Tire Repair Safety

This morning I went into the local tire shop for a routine tire rotation and oil change. As I was passing the time, I notices a very brightly colored tire mounted on the display wall. This display tire was indicating, based off of red and green coloring, which parts of the tire were repairable.

This little tire triggered a memory from a couple of years ago during the annual Klondike Derby. I attempted to cross a steel bridge to get to a campsite across the creek. As my front tire reached the bridge, the weight of the truck mixed with the mud caused us to start to slide off the side and down towards the water. During that moment of sliding there us a large POP! I knew instantly that the tire had blown from hitting the sharp edge of the steel bridge. Luckily, we were already in 4 wheel drive and were able to back out up the bank and have everyone safe in the parking lot. The tire had a slash on the outer wall that measured close to 4 inches… not good. Plus it was getting dark and there needed to be a spare changed out…. The tire shop took one look and said, “nope, you need a new tire”. There was a period of time that it seemed like I was going through $45 used tires every 2 months.

Usually any damage to the inside or outside walls of your tires will result in you needing to purchase a new tire. This also depends on the tire shop and what they are willing to patch and fix up. The tire shop that I do business at will not repair any tire that has damage to the walls. The red section in the picture. This is a policy that they have adopted from the Rubber Manufactures Association. In the long run this policy will keep me and anyone else safe when it comes to tire repair. The last thing I would want is to have a blow out going 75mph down the freeway and placing others at risk just to save a couple of bucks.

If your tire has a puncture from running over a screw or nail, you can usually get these incidences repaired pretty quick as they tend to happen in the green section of the display tire. This section has steel bands that are inside the tire which results in more strength for the repair to rely on. Although, there was one instance where we ended up running over a metal tie down (like the one’s lumber yards use to band together a bunch of 2x4’s) that ended up slicing the tire across all the bands making it un-repairable. Man tires are expensive…