Slime in Trailer Tires

[dlroy101]

What's the general opinion on putting Slime in trailer tires? I have a spare for my trailer, but thought Slime might not be such a bad idea to stop a leak rather than having to do a side of the road change of a flat if that were to happen. What does everyone think? I'd still carry the spare with me.

Darrell

 

[jeffinsgf]

I am slowly adding Slime to everything I own, except the cars and trucks. I know tire repair shops hate the stuff, but, if you use it, you may not ever have to have the tire serviced. It has stopped slow leaks in my LGT tires, and many of my trailers and implements.

 

[Farmwithjunk]

What's the general opinion on putting Slime in trailer tires? I have a spare for my trailer, but thought Slime might not be such a bad idea to stop a leak rather than having to do a side of the road change of a flat if that were to happen. What does everyone think? I'd still carry the spare with me.

Darrell

I'm not sure how it would do in a spare. I was under the impression the tire/wheel needed to rotate to keep the SLIME spread throughout the tire.

 

[dlroy101]

The Slime would be in the tires that are on the trailer now, so that I might not have to use the spare. Sorry for the confusion.

Darrell

 

[Farmwithjunk]

The Slime would be in the tires that are on the trailer now, so that I might not have to use the spare. Sorry for the confusion.

Darrell

My mistake. I re-read your original post. Better brush up on my reading skills.

After changing a couple tires with Slime and one with Fix-A-Flat, I don't like the stuff. BUT... Lots of people swear by it. I just swear AT it.

Anything that keeps you ON the road and OFF the roadSIDE couldn't be all bad though.

 

[Nasty135]

I may be wrong... But I don't think slime is for hi-way speed tires , Only low speed 4 wheeler or lawn tractor speeds as it would through the tire way out of balance....??? Anybody know different... Fix-a-flat is formulated for higher speed tires but only for emergency, Like the next gas station, I have used it and left it in but when plugging the tire afterwards the solution seams to cause the plug to have a slow leak overtime...so I don't use it anymore....Of course a patch is the correct way to fix a hole in the tread....

 

[3RRL]

After changing a couple tires with Slime and one with Fix-A-Flat, I don't like the stuff. BUT... Lots of people swear by it. I just swear AT it.

If you're fixing them, maybe it's not that good after all?

 

[Bedlam]

Fix a flat is also good to seal a small rim leak without having to remove the tire and clean the rim.You know the ones where the tire needs air every other day...

 

[Highbeam]

I use it in my off road motorcycle tires which have tubes in them. The slime is supposed to seal a 1/8" puncture and the most common leak in my application is a "snake bite" where the tube gets pinched between the rim and the ground. So far so good, no flats since adding the stuff which may be coincidence.

I routinely run up to 60 mph and have no issues with vibration or instability. Most riding is in the 15-20 mph range. The stuff stays liquid so it spreads out inside the tire while underway.

 

[radman1]

I would use it and have used it. Most trailer tires are not even balanced when put on (although I think they should be.) Once, I was on a trip and put it in the rear tire of my 200 goldwing that had a flat. No problems with balance. Those tires are very difficult to get off without a lift. I was going to get it fixed later, but never did. I was quoted $115 just to remove/replace the tire. I'll wait until I need a new tire now. I have not used it in cars or trucks.

 

[Highbeam]

Good point radman, my trailer tires are load range E and pretty big. I had a spare made up with the exact same wheel and tire. They balanced my spare and even after unmounting and spinning the tire on the rim it still needed over an ounce of lead to get it balanced. None of the trailer's OEM wheels/tires have weights on them which tells me that trailer tires can tolerate a good amount of misbalance.

This unbalanced condition would not be easy to tolerate on the truck especially on the front end.

 

[plowking]

The truck tire shop I go to uses Slime or something similiar in truck tires on trash trucks that run into landfills all the time, they install it with a pump. I believe the sealant is added while tire is still deflated. plowking

 

[gemini5362]

I would strongly recommend slime in trailer tires or any tires for that matter. Motorcycles have a long history of useing slime or a similar product. Having a tire lose air on a motorcycle is a very painful experience. I use it in all my cars and my trailers and my motorcycle. I do not know enough to argue about the problems with balanceing but I believe that since slime stays a liquid in the tire that it would probably thin out to a small flat area around the tire and not be a balance issue. I used it on my wifes toyota when she hit a pothole and bent the rim. The first cold morning we had after she did that her tire went flat. I put slime in the tire and filled it up with air. She drove it like that for a year till she finally got around to getting a new rim. I am not advocating using slime instead of getting a tire patched but it is helpful to keep a tire from going flat if you pick up a nail or something like that

 

[DieselPower]

Flat prevention additives work well if used "properly". The key work there is properly. Sealant's like Slime and TRC's Tireseal are not ment for tires that go over 45 MPH. At speeds greater than 45 MPH it will cause a horrible tire imbalance and vibration that will also lead to premature tire tread wear.

Yes, some of these sealants are a PITA to get out if you ever have to remove the tire. I suggest using one that is biodegradable and can be easily flushed out with just water like TRC's Tireseal II PG.

The bigest suggestion I can make is to NEVER use products like fix-a-flat. It is more or less glue and is next to near impossible to get out. It also causes rust on steel rims and corrosion on aluminum rims. It's more headache than it's worth. Best advice for automobiles is to make sure you have a spare and make sure you check it's tire preasure every time you check others. There's nothing worse than needing to use the spare and it being flat.

 

[AlanB]

SLIME - Smart Solutions for Flat Tire Prevention & Repair!

Lower right corner of this page, warning about vibration etc.

Also note it exclude's trailers from that, as other's here have stated, trailer tires are not normally balanced

 

[gemini5362]

I went to the slime web site as suggested. I am not an expert in slime or law for that matter but I believe that warning is just for liability purposes. I have used slime in all 4 tires on a regular basis and did not have the problems they mentioned there. My experience as been more like what they say on this web site. Ride-On ® | Tire Protection System. You might want to try to find where to get their commercial high speed product. It could be a different composition than slime and do what you want better. I use slime because it is readily available

 

[bitternut]

I have used tire sealant in just about every application possible. Tractor tires, atv tires, riding lawn mower tires, wheel barrow, trailer tires, car tires and truck tires. Always worked good and never had any problems with tire wear or imbalance. I always get high mileage on vehicle tires. Works for me.