Looking for Input about Tire Safety

[Mainemantom]

I used to like having garage sales, selling cars from my house when I was in Ca. Made allot of money and had some fun. No more. Times have changed. Here in Maine, I value my privacy. I want no one on my property unless it is necessary. No more garage sales. No way will I list on craig's list. I would rather donate it to a thrift shop. If I have something to give away, I just leave it down by the road with a "free" sign. Stuff is gone fast, including the sign.

[His Royal Ghostliness]

From the sort of things I've read about in the U.S., I can see why that sort of practice would be more prevalent there...

As a buyer in Canada, it comes across as kind of sleazy.

Meh, count your blessings that you haven't run into the scum just yet, but be aware, that day is coming. Big cities build up shit society no matter where you go, members of said society spread away from the city, you end up with bottom feeders everywhere. US has much larger population so there exist much more bottom feeders so statistically there will be more activities on their part, being that the mainstream media ARE prominent members of the bottom-feeding class naturally you'll end up with the impression that you need to be driving a tank if crossing into the US from Canada.

but waiting to see if something actually works makes me rather uncomfortable (though I limit how much I'm putting at risk).

That's just foolish tho - you worked hard for your money, why chance pissing it away? Not saying the other person will try to cheat you on purpose, but sometimes shit just breaks for no good reason, a device that worked for the seller last week may not work when you're about to take possession of it.

I'm not in a position where anyone would want to steal from me...

Drugs, friend, drugs can make rational people commit some rather irrational acts. And you got better drugs than we do

It's a sad reflection on society though when the bad apples are such a large segment that an even larger segment of the non-bad apples gets all paranoid.

Agreed. But till we can legally shoot the basterds, they'll continue to multiply and spread.

How safe is the cop lot? I am dubious, because in the "old" days, the safest place to rob was across the street from the cop shop, because the cops who respond won't be coming from inside the station, dispatch summons the cops out on patrol.

Funny you should say that, as only about a month ago some boys from the ghetto decided it's a great idea to go rob the bar straight across from the donut shop. Well, as it turned out, there were plenty of cops already assembled there for some celebration or another. In his mug shot one of the perps looked like he tripped and fell down a few too many times

I just leave it down by the road with a "free" sign. Stuff is gone fast, including the sign.

That's just funny and sad at the same time! But, some people's children...

[IPreferDIY]

Finally got around to confirming that my 2011 tires hold air just fine. The 2003 tires, not so much, which isn't surprising. One had been in the 20s (psi) and has been holding air. One had been in the 10s and has gone down a few psi twice. One of two totally flat ones has gone down even more twice. The other totally flat one went totally flat the first time.

I was curious as to whether there was a puncture or what, so I re-inflated the flat one and put it in the tub. I didn't see a stream of bubbles indicating a puncture, though when looking real close, I could see tiny bubbles coming from various spots around the bead. Curiously, after my first round of cleaning the insides of the wheels with soapy water (using Dawn dish soap), the flat one has only gone down to 20 psi. I wonder if the soapy water had any 'improving' effect on the rubber. It would be nice if something as simple as soaking the bead/rim interface with soapy water would help prevent good tires from developing leaks there.

[85crownHPP]

A tad late but... was it a relatively clean in-out hole? If you can't see steel or chord through a questionable puncture, I wouldn't worry a bit about it.
At most next time I'd maybe probe it real good with a pick (or proper tire ream tool) to see if any air comes out while you fish around, and to feel if you've hit the steel belts. If you don't get any air out but feel steel, you could still run the ream the rest of the way and plug it, if it goes in easy. If a reamer doesn't find a way through with medium-ish effort, you probably didn't puncture it at all.
We use patch-plugs at my shop and ream the hole with a 6mm or 8mm carbide bit in an air tool to make a nice clean hole but I just plug mine typically, especially since I run used tires
They say a repair near the edge is a no-no because it could work it's way out, but I've done plenty (of plugs at least) in/near the edge of the tread and only had a few wind up a slow leak. Just keep an eye on it if you ever do

[IPreferDIY]

Here we are 18 months later and I still haven't put the replacement wheels on yet. I haven't been doing any lengthy highway driving and have been rather tame in my driving, but that will change soon. I noted my wheel cleaning efforts in another thread (http://www.grandmarq.net/vb/showthre...l=1#post829739) and will limit myself here to the issue of preventing aluminum corrosion around the beads of the tires. Given the potential for causing problems for the rubber, this issue seemed more appropriate here.

Since my original full-size spare (which is still in relatively new condition despite being 19 years old) does not need to be washed, and since we are in for wet weather for awhile, I used the spare as a guinea pig for using silicone spray around the beads while the tire is deflated. I'm using the WD-40 silicone version since it happened to be on sale recently and I did not want to chance using some ancient stuff that I have around.

The spray that got on the sidewalls either evaporated quickly or got soaked in quickly when wiped, and if it was the latter, then that would be worrisome. After leaving it sit for a couple of hours, there was still lots of liquid sitting inside the lip of the rim, so maybe it doesn't evaporate all that well unless it's spread out. I just rolled the wheel slowly so the excess ran along a particular ridge, and that got it to go away eventually, hopefully by evaporation rather than soaking in.

Either before or after I sprayed the other side, I decided to look into using silicone spray specifically on tires rather than just rely on silicone being okay with rubber. Tires apparently have 'life-prolonging' stuff in them that can get leached out even with silicone. The components of such stuff reportedly require movement of the rubber to do their thing, so a new tire that's left to sit can apparently end up worse off than a companion tire that has seen some use. It seems that certain silicone formulations might be okay, but the overall consensus seemed to be not to bother with silicone when "dressing" tires. There is a 303 product that is supposed to be just fine, but I've been reading that it needs to be applied repeatedly. I'm just doing a one-time application in the hope that the silicone will help keep water out and otherwise protect the metal. Appearance is not really an issue for me, so I don't even use a cleaner on my tires (just the rims).

I'm going to pump the tire up before it rains later tonight, after anything that will evaporate has evaporated. I was figuring I would try the silicone spray on my air bags, but based on what I read about tires, I'm having doubts. I think I'll just continue using a wet rag on the bags. I'm still going to try the silicone spray on the door/trunk/hood seals and window channels though.

Any thoughts/criticisms would be welcome.

[IPreferDIY]

I forgot to note the interesting part about taking the old 2003 tires off my shitty 1996 rims. I used a big knife to cut through the sidewalls to get the treads off, used a Dremel to grind through the steel cords in the beads, and used the knife to cut through the sidewalls down to the beads. Seeing how little an almost two-ton people-carrying machine rides on is an eye-opening experience.

There was lots of powdery aluminum corrosion inside the lips of the 1996 rims, so corrosion was probably contributing to them not holding air, and that's why the interest in trying to prevent corrosion. Interestingly, the full-size spare (with a steel rim) caused notable rust coloring of the silicone spray on the outer side despite seeing relatively little use. Hopefully my original rims will clean up nice when I get their old tires off so that my next set of tires will seal up just fine when installed.

[IPreferDIY]

A very old rubber-safe product that many have probably heard about is Ru-Glyde. It’s primary use is for mounting tires, but it can apparently be used for “tire dressing” too. Here are some screen shots of, and a link for, the Technical Specification sheet:

https://agscompany.com/images/stories/lubricants/canadian/ruglyde_tire_mounting_-_tds.pdf

and a link to the Safety Data Sheet for those who are so inclined:

https://agscompany.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Ru-Glyde_US-GHS-SDS_REV-FINAL_07_10_2018.pdf

Further information about the composition is listed in the Technical Specification sheet for the concentrate:

https://agscompany.com/images/stories/lubricants/automotive/ruglyde_ii_tire_lubricant_-_tds.pdf

Ru-Glyde and the 303 product seem to be the closest things to a “rubber conditioner”. Dunno if they would prevent corrosion though.

[IPreferDIY]

I finally got around to putting on my used replacement wheels today. Unfortunately, I'm not going to call this a "win" at this point. When I deflated the used tires and pressed around them to flex the rubber, I noticed the same kind of sidewall cracking that is readily apparent on the inflated old tires. The cracking on the newer tires was not at all apparent when they were inflated.

It's hard to say whether leaving the newer ones outside for 18 months had any deteriorating effect (during which time my old tires managed to make it to their 15th year). The only direct sunlight was during the time it took for the sun to cross the narrow space between two houses (at least I live in an area where they didn't get stolen), and there's a bit of foliage in the way. I had turned the wheels occasionally so that sun/weather exposure would be somewhat distributed. Oh well. Considering that tire life is noted to be 6-10 years, it seems like a good idea to avoid used tires that are more than four years old. That said, I will note that when I cut open the 2003 tires on my crappy spare rims, they looked just fine on the inside.

Hopefully my original HPPs will clean up nicely for my next set of tires. In the meantime, I'll continue to drive tame. Fortunately, no obvious balance issues were apparent during initial use, though I have not done highway driving yet. I'm curious to see if any aspect of what I've been attributing to a U-joint/driveshaft issue at highway speed was actually related to the old tires.