Hi Jim,
At the ranch last Saturday, our cousin who is a mechanic got under the hood and fixed the old ranch truck. He took it for a spin and came back and said that he would have to park it because it got a flat tire. He would have to take the tire to town and get it fixed but wouldn’t be able to do it until Tuesday because of the holiday on Monday. I asked my husband “Why can’t he fix it himself? People didn’t have to take tires to a shop to get them fixed in the ‘olden days’.” My husband answered that with the modern day tires, you have to have a tire machine and they are quite dangerous to work on even then.
This will definitely be a problem in a TEOTWAWKI situation! Here we are with our EMP proof vehicle, stabilized and stored fuel, and we get a flat and our vehicle is out of commission!!! I don’t know anything about tires–I get a flat and take it to the tire place. What about if the tire place isn’t open after TSHTF? Any ideas on working around this?
Thanks. – Mary
JWR Replies: Repairing modern tires is quite labor-intensive to do at home or out in the hinterboonies, but not impossible. DIY tire dismounting and repair is getting to be a lost art–still practiced primarily by those of us that spend a lot of time in 4WD mode out in “the-middle-of-BLM-nothing” or the Australian Outback. (An aside; my family likes to go rock hounding in northern Nevada and southern Idaho. Our tires seem to magically attract very pointy chunks of slate and basalt. We are talking about true off-roading here, where getting stranded is more than just an inconvenience. It could mean a 25 mile walk to the nearest paved road! At the very minimum we always carry at least one spare tire already on a rim (sometimes two), a small compressor, and and inverter. (OBTW, I’ll cover pioneer tools, Hi-Lift (“Sheepherder”) jacks, tow chains, and come-alongs in a forthcoming SurvivalBlog post on off-roading.)
Every 4WD and ranch utility truck should have a set of tire tools–including an Aussie “Tireplyers” bead breaker (see: http://www.4by4connection.com/tyrepliers.html and http://www.tyrepliers.com.au/), as well as patching materials and goop, a small compressor that can run off of an inverter, a 200 watt inverter with cigarette lighter plug adapter, and a good quality hand pump with an accurate gauge. See: http://www.casporttouring.com/thestore/stopngo.html and http://www.kentool.com/Bead_Bead-BreakingTools2.htm. For traditional tires with an inner tube (mostly bicycles and garden carts, these days), see: http://mountainbike.about.com/od/flattirerepair/ss/Fix_Flat_5.htm (FWIW, I prefer the hot patch method.) And for those of you with motorcycles, see: http://www.xs11.com/faq/tirefaq.shtml. OBTW, special precautions are required when working on tires that are mounted on “split” style rims. Beware!