Can you teach me more about lug bolts & related tire tools?

On 02/19/2018 03:30 PM, ultred ragnusen wrote:
> wrote:
>
>> I was talking to someone recently who is in the car rescue / roadside
>> assistance business and he was saying that one of the growing problems
>> he sees is that cars come without spare tyres and an increasing number
>> of call outs are to people where the tyre cannot be repaired with a can
>> of squirty gunk and there is no spare in the vehicle.
>
> It's off topic, but I put the following related items in my trunk kit, even
> though I prefer to repair my flats at home by removing the tire completely
> from the wheel and then using a one-piece patchplug that both seals and
> fills the hole from the inside out.
> 1. Compressor (operated off the cigarette lighter socket)
> 2. External plug kit (they work just fine even though they're not approved)
> 3. Magnetic LED light from HF (so you can see what you're doing at night)
>

I've got a Petzl Tikka headlamp in the car, along with a couple of
flashlights. The advantage of a headlamp is the beam is focused exactly
where you are looking rather than trying to position a separate light.
The flashlights, one of which is 1000 lumens, allow for a wider beam.

On 19/02/2018 23:36, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
> In article >,
> James Wilkinson Sword > wrote:
>>> Nissan UK says the US is its second largest export market for UK
>>> assembled models. After the EU.
>
>> the EU will soon be gone, and good ****ing riddance.
>
> And given the EU is Nissan UK's largest export market they will likely
> soon be gone too. Along with lots of others - especially in financial
> services.
>

Project fear continues!

These days a car factory in only in existence as long as the model it
was built for is still in production. Manufactures wanting to build a
new model prefer a green field sites in countries that gives them
maximum grants and the labour cost is cheapest. In the case of western
Europe its likely to be the former soviet aligned countries that will
get future car manufacturing/assembly jobs.

Alternatively, Europe will be importing many of the cars from China or
India.

--
mailto : news {at} admac {dot} myzen {dot} co {dot} uk

On 02/19/2018 03:50 PM, ultred ragnusen wrote:
> Same with repairing a puncture, where we all have successfully plugged a
> hole from the outside with the rope plugs, which aren't approved by the RMA
> but we all know that method to work just fine.

Royal Music Association? I've had good luck with the common rope plugs,
including on an almost new motorcycle tire. I rode home slowly but
without any exciting events. A few more short trips without any
disasters and I forgot about it. It did develop a slow leak by the time
the tire was worn enough to be replaced.

I now carry Dynaplug kits on both bikes that have tubeless tires. Knock
on wood, I have not had to field test them. On a bike you don't have the
option of getting out the spare (unless you ride a Ural with a sidecar)
so roadside repairs are a necessity. Speaking from experience, plugging
a tubeless tire is a lot easier than breaking down a tubed tire and
patching the tube while the bike is propped up on whatever you can find.

On 02/19/2018 04:49 PM, Peter Hill wrote:
> On 19-Feb-18 11:44 PM, James Wilkinson Sword wrote:
>> On Mon, 19 Feb 2018 23:02:07 -0000, ultred ragnusen
>> > wrote:
>>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> I average about one puncture every 10 years between my 2 vehicles.
>>>
>>> I have heard many times that nowadays, people don't get flats as
>>> often, but
>>> I can't see why unless radials, by their very nature, are more
>>> resistant to
>>> flats than were the old-style bias-ply tires.
>>
>> I get a few a year. Mainly nails from incompetant builders.
>> (Builders have an average IQ of 50).
>>
>>> I don't count the averages, especially since I repair neighbors'
>>> tires for
>>> them at times, but I think I have been repairing at least one flat a
>>> year,
>>> what with four cars now in the driveway and a few neighbors whom I
>>> help out
>>> (and who help me in return).
>>>
>>> So I average one flat a year, roughly, where I use the RMA-approved
>>> patch-plug method, which can only be done from the inside. On the
>>> road, I
>>> would use the rope-plug method, which, we all know, works just fine
>>> (even
>>> thought it's not RMA approved).
>>>
>>> For me, it's just so very satisfying to fix a flat at home.
>>>
>>> I just pull the wheel, mark the location, break the bead, remove the
>>> tire,
>>> repair the hole from the inside out using the RMA-approved method,
>>> replace
>>> the valve stem if necessary, remount the tire, test in the pool,
>>> check the
>>> static balance, and then mount the tire back on the vehicle (rotating
>>> other
>>> tires if desired) to the proper torque spec.
>>>
>>> It just feels good to do things the right way.
>>
>> To save ten quid at the local garage? You're nuts.
>>
>
> Where do you lot live? Remind to stay right away.
>
>

Someplace in the United Kingdom. I've managed to stay away all of my
life. I've gathered it's not the country of Wordsworth, Shelley, and
Byron anymore...

wrote:

> Royal Music Association?

Rubber Manufacturers Association.
http://www.rma.org/wp-content/upload...lchart1111.pdf

Short summary:
http://www.rma.org/wp-content/upload...ir_handout.pdf

All tire shops in the USA follow RMA guidelines (they must, by insurance
rules and for legal liability reasons).

No professional would be caught dead using the rope plugs, even as we all
know them to work just fine, in practice.

> I've had good luck with the common rope plugs,
> including on an almost new motorcycle tire. I rode home slowly but
> without any exciting events. A few more short trips without any
> disasters and I forgot about it. It did develop a slow leak by the time
> the tire was worn enough to be replaced.

While almost all of us have had continued success with the emergency rope
plug, they're forbidden in professional use for a variety of reasons,
explained below by the TIA.

The Tire Industry Association decries use of the rope plug he
https://www.tireindustry.org/tire-ma...ce/tire-repair

Here's their video on the topic:
https://youtu.be/mdTAalpkSLM

Having said that, I reiterate we've all successfully fixed dozens of tires
with the rope plugs, so all I'm saying is that there is a right way and a
wrong way, and both ways have worked for all of us - but the right way is
the right way for a reason.

I like doing things the right way, unless I'm stuck on the shoulder of the
road, in which case the wrong way is the right way for that situation.

> I now carry Dynaplug kits on both bikes that have tubeless tires. Knock
> on wood, I have not had to field test them. On a bike you don't have the
> option of getting out the spare (unless you ride a Ural with a sidecar)
> so roadside repairs are a necessity.

Here's a video of a guy plugging bike tires with a tubeless repair kit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5_nK8V-nU0

Take a look at that biker's concept of a "pocket knife" at 53 seconds!
https://youtu.be/M5_nK8V-nU0?t=53

I'm curious if you mount and balance your bike tires? I did that when I
owned a bike. It was hard to find a tire shop, nearby anyway, that mounted
tires, so I learned how to do that myself. Bike tires are easier than car
tires, which themselves are easier than SUV tires (all of which I've done)
which are easier than truck tires (which I've never done).

> Speaking from experience, plugging
> a tubeless tire is a lot easier than breaking down a tubed tire and
> patching the tube while the bike is propped up on whatever you can find.

Plugging from the outside is pretty simple on all tires.

Patchplugging from the inside is simple - if - if you have the tools, which
cost about $150 and which last forever.

wrote:

> I've got a Petzl Tikka headlamp in the car, along with a couple of
> flashlights. The advantage of a headlamp is the beam is focused exactly
> where you are looking rather than trying to position a separate light.
> The flashlights, one of which is 1000 lumens, allow for a wider beam.

I agree that a headlamp has advantages, as does a magnetic lamp, where one
of each might be perfect redundancy for a nighttime emergency at the side
of the road.

wrote:

> Someplace in the United Kingdom. I've managed to stay away all of my
> life. I've gathered it's not the country of Wordsworth, Shelley, and
> Byron anymore...

What's odd about the troll James Wilkinson Sword is that he doesn't seem to
understand the most basic and one of the simplest of human endeavors, which
is that there is pleasure in doing things yourself, whether that be baking
your own bread, whipping up your own mayonaise, growing your own tomatoes,
fixing your own car, shoeing your own horse, helping an old lady across the
street, learning something new, etc.

To him, it's only about his "ten quid".

wrote:

> You're nuts.

Pot, kettle, black.

On 02/19/2018 06:58 PM, ultred ragnusen wrote:
> Take a look at that biker's concept of a "pocket knife" at 53 seconds!
> https://youtu.be/M5_nK8V-nU0?t=53

Compared to what's in my pocket at the moment...

http://www.coldsteel.com/recon-1-tan...0-50-edge.html

After using it for a few years, I'm not that crazy about the tanto
style, but it is good for prying out nails.

>
> I'm curious if you mount and balance your bike tires? I did that when I
> owned a bike. It was hard to find a tire shop, nearby anyway, that mounted
> tires, so I learned how to do that myself. Bike tires are easier than car
> tires, which themselves are easier than SUV tires (all of which I've done)
> which are easier than truck tires (which I've never done).

I mount the knobbies on the DR-650 myself but don't bother with the
balance except for lining the dot up if there is one. With DOT knobbies
it is sort of hard to tell if it's balanced or not. The last time around
I went with Kendas and getting the bead to seat on the front was an
adventure. I never had a problem with Dunlop 606's.

I take the ones with tubeless tires to a shop. After watching an guy
trying to get the bead to seat on a Bridgestone as the sun sank into the
west I was skeptical of my abilities. He had a high flow air system, the
tourniquet, and so forth but it was a struggle. I might take a shot at
it in the spring. I've got a slow leak around the bead on the Harley
that needs to be cleaned up so it won't be a complete demount.

Truck tires are just bigger I watched a guy in Canada fix one in
place. He had me drive the inside dual up on blocks to get clearance,
spudded it off, patched it, and put it back on. I think he'd done it
that way once or twice.

My first DIY attempt was with a '51 Chevy. iirc, the owners manual had
an illustration of breaking the bead by putting the bumper jack on it.
All I managed to do was jack the car up.

On 02/19/2018 06:58 PM, ultred ragnusen wrote:
> wrote:
>
>> Someplace in the United Kingdom. I've managed to stay away all of my
>> life. I've gathered it's not the country of Wordsworth, Shelley, and
>> Byron anymore...
>
> What's odd about the troll James Wilkinson Sword is that he doesn't seem to
> understand the most basic and one of the simplest of human endeavors, which
> is that there is pleasure in doing things yourself, whether that be baking
> your own bread, whipping up your own mayonaise, growing your own tomatoes,
> fixing your own car, shoeing your own horse, helping an old lady across the
> street, learning something new, etc.
>
> To him, it's only about his "ten quid".
>

Sometimes I question my motivation, like last month when I was changing
the oil in a cold drizzle. At least this year step 1 of putting the
studs on did not involve boiling water and salt to release the bottom
tire which was frozen to the ground. A little dunnage is a good thing.