You and me both.
I've never had probs w/ air leaks using my cheapo kit either. In fact, I checked the pressure on my old tires w/ multiple plugs that I have in storage yesterday and they all still had 35 psi in 'em.

 

I've done many patch plug repairs, they are a total pain in the a$$ to do. You must first unmount the tire from the rim then ream the hole with a special bit, clean the inside of the tire around the hole, scraping the rubber to make a clean flat surface. Apply glue, slide the plug portion of the patch through the hole and seating the patch around. Them use this spike wheel thingy to get rid of any air pockets in the patch. Yes it's pemanent but to remove the tire is a royal pain without a machine. I just use plugs and call it good.....




http://www.safetyseal.com/store/offroad.htm

 

I've done a lot of tire repairs over the years with plug kits of various types. A lot of the success depends on the plug itself. The all rubber ones are terrible. They tend to snap of before they fully enter the hole. The black pre-treated cords do an ok job, but never seem to fully seal and cure. They can generally be pulled back out with a pair of pliers months later. They also have problems with being pulled out as the tire tread wears down. The brown cords that you use rubber cement on seem to work the best. Generally these are from Camel.

As for the tools you use to ream the hole and insert the plug, the choice is yours. Lots of "pro" kits are not, and are simply extremely large. I personally don't like that. I've been using one of those really nastly cheap looking set of installation tools that you get from Walmart or K-mart for many years now. They are skinny, so I don't get a huge hole to now plug, and they are well matched to each other. The rasp is well tapered, and of a flat wound ribbon, so I can get it into the hole well. The plug installation tools is very narrow, so it doesn't bind or cut the plug on installation. It also released it well. And, it does not catch it's tab on insertion.

All that said, I'd be very cautious about using a cord type plug on a tear, or a low pressure tire that is flexed a lot. I just don't know how well they'd hold up for off road applications or the sort of damage I'd expect one to see from rock crawling.

 

Here is a link to that "tire plug gun" I was refering to above. Anyboduy else ever try one??

 

The Safety Seal off road repair kit looks nice. Would you be able to use it to repair a passenger car tire if need be? What is the difference between the off road kit and the car kit?

 

Number of plugs and the cute plastic carry case. That's the only difference.

 

I was at Savon Drugstore yesterday and the Auto section had Victor radial tire repair kits for less than $5. The kit had a rasp, insertion tool and 3 black, goo coated cords. The kit claimed that it was "self vulcanizing". Do these kits work?

Can any kit patch a sidewall slash?

 

The best thing to do is to get the longest insertion tool you can and turn it about 3 times before you yank it out. This make a knot inside the tire that wont pull thru no mater how much the tire flexes.

 

Here is a place that sells a mushroom plug tool:
http://patchboy.com/Merchant2/mercha...tegory_Code=ki

 

I've got one of those too and bought some extra plugs at the same time. We've patched about 5 tires with it now and it works great. One of the best $10 I've ever spent...

 

I've used the cheapy Pep Boys / Advance Auto type kits for many years and have probably done upwards of a dozen plug repairs that never failed afterwards. But I've had it with the cheap nature of the insertion needles/rasps. I kept bending he damn things, so I purchased the normal Safety Seal kit. Very nice quality. Now I'm hoping for a flat to give it a whirl...

Andreas

 

I see that the kits can be purchased directly from Safety Seal with free shipping on orders over $20.
http://www.safetyseal.com/store/store.htm

 

Got my Safety Seal kit for $26 from Rizz Enterprises, talk to
Guy Rizziello 818-352-7656 really nice guy. He said he could give the Yotatech members a really good deal on kits.

 

Wow, that is a really good price. Is it just like the ones shown on the safetySeal web site?
http://www.safetyseal.com/store/autokits.htm

 

Just like the one they sell for $39.95.

 

To bring an old thread back to life...punctured a tire on the trail yesterday...plugged it, going to get it permanently plugged this week, but the guy who had a kit it had spare valve stems, valve cores, valve tool, along w/ everything the Safety Seal kit has...in just a cheap clear (tackle box) case. Never asked where he got it, but it looked like a nice all inclusive kit. I need to pick something up regardless...anyone found an all inclusive kit like the one I mentioned above?

 

And since you are bringing this old thread back, Trail Gear has a nice video of how to fix a flat.

It is in about the middle of the video at position 4 minutes 2 seconds.

 

Most discount auto parts stores have those items in stock, I carry the safety seal kit and have used it more time than I can remember.

Personally, I've never had any problems with the plugs failing.

Recently I did a test on one of my worn out MTR's that had a plug in the side wall. I removed the plug and enlarged the hole, did testing all the way up to having 8 plugs in a hole that was nearly 3/8" with no leaking issues. even pushed the plugs in partially to test how my rig would react in the freeway when the plugs came out. It took nearly 2 days before it happened, I heard the pop and the tire went down. There was no adverse affect to the handling and I simply took my time moving over to the right. Another driver even pointed out one of my tires was flat, I just nodded my head, letting him know... After pulling over I plugged the tire again and drove home.

 

The kit you speak of Wabbit is made by Slime and I have seen it at Auto Zone.

Lamm

 

Trail Gear has the kits on sale for $18.
Looks beefier than the other one, and comes with spare tool ends.

https://www.yotatech.com/forums/showthread.php?t=87300

I am going to pick one up later.