Tire vs. Nail: Mountain Pass Edition

Driving through Blewett Pass in Washington when my TPMS alerts me that the left rear tire is at 23 psi and quickly dropping. Pull over at a little espresso (Liberty Latte!! ) get out of the truck, and I can hear the tire hissing and losing air. Thankfully, it was a really nice day in Blewett; sunny and not snowing. Got out the tire changing kit. Literally the same exact kit that I got with my '91 Land Cruiser 28 years ago, still works perfectly. If you know how to use it, it's easy and quick. Much better than the scissor Jack and cheap tire iron you get with some cars. Temporary tire is solid, only a little bit smaller and not loud or anything. Thanks Toyota for making your customer's roadside lives easy!!!

Now to address the next step of this problem: I would get new A/T tires, but these Bridgestones have at least 40k miles left on them and aren't terrible at all, plus the hole will be easy to get patched.

 

Is your spare 18"? I think everyone looks for a good excuse to buy something they want.

 

Tire Plug kit should be in everyone's toolbox. Could have removed nail, plugged, and re-inflated-providing air compressor on board too.

 

Yup. 255/70/18.

I know it's easy and quick, but when it comes to tires, I'd rather have a professional do it. Plus, like I said, even though it's a 3 ton truck, it was also quick and easy just to change the tire.

 

This^^^

 

now if you run bigger tires and a lift, that little jack is useless.

 

A nice fresh gooey thread of rubber plug with some rubber cement slathered on it has worked beautifully more than once. Its all in the prep and angle of attack. Needs proper trimming before driving. Plug and drive.

 

Had Discount Tire patch it today, was pretty quick and they mounted it/put the spare back all free of charge.

 

They plugged the hole up good and put some kind of rubber piece next to it, I guess to improve the integrity.

 

Isn’t that the plug they push through from the inside?

 

There was no hole where the plug is, I'm not sure what it's there for. The hole was to the left of it and I'm not sure how they patched it.

 

That's a plug patch, the nail probably went in at to much of an angle to properly install it, so they started at the hole on the inside and created a straight hole to insert the plug patch in. It is less than ideal to add a hole, but if you don't install the plug patch perpendicular to the tread, it could cause the patch to come loose and possibly leak.