Today I spent about an hour repairing holes in the tires of two of our service vehicles. Being on various job sites and making runs to the city dump our vehicles pick up their fair share of nails, screws and other pointy objects. These obstructions cause slow leaks that must be taken care of to avoid the dreaded flat tire the morning of a big project or blowout on the highway. The process is fairly simple and once you have done it a few times it is like riding a bike, you can add this easy repair process to your repertoire.
Step 1 – buy a tire repair kit from the local auto repair store. The repair kit will come with a tire reaming tool, the tire implant repair tool and several strips of what looks like black liquorice dipped in tar.
Step 2 – get all tools ready along with an air compressor or the Dewalt 2o Volt cordless inflator if you have one.
Step 3 – can be done with the tire on the car or if you have time can be done after taking the tire off the car. Doing a visual inspection you can normally find the cause of the leak. Using a flat head screw driver or pair of plyers to remove the obstruction. This can take some effort as the head of the screw or other item may have been ground off during driving. Once the object is removed you will know if you found the culprit as air will begin shooting out of the hole left behind.
Step 4 – Using the reaming tool poke the tool into the tire. Push and pull five or six times until there is far less friction than the first insertion. It seems counter productive to repair a hole by making a bigger hole however if you do not enlarge the hole you will not be able to get the repair plug properly inserted into the hole.
Step 5 – Using the plug insertion tool drive the plug into the hole until 2/3 of the repair plug is inserted into the hole. Once fully inserted pull the insertion tool out in one quick motion. The plug will remain in place and will create a permanent seal in the tire.
Step 6 – Using a razor knife cut the excess repair material off flush with the tire.
Step 7 – Use the inflation tool to re-inflate the tire to the proper psi listed on the tire.
We suggest the Dewalt 20 volt cordless inflator. It is small enough to store in any vehicle and yet provides the power of an air compressor two to three times it’s size. We recommend Dewalt tools as the batteries are interchangeable and provide excellent performance and reliability at an affordable price. The Dewalt 20 Volt cordless inflator gets our top 5 hammer rating for performance, ease of use, functionality and at a reasonable price. At $131 this is a tool that every diy and contractor should have on hand for any tire repair and or other inflation needs. I have included the link to the product on Amazon.
