What percentage of flat tires can be saved?

Yes. Just search for "CO2 inflator" on Amazon. They use "16g threaded cartridge".

The kind of CO2 cartridge for air gun is 12g, non-threaded.

CO2 inflators are practical for bicycle tires because of the compact light weight to carry in your pocket. A hand pump is too tedious. It is not practical for cars and trucks because you can use electric air pump. One 16g CO2 cartridge may not be enough to fill a flat car or truck tire. Topping up, maybe.

Very few of the videos show when the project turns to s*it. You know, when your entire vocabulary has been pruned down to 'F*ck! F*ck! F*ck!' as you beat on the tire with a 5lb hammer trying to get the f****ng bead to seat.

I've noticed the people who have never done something tend to be over optimistic.

That's if you don't die from lawnmower rollover due to blown tire if you have a sports lawnmower.

On Apr 30, 2023, Bob F wrote (in article<news:u2majv$3ldsk$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me):

Probably can put female lugs in concrete or asphalt and then bolt it down when you need it, remove it and pack it up when you're not using it.

Probably need a bead breaker as the arm that comes with it seems weak.

Maybe even a couple extra long tire irons. And a spray bottle of soapy water.

There's almost no end to tools you can add to make any one repair easier.

Ron, the humblest guy in town.

How much did you save buying those Cooper CS5's from Amazon?

I've repaired my own vehicles for the last 60 years, including rebuilding engines and transmissions. When it comes to tubeless tires, I let someone else do it. I'll do tube types.

Of course to to it right you also need to be able to balance them too. What does that cost?

I find it easier to pay and read a magazine while the work is being done. I get a few years out of a set of tires.

People promoting it often make it sound a little bit easier than it is. People deprecating it always make it sound a lot harder than it really is.

Usually they're just justifying why _they_ would never do home repairs. You have to wonder why they are on a home repair newsgroup after all.

And then they invented donuts... The space for the donut in my Toyota isn't large enough for a real spare tire.

Simple Tire runs so many deals their discounts are like spam in your inbox.

Generally you end up with one tire free for every four tires you buy.

Depending on the state, there may be no sales tax either.

I carry a breaker bar and sockets that fit the lug nuts. I've had too much experience with those OEM wrenches that don't fit anything known to man. I also carry a bottle jack although the OEM scissors jack works well.

In the rare cases where a tire shop has put the wheels on I immediately go home and attempt to remove them. I have an impact wrench for the ones the Amazing Hulk tightened. Then I replace them to a torque that I can remove.

Yes, a lot of places do that. I think or thought it was required, but I don't remember my used tire store doing it. In fact I can picture the receipt I got the last time and it's only one handwrtten line. (But I'll pay more attention. I was going to buy a tire or two before taking a trip this summer.)

ROTFLOL

If someone hasn't mounted/balanced tires, then the only thing they usually know about mounting or balancing tires is what their momma told them.

Which is not much.

Mounting and balancing tires has been done by hand for ages, and there's nothing special about current tires other than they're even easier to do.

People who say it's hard are the same people who say mowing is hard work. The real reason they come up with crazy excuses is that they don't like it.

If all you know about balancing tires is the advertising that Hunter spews trying to make the average mom and pop consumer think they need space-age balancing, then you don't know that static balancing works just fine most of the time, & even if it's slightly off, driving will tell the truth.

Static balancing, when done at home, takes far less weight than dynamic and road force balancing takes in the shop because you do the job right first.

You first balance the wheel and then you balance the tire on the wheel. Then you drive it, and if there's no vibration, they're balanced.

There's no such thing as imperceptible wheel or tire vibration. Just like there's no such thing as a weed that a lawn mower can't see.

The vibration thing is an imaginary boogeyman. Hunter created it. Read their literature on how to sell the service.

They tell the technicians to scare the crap out of you on vibration. It's a scam to sell services which aren't needed almost all the time.

Sure, a bad tire comes off the lot every once in a while. With electronics today, it's a lot less than Hunter would have you think.

There's no excuse for not balancing your tires in your own garage. Unless you can't find a flat spot that is a foot and a half wide, that is.

It's only people who don't want to do the job who make up crazy excuses. They shouldn't be on this ng if they have to make up excuses like that.

So if a power lawnmower hits it and propels at 30mph into the user's ankles? Or a riding mower shoots it into someone 50 feet away?

You should put the nail in your pocket or throw it into your trash.

Or if it goes over the wall and kills someone in the stands at a lawnmower race.

It's quick. It's easy.

It's safe. It's effective.

Just like putting on a condom. If you don't want to wear a condom, you'll come up with reasons why not.

Same here. The only ones worried about it are those who don't like doing the job.

I've done it. Many times. It's easy. Most of the time. You'll never fail. I've made every mistake you can make and I corrected every one by now.

Although there are still a few handy tools I haven't gotten around to buying, mostly because the tools I have haven't failed me on any tire.

However, the smaller the tire, the easier it is. Also the lower the load range, the easier it is.

I've done from econobox tires to LT tires with that HF tire mounting kit. Ask me any questions you want.

Anyone saying it's difficult has never done it. Anyone saying it takes too much time has never done it. Anyone saying it's too dangerous has a low tolerance for danger.

It's kind of like when people say making your own salad dressing is hard. They say you can't make soup or you'll end up poisoning the whole family.

If you want to do it, you'll experiment & buy the tools & learn the steps. If you don't want to do it, you'll make up any reason why you can't do it.

It's no different than anything else.

Like welding, or jumping out of airplanes, or fixing your own sprinklers. If someone wants to do it, it's easy to do (doesn't take special skills).

If someone hates to do it, they'll come up with all sorts of reasons, but you know they're fibbing when they bring up danger or that you can't do it right - as that's just their excuse for why they don't like doing it.

If they're that afraid, they should lock up all the doors & windows and stay home with the shades drawn and a loaded shotgun and pistol too.

The rest of us just do it. Ask me any question you want.

I've done it many times. Never failed even once.

Tires are auto, not home repair. Few here can justify the cost of equipment to do it properly. In the past 8 years I bought 4 tires, had one repaired. No way I can justify buying the equipment and doing the labor. It would be a big loss compared to investing that money and paying labor as needed.

Just because you can, does not mean you should.

They sell for maybe 70 or 100 dollars simple metal lever machines to break the bead and remove a tire from a rim, but tire beads are a lot stiffer than they were in the 1930's, you'll be worn out maybe even before you've finished one tire, and you'll never see a tire shop using a manual version. The pneumatic versions are as big as a short washing machine and cost, I'm sure, 1000 dollars or more. Plus you need a good source of compressed air.

Yes, for sure**

Everyone here keeps calling them plugs but there is a difference between plugs and strings and strings have replaced plugs. Looking to see if the web agrees with me I found

The word "string" is nowhere in the article!! But plug means something different. They were rubber, cylindrical, harder to put in, sometimes they ripped in half when you were trying to stuff them in a small hole, and they had to be coated by the user by what seemed like rubber cement. They started selling strings maybe 30 years ago and maybe too many people are too young to remmeber the distinction.

This one calls them strings: