After a recent off road trip to the local mall, where I ran over a nail and then decided to pull it out since it was in the lug of the tire. I was thinking that "This couldn't have gone all the way through it's a little nail." I wasn't exactly correct in my thinking and soon the air came hissing out....PERFECT! So the wife just looked at me and said "see you later." Off to the mall entrance she went, and I stood there looking at my tire deflate. I'm thinking no problem I have my old tire kit in the back of the jeep, I'll just plug it and not have to try and jack up a tire with the factory jack here in the mall parking lot. I was quickly reminded where my good kit was and that I had a cheapo Wal-Mart kit in the back of the Jeep. I figured it couldn't be to bad I had used it to plug a tire on the wifes Honda. Don't start laughing yet, it gets better. So I break out the reamer, ream the hole and ...... WTF? The plastic handle pulled off the reamer. Not the way I wanted to plug the hole. Okay time to get the Gerber Tool out. After some tugging and grunting and probably some weird positioning, and saying Hi to the two old women that walked by looking at me strangely I got the reamer out of the hole in the tire. Alright, time to install the plug. Plug, Check. Contact Cement, Check. Plug Installer, Check. Security looming over me, WTF?
Officer: "Sir can you explain what you are doing..!"
Me:
"Plugging a tire, Officer."
Officer:
"That's not what we were told."
Me: "Okay? I'm really just plugging a tire."
Officer: "We received a report that a man was Mastur..ing by a yellow Jeep."
Me: "Okay?" (Dirty minded old women.)
Five minutes later I think I convinced them that nothing other than tire plugging was going on. Though they did drive by a couple more times very slowly. Okay now they are gone back to plugging. Aarrgghh. I forgot that I was about to plug the tire, now everything it glued to the plug installer. This time I quietly cut everything out of the plug installer. Okay plug in the tire and out.... Damm installer won't let go of the plug. About half way through saying "Get in there you .... " while I push on the installer and trying to get the plug to stay in position I decided to clamp my mouth shut so that I didn't have to explain a "Man copulating with a Jeep in the parking lot" report.. I'm finally done, put everything away and air up the tire. At least that all went well. Plug held, but for all my trouble I probably should have just installed the spare, but that wouldn't have been MANLY. So time to replace the cheap kit with another ARB kit.
Additional
Parts:
Tools
Needed:
ARB's Speedy Seal Tire Kit.
Everything is nice and secure inside the case.
The insertion and reamer tools
Self-Vulcanizing plugs and Lubricant. These are much nicer than the cheap ones that I had. Reason why I was using contact cement as lubricant.
A bunch of valve inserts and caps. Even a nice tire gauge is included in the kit. Though I can never seem to remember that I have one in the kit when I go to check my tire pressure. Always seem to be hunting for one.
Even has a nice holder for the allen wrenches to make sure the pieces stay in the handles.
Some quick comparison of the tools. The ARB's are sturdy aluminum (I think, haven't checked). The seals are much better.
I did throw in a few other items. A couple extra valve caps, some rubber cement and seals. These come in handy at the beach to fix the blow up stuff. And my last valve stem from my old tires. My new tires have TPMS, but the valve stem is still rubber, so I still like having a just in case spare stem.
The case still fits inside the rear cubby on the Jeep so I won't be without it again. Security and I will be glad I have this next time I'm at the Mall.
