narrow range of air:fuel in which it ignites.

AJH

Sorry didn't see this until I refreshed the group

AJH

We did on the last set we got for the kitcar because they were ordered over the net and came tightly wrapped in shrink wrap in a 3 and a two.

When we unwrapped them prior to fitting it seems they had been distorted slightly and so didn't want to expand to the width of the bead so wouldn't mount easily.

A suggestion at the time was to have put an inner tube into the tyre, inflate it and leave it overnight, allowing the tyre to take a more open 'set', making it easier to mount.

We also temporarily used an inner tube inside the new tyre on the rim to get it to mount and after leaving it a while, popped one bead and removed the inner tube, fitted a std valve stem, the tyre then re-mounting on the bead again.

We also used the ratchet strap idea but the tyre beads were so 'narrow' (and the rim fairly wide) it didn't really work that well.

Cheers, T i m

acetylene is the stuff, widest air fuel ratio. I accidentally ignited about a teacup full, the bang was incredible, no wonder they use it for atm withdrawals.

Most surprising thing I saw was an 'experiment' in the school chemi lab. The teacher bubbled some domestic gas into water with detergent in, so that it formed bubbles. The bang was quite surprising, and sent the bowl flying into the air. Maybe something similar, a small quantity of gas bubbles somehow introduced inside might help in this tyre application?

that should be relatively simple to rig, a soap solution blown through with a bit of hydrogeny browns gas, it could all be in one unit run with a drill battery.

Are you aware of the bead / tyre blasters Dan?

What an f'ing idiot that first guy was to put his finger between rim and tyre. Anyway, not nearly as musch fun as an exploding gas bubble gun.

I don't know whether that would be fun, scary, or just dangerous :-)

A bit of all three ... like taking a girlfriend home when the Mrs is there (that said, my now Mrs_then_girlfriend did go out a few times with my then Mrs now ex Mrs (ex as in 'ex parrot' as well unfortunately)) and it was 'others' that thought the combo to be quite dangerous). ;-)

Cheers, T i m

One woman is more than enough complication for me.

Hehe.

Luckily this one makes my life easier (and happier) so I can't complain. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

Yes look at the rodentator, 2% in oxygen I think.

Actually my tinnitus became fairly permanent after I made a pulse jet fuelled with oxy-acetylene, my wife thought someone had come to visit with a machine gun.

AJH