Tire pressure

I think the plugs they can install at a shop (from the inside, pulled through the puncture by a pilot cable that then gets cut off) have a much fatter rubber shank that goes through the puncture ... the idea being that it really fills up the puncture and prevents moisture getting in between the plies there, more than a goopy string does.

Last year I bought a 'plug only' sort of kit that tries to use the same principle, but from the outside: it forces a really fat rubber plug through a skinny nozzle, then pulls it back through to be cut off. Of course I bought the kit right after I had a puncture in the middle of a road trip, so it will probably prevent me ever having another one and learning how well it works.

 

When looking for a plug kit, I was initially considering "mushroom" type plug kit, like the ones reviewed in this article. Top 8 Best mushroom tire plug kit - WhyWeLikeThis Make Product Search Better They may be somewhat superior to the regular string plug.

That must be the same type @ChapmanF is describing.

But in the end, I opted for a cheap $5 regular string plug kit for the cost and compact size. After all, for over 30+ years of driving, I have yet to encounter a situation where I had to change to a spare tire or plug a hole due to a flat tire on a road. All of the flats I have encountered have been a slow leak in which case, I could top off the air and safely drive to a nearest tire shop for a quick repair. There were two times I had flat tires on the road. I was driving run-flat tire without spare and the run-flat did not run after being flat. The van had to be towed. My son was driving Civic and went off the curve and slashed inside sidewalls of both front and rear tires, making a single spare tire or plug kit useless. The car had to be towed.

 

The blackjack kit comes with 2 diameters of plugs. The larger look to be the normal size, plus some thinner ones (20 of each). I used the thinner one with my first repair, which was a very slim finishing nail puncture. This is the one I got, I think:

Tire Repair Kit Passenger - BlackJack Tire Supplies, Inc.

I see they have some inside/outside style repairs too, for tireshops mostly I would think.

Patch Plug Combi & Inserts Archives - BlackJack Tire Supplies, Inc.

One thing: I always seem to get punctures close to the tread edge, and maybe conventional plug repairs, just a cord, are better there, without the cumbersome inner disc??

I've always done the repair with wheel off the car. You want to straddle the tire, and use your weight to help force the needle through.

Also, the more air you can keep in the tire the better. Get everything ready, the rasp tool and the plug prepped, on the needle and lubed, before you completely pull the nail/bolt/screw. Loosen it just enough to confirm with soapy water (or spit) that it's bubbling.

Then quickly remove the object and insert the rasp, and once done with that go quickly to the plug insert. The more inflated the tire is the less likely it is to collapse as you push in the needle. Use lots of the lube too.

Push in till there's at most 1/2" of the cord still showing, then yoink it out quick, and trim with razor blade.

I'm rambling...

 

I have done lots of string plug repairs and none have failed.

On the other hand, I've had several tire failures on tires that had never been repaired including a delamination the shredded the tire.

As for air & moisture getting between the layers from a string plug, any kind of plug or repair will also let in the same air and moisture and with either kind, once the plug is in place it's sealed again.

My most radical plug was on the back tire of my last motorcycle. It had a fair sized triangle of cast aluminum in it. It took three plugs to close it off. I didn't pump it up to full pressure because I didn't trust it. Then I had to ride it almost 20 miles home riding as slowly as I dared on a 50 mph highway. When I got home, it had the same pressure as when I pumped it up. Nevertheless, I did NOT ride it till I got the new tire on. Whew!!

 

Yeah motorcycles you want to be a lot more cautious too.

 

I just stopped by the local tire shop and had the pressures on my 201 Prime set at 42 front/40rear which I used on my 2010 Gen 3 for many years. the tire shop attendant felt my pressures were way too high and seemed to imply the tires would explode or something. The Prime is a little heavier than the Gen 3 but I doubt that these pressures are fine. Any opinions? these are the original equipment tires.

 

Should be OK, but may feel harsher rides. I use to keep mine at 40/39, but now keep 38/38 at 50F. I don't see any noticeable difference in mpg or rides though. This makes my tires 36/36 in morning and 40/40 in the afternoon.

 

What temps are you seeing in the morning at 36/36 and afternoon at 40/40?
I know you posted the temps in another thread, but I can find it today.

 

35-39F (2-4C) in the morning, 77-91F(25-33C) in the afternoon on the same day.
The morning low temp was 36F and the afternoon high temp was 81F on that day, the 25C(77F) was shade side, 33C(91F) was sunny side.

 

Nice, that is a more detailed description this time too. I noticed today this thread has a couple pages. Ever get one of those DUH moments? I just did when i read your other post on the previous page, the one I couldn't find yesterday.

I used three pressure gauges the other day. My ryobi compressor showed 42 lbs, my first chrome pencil type gauge pegged at 90 lbs, and the second pencil type showed 32 lbs. I think the first pencil type came from a cheap tire repair kit I bought right after I got my flat tire, I think Nov 2017. The first time I used that one the head nozzle fell off and the while stick fell out of it. I reassembled it, but I guess it just doesn't want to show an accurate reading for me. The other pencil type gauge looks like it might be failing as well. After taking pressure readings on all tires 34 lbs on three and 24 lbs on one with the low pressure light on, on the dash.
After pumping up the low tire I when to take a few readings from the tire and they weren't making sense as I was expecting, they were too low. So I added 10 more lbs. and still the reading was low. Than I noticed that the while scale piece was dropping back inside the case when I'd move it off the tire valve. Just barely noticable, but significant pressure difference. When I took the reading with the gauge held tightly to the tire valve the reading made a lot more sense.

 

LOL You might want to invest in one of those tire gauges I have. They are all good quality, accurate, not very expensive. I have another manual one in a car with analog dial meter style gauge but don't remember the make and model. I like the pressure gauge/tread depth combination meter. It is digital and very easy to read out unlike the stick style ones, and depth gauge comes very handy when you are checking tires.

Milton (S-921) Single Chuck Head Pencil Tire Pressure Gauge $6.98 at Amazon
PCL TPG-1 PCL PROFESSIONAL PASSENGER TIRE PRESSURE GAUGE 6 - 50 PSI $11.04 https://www.alltiresupply.com/products/professional-passenger-tire-pressure-gauge-6-50-psi
Accutire MS-4021R Digital Tire Pressure Gauge $10.23 at Amazon
Husky Digital Tire Pressure/depth gauge discontinued - but- Accutire# MS-48 is basically the same item $12.62 at Walmart Digital Tread Depth / Tire Gauge with Color Bars - Accutire# MS-48 - Walmart.com

 

The one that was retracting after I pulled it off the tire valve is similar to the one linked above. I found another
of the same kind yesterday and will test them both again today.
Thanks for your interest and recommendations. Plus I'm glad you don't usually get pissed at my attempts at humor like some others here do or have in the past. LOL

 

But we pay Toyota for the privilege.

 

As we pay for so many other "privileges" we don't always necessarily subscribe to.
One being the privilege to buy subscriptions for special services, whether they preform the desired function or not.

 

Latest PDI we endured was for our ‘10 Prius. They actively tried to conceal a completely dead 12 volt (car had been build date august 09, and we purchased November 10), and when I got around to checking temp spare pressure (a few weeks after purchase) it was around 40 psi.

just assume you’re dealing with a hostile witness, and you’ll get on fine.

 

We recently acquired some nice tires... I've always had tires with the max cold pressure of 44 PSI. We understand that the recommended pressure is a balance of economy and comfortable ride, so we've always bumped up the pressure to 40/38 or 40/39 (we were told that the front-wheel drive vehicles needed the offset of 1 or 2 PSI) - we have never had any handling issues or traction issues.

However, the new tires have a max PSI of 51; in keeping with wanting better mileage, I wanted to ask about bumping the pressure to 45/43.

Thoughts?

 

Do it, though you should probably try 45/44.

My 2021 Prime has a 1 psi differential front/rear on the door sticker, I'm running the 51psi max Pirellis at 46/45, and may go higher on long trips.

I've done this for every Prius I've had. The door sticker is for your nice person comfort (this is what got Ford in trouble with rollovers), not for handling or mpg. There are arguments for/against higher pressures as to what it will do to the contact patch with the road (Google if you wish), but I have ALWAYS gotten better mpg, traction, and handling bumping it up when the tires can handle much higher.

While I won't recommend "crazy" higher, I've known people in the past that have run the stock 2G tires at 50psi, well past sidewall rating of 44, for tens of THOUSANDS of miles without issues. In fact, the second set of tires on my 04 were ones that were "too worn" for the driver, they had put over 50k on them at 50/50, I swapped them their rims and tires for a set of takeoffs I had bought, figuring I'd wear theirs out and put some good tires on, but I put another 20K+ on them before the were worn enough to justify retiring them.