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Re: [ST] Ride-On tire sealant puncture report (long)



Strizver, Chris L wrote:

> I'm thinkin' that it's all well and good that you had the sealant in, but I
> would still have gotten the insurance information from the
> cages...technically, they owe you a new tire.


Well, the cages were already gone by the time I happened upon the scene 
so I was pretty much out of luck. I drove back past the accident site 
again after my little loop and saw that the debris had been cleaned up 
already, so someone else must have complained.

> I'd wonder about the permanent
> fix capabilities of the sealant. As the tire heats and cools, and as the
> tire contacts the pavement, it will be moving that hole around.


Yeah, this is a possibility. However, the seal it forms is supposed to 
be a flexible one -- IIRC, the sealant has kevlar strands and nylon 
flakes in suspension in the liquid carrier. Air pressure and centrifugal 
force jam the kevlar and nylon into the hole, and the carrier helps seal 
it all off. The whole thing remains flexible so that normal tire flex, 
heat cycles, etc. won't break the seal. (Or so they say...)


> One question...you said the sealant was bubbling out. Does this mean that it
> is a liquid in the tire at all times? I would think that liquid in a
> rotating tire is a bad thing.


Yes, it's a liquid at all times, but it's pretty thick stuff so it's 
very slow to move. The manufacturer says that it can pool in the bottom 
of the tire if you don't rotate the tire for a month or two, but a short 
drive will re-distribute it again. Innovex warns of "severe imbalance" 
for the first few miles after you install it, since it's all pooled in 
the bottom of your tire, but I barely felt it and after a couple of 
miles I didn't feel any imbalance at all.

I'll let everyone know if anything happens as the tire wears. If nothing 
special happens, though, I guess the next report will be a post-mortem 
of the tire after its worn out and has been replaced.
- -- 
Blake "Dawgbert" Sobiloff <sobiloff@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Burlingame, CA, USA


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