What do you think? Nail in tire…

Been averaging 3 trailer tires a month. All but one were trailers I picked up with flats. Seems my Western Express colleagues prefer to drop a trailer with issues instead of get them fixed.

While at a Walmart DC I sent DVIRs for two different trailers with multiple issues on each.

 

It’s a pallet nail. They are twisted for grip. Usually put in with an air nail gun. You will find them lying around everywhere there are wooden pallets.

 

Had the same problems when I worked at J.B. Hunt. Once, I had to drive an empty trailer with an inner flat 300 miles. Kept trying to call road service and couldn't get through. Tried 4 times during those 300 miles. Ended up just dropping the trailer as-is....

 

Quite sure you're long gone now but I've been running an end dump for the past few years in and out of landfills. If it can pierce a tire, I've seen it. I have all the equipment for patching a tire but to keep the day going plugs do work. I usually use a tire tool to help me get them in, especially if I didn't let too much air out.

I've tried the high speed tire slime. It works well but eventually it'll plug up the valve stems.

 

The "slime" tends to gum up the automatic tire pressure indicators too, and you'll surely get an aXX chewin' from the tire person that dismounts the tire. It's always a mess.

 

Slime is just a panacea for 4-wheelers. It makes a gawd-awful mess. Also, considering the size of a "22.5" or 24.5" tire, you'll need to use an entire large bottle to have ANY chance of it working, and that costs easily twice that of a tire plug kit. Also, Slime doesn't always work.

I'm a cyclist, and tire sealants like these have been on the market for at least 20 years, mostly as a sealant to make tubeless bicycle tires seal. I've seen the mess this stuff makes inside the tire, and it ain't pretty. Also, road cyclists complain that this goop tends to pool at the bottom of the tire when stopped, and when the temperature goes down, it will solidify in that location, throwing the wheel out of balance. And if the sealant fails to stop a puncture on the road, you have to deal with all the mess on the side of the road and put a tube into all this mess, or just walk it home.

No, Slime is only an advantage for people too well dressed or too time-constrained to either change or plug a tire. A good plug lasts the life of the tire.

 

"Slime" is colloquial for "high speed tire sealant". it's not that green stuff you put in ATVs. It's used mainly in construction equipment or trailers like mine (formerly) that go in and out of high risk areas, like demo sites and landfills. There's a low speed and high speed variety and it will seal a puncture in a loader tire up to 1/2 inch, maybe more. You can't get it at the usual parts store.

I've replaced tires with no less than 15 plugs. Often facing 3 or more punctures in a week. The money I saved in time dealing with flats made it worth the issues and cost of the sealant ($350+ for 5gal). Eventually, it gets into the valve stems and they not only get stuck closed, but sometimes stuck open and I've had to replace entire stems, not just the core, to get air in and out.

and yes, changing tires is far less pleasant this way.

Got a flatbed picked out and for this one I'll just put my cats eyes on like I have on the tractor.

 

No doubt. I did most of my own tire work and I'd have that argument with myself. New trailer gets the cats eyes and no slime.