REPAIRING ANY TYRE FAILURE IS DEAD SIMPLE WITH A LITTLE BUSH INGENUITY

Most of us do a lot to prevent tyre damage off-road, like lowering tyre pressures, but what about those accidental blow-outs like staking a sidewall, nail in the tread or rolling a tyre off the bead? Sure, you carry a spare, but multiple punctures on one section of track aren’t unheard of, so knowing how to deal with any problem is a must.

If you don’t have them already, including a Tyre Repair Kit, inner tubes (you can pick these up from your local tyre shop), a Kwiky Tyre Deflator, a Offroad Jack, a Thumper Air Compressor MKII and a set of tyre pliers in your off-road toolkit is a good idea. The Hercules Tyre Repair Kit includes rubber cement, tube repair patches, spare valves and plenty of plugs. As for an air compressor, don’t get caught up by the big pressure rating (PSI) on the box. Look for a unit with a flow rate of 72L/min as a minimum. Anything less just won’t cut it when it comes to 4WD tyres, and the higher the better.

Small punctures can be plugged pretty easily with a Hercules Tyre Repair Kit. A severe leak like staking a sidewall happens with no warning and the gash is often too big for a regular plug. Here’s where your spare inner tube comes in handy. They work the same as the tyres on your old pushie, so you just need to pop the tyre off one bead and insert the tube. If you don’t have one, another option is to patch the inside of the side wall. This takes longer and you’ll need to leave it long enough for the glue to dry before driving on it. Your last resort is to pack the tyre full of something like dry grass, twigs, clothing or even your Adventure Kings sleeping bag. Sounds extreme, but improvisation is the key to bush survival.

Most of the time when you roll a bead it’s a result of pushing sideways up against an obstacle, so cleaning off the rim and tyre is the first step. Running a ratchet strap around the diameter of the tyre will help to seal the tyre firmly up against the rim. Then, all that’s left is to pump it full of air as fast as possible using your Thumper Air Compressor MKII, keeping your fingers well clear. You’ll know the tyre is fully re-seated when you hear a loud pop.
Of course, minimising the risk in the first place comes back to tyre pressures. If you’re not sure where to start, try this. Set your pressures roughly where you think they should be for the terrain, then drive for long enough to get the tyres warm. Check the pressures again, and if they’ve gone up by more than 4psi, the starting pressure was too low. If they’ve gone up by less than 4psi, then your pressures were too high and you should drop a couple of PSI out using your  Kwiky Tyre Deflator. It’s called the 4psi rule and it’ll help you figure out the correct tyre pressure for each terrain. After all, that’s the biggest contributor to tyre failure.