Truck tire sidewall patch???

[N80]

Although I have never used it, instead of plugging next time what if you pumped in some of that liquid flat fixer stuff. There are several brands out there. Put it in...pump the tire up and rotate around. The fibers in the liquid plug the hole.

I would have tried that if I'd thought about it. It probably wouldn't have taken much since the hole was so small. But, with the air flow being so slow through the hole I do wonder if the material would have been drawn into it.

 

[RSKY]

I worked 37 years in the tire industry for three different tire manufacturing companies. We were sued numerous times for something some idiot in a tire shop did that got somebody killed. If the tire was an old style bias ply you might get away with the plug in a sidewall for a few miles. With a radial the sidewall flexes a great deal with ever revolution. It WILL EVENTUALLY FAIL. And when it fails it will not be a gentle deflating, the plug will spread the cords as it exits the tire and you will have a sudden lose of all air pressure. You should not use that tire.

RSKY

 

[N80]

I致e already ordered a new one. Discount Tire has offered to pro-rate the cost of the new tire even though I do not have the warranty or they will allow me to buy the warranty for the four existing tires and the new one for $160 and that includes the replacement tire. I think I will take that offer and it is very cool of them to make both of those offers. Of course, I致e bought every tire on all of my vehicles from them for the last 15 years including track tires. Still, excellent customer service in my opinion.

 

[NoTrespassing]

I got a tiny locust thorn stuck in one of my brand new all-terrain tires on my pickup. It was causing a very very slow leak. My wife took the truck to Discount Tire where I bought them. I did not buy the road hazard warranty. They would not even look at it and told her that they could not do anything with tires with sidewall damage. (I wonder what they would have done if I did have the road hazard warranty?). Anyway, without asking me my wife took the truck to our local small town tire place, you all know the one....in an old gas station, old tires piled up all around it, 75 years of oil and grease everywhere. They put a plug patch in the side wall. It no longer leaks.

I had always heard not to put a plug patch in a sidewall.

These are load range E tires and I tow anywhere from 5000-7000 pounds fairly regularly although I rarely inflate them to the maximum of 80 pounds.

What do you guys think about this? If it is a true safety issue I guess no harm is done since they only charged her $14 and I'll have to replace the tire anyway. Question is, would you guys drive and tow with a sidewall plug patch? If not, I've got to get a new $200 tire.

Almost the same exact story happened to me but it was on my wedding day. Sears refused to patch the tire and the local guy patched it and saved the day. I ran that tire until the tread was worn out and never had a problem with it. They did dismount the tire and patch it on the inside I believe. It was on the front of the truck.

Kevin

 

[kenmac]

Worked at a gas station many yrs ago. We wouldn't plug side wall damage back then. We would put a patch on the inside and then install a radial tire tube. That was back before valve stems with TPMS sensors though

 

[kenmac]

I just replaced 4 tires on one of my vehicles this week. When shopping online for the replacements, I noticed many of the tires i looked at had free 2 year road hazard included in the cost of the tire. Discount tire was one of the places I saw that. Made a mental note because I never purchase the road hazard. Might be worth a shot and see if the tires you purchased have the free 2 year road hazard.

Well, I just bought 4 tires from discount tire direct and they wanted $10.00 per tire for road hazard warranty.

 

[DIYjunkie]

Worked at a gas station many yrs ago. We wouldn't plug side wall damage back then. We would put a patch on the inside and then install a radial tire tube. That was back before valve stems with TPMS sensors though

I work at a dealership and we are not allowed to patch or patch/plug sidewalls. Too much liability. $10 per tire for road hazard warranty is worth it. Better than having to pay $30 for a repair or $100+ for a tire.

 

[kenmac]

I work at a dealership and we are not allowed to patch or patch/plug sidewalls. Too much liability. $10 per tire for road hazard warranty is worth it. Better than having to pay $30 for a repair or $100+ for a tire.

it's like any other insurance you buy. Most of the time they win, sometimes you win ..
I think they say the warranty covers for 3 yrs, or xxx tread depth

 

[DIYjunkie]

it's like any other insurance you buy. Most of the time they win, sometimes you win ..
I think they say the warranty covers for 3 yrs, or xxx tread depth

Might depend on state or could be federal DOT regulations but, 3/32" is the cut off before we can repair a tire, any lower and it's just not safe.

 

[kenmac]

you're right. Here's their warranty. It states less than 3 yrs.
I order tires and have them (discount tire) shipped to my door for less than I can purchase local

From Discount tire website:

In a nutshell, if a tire that is covered by Discount Tire Direct “Certificate for Repair, Refund or Replacement” fails for any reason – whether it’s due to a factory defect or a non-repairable road hazard and still has legal tread (3/32nds of an inch) remaining across the tire, and it has been in use for less than 3 years, we’ll give a refund of the full purchase price.

But we don’t stop there. We’ll also throw in the applicable sales tax and give you the option to purchase the same new or comparable tire at the refunded price, with the payment of any new applicable sales tax that may have increased between now and when the tire was purchased.

No prorating, no disqualifications (for any reason) and no mileage adjustments similar to those you might have to deal with under the terms of a traditional tire tread warranty.

 

[DIYjunkie]

There's a caveat to that. If say your vehicle is all wheel drive, the new tire should not have more than 3/32" tread or less than existing tires, as that can cause premature damage to your drive train. At that point you'd need 4 new tires.

 

[Jstpssng]

There's a caveat to that. If say your vehicle is all wheel drive, the new tire should not have more than 3/32" tread or less than existing tires, as that can cause premature damage to your drive train. At that point you'd need 4 new tires.

Your other choice is to have the new tire shaved to match the others. I have to say that it doesn't seem right to intentionally take tread off a brand new tire. (Although I may have done so a few times back in my younger days. )

 

[DIYjunkie]

Your other choice is to have the new tire shaved to match the others. I have to say that it doesn't seem right to intentionally take tread off a brand new tire. (Although I may have done so a few times back in my younger days. )

Never been to or worked at a place that does that, if that is a thing.

 

[Jstpssng]

Never been to or worked at a place that does that, if that is a thing.

Shaving at Tire Rack
I encountered this years ago while trying to buy tires at Sears for one axle on my 4x4 pickup. They gave me the choice of buying 4 or getting the new ones shaved... I went with option 3 and went someplace else.

 

[bdog]

It is a safety risk and I can’t say I recommend it but I have had hundreds of sidewall punctures repaired over the years. I work in the oilfield and now we use UTV’s for bouncing around the pasture but from 1994 to 2014 we used pickups. Imagine four pickups driving around off-road all day for 12 hours and never touching pavement. Yeah we had a ton of flats. I am not exaggerating when I say we repaired hundreds of sidewall punctures. If the hole is much bigger than a pencil we didn’t have good luck with repairs but smaller than that they held.

 

[dmccarty]

There's a caveat to that. If say your vehicle is all wheel drive, the new tire should not have more than 3/32" tread or less than existing tires, as that can cause premature damage to your drive train. At that point you'd need 4 new tires.

That is true for SOME AWD vehicles but not all. Ye have to read the manual. We had and AWD Volvo which got some flat tires. Some bozo dropped a bunch of nails all over the roads and the local repair shops where fixing flats for weeks. We had pretty new tires and one of the tires could not be fixed so we had to buy four new tires. I did some reading when this happened and some AWD require the tires to be close in size, other AWD designs do not. Tis a scatting design and build that requires all tires to be the same size, especially the little size difference they specify.

Later,
Dan

 

[BHD]

one can always run a tire tube in the tire,

if it was slice or a cut that is one thing but small puncture should not bother the side all integrity, most likely none of the structural cords were damaged, all you lost was the ability of seal for air leakage,

grind off any protruding part of the plug, and put in a tube and be on your way,

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I f you still have a concern use that tire for a spare,