Side Wall punctures on tubeless tires

[jekjr]

So you are running across a slope that you should not have been doing, the downhil tyre blows the mower rolls over on top of you and snaps a vertebras. You are now a parra , quad or deceased. No action taken against the tyre repairer ? you have just driven the mower up onto the trailer / flatbed and the out board tyre lets go and it topples off the trailer into the passing traffic, with or without you in the chair. No litigation ? For the $ 5.00 of profit in putting in a plug, just not worth the risk for the tyre shop. No matter how unlikely it is to happen. You put the plug in yourself and the same thing happens, your insurance company will foot the bill because you are a lawncare operator and don't know any better. You were going to replace the tyre but just forgot about it.

I have seen hundreds of mower tires go flat. Never seen one blow. I think I will take my chances. I probably have a better chance of being abducted by aliens than blowing a tire causing a roll over.

 

[jekjr]

This is the type plug I am talking about. I don't see how it is a problem with 12 lbs of air. Are you talking about the same thing? You poke this in the hole, pull out the tool quickly, leaving the string/plug and add air. I had a broken bottle stuck in my tire Friday, I took it out and immediately it went flat. I put a plug in and aired it up and no problems. The next day it was still good. I bought a mower and it has several of the sticking out of the side wall on a back tire. I have not had to add air. 9 Piece Tubeless Tire Repair Kit

I am like you. I just buy what ever kind there is in the store at the time of purchase. Normally we buy a pretty good sized pack from the auto parts store when we are out.

I have one Scag that has plugs on three tires on it with less than 150 hours on it. I have another one with almost 400 hours on it that has never had a flat tire. Go figure.

 

[bertsmobile1]

This is the type plug I am talking about. I don't see how it is a problem with 12 lbs of air. Are you talking about the same thing?
You poke this in the hole, pull out the tool quickly, leaving the string/plug and add air.

I had a broken bottle stuck in my tire Friday, I took it out and immediately it went flat. I put a plug in and aired it up and no problems. The next day it was still good. I bought a mower and it has several of the sticking out of the side wall on a back tire. I have not had to add air.


9 Piece Tubeless Tire Repair Kit

Don't have the foggiest.
The kits all look the same.
The composition of the glue and the type of rubber in the plug is what varies.
All the low temp mower plugs I have ever seen are red
All the car plugs I have seen are black

 

[bertsmobile1]

Any time I have bought tire plugs one plug fits all??? Over here in the great USA I guess the laws are just a little different then Australia seeing we just don't have tire police checking how tires are repaired, our police are just too busy harassing people driving cars to worry about anything else.

Actually the laws over there are generally a lot more regressive because the lawers over there are a lot more aggressive.
Obviously they are similar because the tyre shop would not fit a plug, same as they won't do it here either.
Some where in the instruction on the plug kit will be the disclaimer that the plug is for temporary emergency repair only and the tyre must be replaced at the earliest opportunity.

Policeing not needed.
After an incident the technical report will have details like well worn old plugs fitted to tyres.
that is a neon sign to smarty pants lawer to sue you backside off the tyre shop and for insurance companies to wipe their hands and walk away leaving him high & dry.
Then the State / Federal authorities come down like a ton of bricks.

So again not worth it for $ 5.00

Again I did not say it will happen and most likely won't , but it can.
Which is why the tyre shop won't do it which was what the OP was posting about and why I replied with the explanation as to why the tyre shop would not do it as the OP seemed to think there was some sort of conspiracy going on.

 

[Mikel1]

Oddly enough I've never had a hole in the sidewall, probably should have cutting grass near barb wire. I do run over thorns though, I buy the plugs off ebay alot cheaper than the local auto stores here.
One auto repair center here will not put a plug in a car's tire at all, patch only. Seems everyone has to cover their backside these days.

 

[Shughes717]

Actually the laws over there are generally a lot more regressive because the lawers over there are a lot more aggressive.
Obviously they are similar because the tyre shop would not fit a plug, same as they won't do it here either.
Some where in the instruction on the plug kit will be the disclaimer that the plug is for temporary emergency repair only and the tyre must be replaced at the earliest opportunity.

Policeing not needed.
After an incident the technical report will have details like well worn old plugs fitted to tyres.
that is a neon sign to smarty pants lawer to sue you backside off the tyre shop and for insurance companies to wipe their hands and walk away leaving him high & dry.
Then the State / Federal authorities come down like a ton of bricks.

So again not worth it for $ 5.00

Again I did not say it will happen and most likely won't , but it can.
Which is why the tyre shop won't do it which was what the OP was posting about and why I replied with the explanation as to why the tyre shop would not do it as the OP seemed to think there was some sort of conspiracy going on.

For someone who lives on the other side of the planet you pretend to know a lot about the judicial system in the United States. It is true that people here can sue anyone in civil court for just about anything, but it rarely goes federal. Such a case would be considered frivolous. The tire pressure in mower tires is way too low to blow a tire out. The main reason tire shops don't like plugging side walls is that typically the side wall will tear more as the plug is pushed in, which makes the hole bigger. The side wall is much thinner than the tread of the tire. I have been in law enforcement for 13 years and have never written a citation for someone putting a plug in the side wall of any tire. There is no criminal law in place that I have ever heard of. Even if law makers did pass a law making it illegal to put a plug in the side wall of a tire, it would only apply to vehicles that are operated on the roadway. Law enforcement could not and would not enforce the law for atvs or mowers.

 

[bertsmobile1]

Our legal system might be based on UK law but our product legislation and most consummer laws come directly from the USA right down to having footpaths called sidewalks in a lot of them .
So usually if we make something illegal down here it is because you made it illegal over there. Or at least one state and we seem to idolise Californian legislation .
We have 3 separate bodies that do product law and none of them have the faintest idea about the products they are dealing with if some one in the USA mounts a successfull case against a tyre shop , we ban the practice.
And if it is dangerious for car tyres then of course it must be dangerios for all tyres so it gets banned right across the entire industry.
And no mower tyres do not blow out, lazy typist .
They do roll the bead off the seat and instantly go flat which has the same nett effect.
Risk assment managers do not look at what actually dose happen they live in that strange world of what could possibly happen.
They advize civil servants with no practical experience who draft regulations to protect the country from their own fantasies and if no one dies from having a deflated ( blown was easier to type ) tyre then they have done their job so deserve their bonuses.
And no I litttle idea of which level of government actually dose what jobs apart from what I hear in seminars, & in docummentries etc hense the / between state & federal.

As for the mechanics, mower / off road tyre plugs take quite well to sidewalls, substantially better success rate than with car tread plugs as they are softer & stickier
But all this is twaddle, the OP was just wondering why the tyre shops would not install a plug, perhaps you might be kind enough to verify the legality of tyre plugging with your local tyre shop.
I could be totally wrong and if so would greatly appreciate being corrected.
Having a science / engineering back ground I am always happy to be proven wrong which is one mechanism of learning what is right.
This being an open forum and existing forever is cyberspace is is good to have the currently correct information in it.

FWIW I only fit Safety Seal brand plugswhich are a lot more expensive than any thing I could by from the cheap and nasty made is China discount shops and to date have never had a failure.
AFAIK they were actually formulated for 4WD use and found to work well on mowers. They are the only brand stocked by my 3 wholesalers, all of whome sell other products from oher companies that make plugs but none of them stock those plugs.

 

[Shughes717]

Our legal system might be based on UK law but our product legislation and most consummer laws come directly from the USA right down to having footpaths called sidewalks in a lot of them .
So usually if we make something illegal down here it is because you made it illegal over there. Or at least one state and we seem to idolise Californian legislation .
We have 3 separate bodies that do product law and none of them have the faintest idea about the products they are dealing with if some one in the USA mounts a successfull case against a tyre shop , we ban the practice.
And if it is dangerious for car tyres then of course it must be dangerios for all tyres so it gets banned right across the entire industry.
And no mower tyres do not blow out, lazy typist .
They do roll the bead off the seat and instantly go flat which has the same nett effect.
Risk assment managers do not look at what actually dose happen they live in that strange world of what could possibly happen.
They advize civil servants with no practical experience who draft regulations to protect the country from their own fantasies and if no one dies from having a deflated ( blown was easier to type ) tyre then they have done their job so deserve their bonuses.
And no I litttle idea of which level of government actually dose what jobs apart from what I hear in seminars, & in docummentries etc hense the / between state & federal.

As for the mechanics, mower / off road tyre plugs take quite well to sidewalls, substantially better success rate than with car tread plugs as they are softer & stickier
But all this is twaddle, the OP was just wondering why the tyre shops would not install a plug, perhaps you might be kind enough to verify the legality of tyre plugging with your local tyre shop.
I could be totally wrong and if so would greatly appreciate being corrected.
Having a science / engineering back ground I am always happy to be proven wrong which is one mechanism of learning what is right.
This being an open forum and existing forever is cyberspace is is good to have the currently correct information in it.

FWIW I only fit Safety Seal brand plugswhich are a lot more expensive than any thing I could by from the cheap and nasty made is China discount shops and to date have never had a failure.
AFAIK they were actually formulated for 4WD use and found to work well on mowers. They are the only brand stocked by my 3 wholesalers, all of whome sell other products from oher companies that make plugs but none of them stock those plugs.

I don't need to type a novel to reply to this. Most federal civil suits in the U.S. are against large corporations (example McDonald's) in hopes that they will settle out of court. As I said before, I am actually in law enforcement and not a mechanic. It will never be illegal anywhere in the U.S. To put a plug in the side wall of a mower tire because the law would be unenforceable! Traffic laws are in place for roadway traffic only. We cannot go onto private property and issue citations for traffic laws. You are showing your ignorance. Civil lawsuits have nothing to do with something being "illegal". I have attempted to plug the sidewall of 4 wheeler tires with no success. The hole just kept getting bigger.

 

[Mike88se]

Back to the original question... when I bought my latest 34Z one of the rear tires was plugged on the sidewall. It held up a while and then I tried a tube and it didn't last as long as the plug. I ended up buying a new tire. If I was out mowing and punctured a sidewall I wouldn't hesitate to try to plug it and see how it held up.

 

[Shughes717]

Back to the original question... when I bought my latest 34Z one of the rear tires was plugged on the sidewall. It held up a while and then I tried a tube and it didn't last as long as the plug. I ended up buying a new tire. If I was out mowing and punctured a sidewall I wouldn't hesitate to try to plug it and see how it held up.

I was helping my sister out a couple of years ago when her mower broke down. The grass had grown for about three weeks before I got a chance to mow it. The county had placed one of those orange marker flags on wire in her lawn near the road. I mowed over it and the wire got thrown into the side wall of my back tire. I had bad experience with plugging side walls in the past, and wasn't excited about putting a tube in either. I took my mower to the tire shop and asked if it could be patched. I was told that a patch wouldn't hold. He talked me into putting a tube in it. 20 mower hours and 2 tubes later I ended up purchasing a new tire. Tubes will not hold up long either, so attempting a plug couldn't hurt. If it does cause the hole to open up more you will just have to buy another tire. You will end up buying another tire if you attempt to put a tube in it as well. It will just cost more money. Give it a try. Worst case scenario you spend $5 and have to get a new tire.