07-12-2019, 02:50 PM
For the first time in a driving career of 38 years I had a tyre blow-out last week.
I have had slow punctures, but never anything whilst driving! Oh, and loads of punctures on my pushbike (not now as I have Tannus solid tyres)!
Tyres & inner tubes are just over a year old (Longstone) and have done about 7,000 miles since fitted.
I had checked the tyre pressures the afternoon before, the readings are pretty consistent one week to the next, so there was not any suspicion of an impending problem, but on my return journey, very shortly after leaving, the near-side rear tyre suffered total deflation - I found a small chipboard screw embedded in the tread and this had punctured the inner tube. I must have just picked it up and made contact at just the right angle for this to penetrate the tyre.
I was driving around 30 mph and suddenly, the car swerved (it felt like I was on black ice), and I let the car slow down by itself, but the car was difficult to control, the footage from the dashcam shows how the car was swerving back & forth across the road like some drunkard, getting worse at one point before finally drawing to a halt!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8rRyqPV8LU
I got out, not knowing what I was going to see, but the near-side rear tyre was totally flat and the rim was hard down on the road.
I had never experienced anything like that before. I fitted the spare (which was brand-new & unused) and drove the 30 miles home.
Reviewing the dashcam footage made me realise how lucky there was not any on-coming traffic...
Statistically, that was possibly a one-off event but wheels fitted with inner tubes are more vulnerable than tubeless tyres to deflation following penetration by a sharp object and I guess I was lucky to bring the car to a halt without anything untowards occuring.
However, the experience has left me distrustful of the inner tubes - I could have been going faster and how would the car have behaved at 50mph with a blow-out - rolled over?
I don't really want to think about the "what ifs", but if I could do something to prevent total failure occuring again, then I should (I really hope the new solid tyres Michelin have developed will be made available to our cars...).
I had never considered popping an additive into the inner tube before, but given the experience it might be prudent to perhaps do so in order to hopefully reduce the risk of a total failure again.
Looking on-line, reading and watched reviews on Youtube, I felt that the best option was to add "Slime" - this gives protection against punctures that occur on the tread part of the tyre (not the side walls), it seals holes up to 3mm (my puncture mark was probably only 1mm) and that seemed a good route to follow.
I bought "Slime", on the manufacturer's web-site it gives a rule of thumb quantity to add to each tube, there is a calculator as well and for slow-moving vehicles, the quantity is more, the recommended amount was about 350ml or 12oz, and I bought six bottles.
Installed today, I could not get the full amount in and about 300ml of the "Slime" is now fitted in each tube - I did not do the spare, does not seem much point, the stuff has a service life of about 2 years and putting that in the spare could be pointless, especially if the product lives up to its expectation!
From watching the reviews, there is another benefit from using "Slime" the wheels are more balanced giving a smoother ride, I have not driven at speed as yet so too soon to tell! Time will tell if "Slime" is any good for the little old Austin 7, but hopefully, I will be better prepared for the next time...
I have had slow punctures, but never anything whilst driving! Oh, and loads of punctures on my pushbike (not now as I have Tannus solid tyres)!
Tyres & inner tubes are just over a year old (Longstone) and have done about 7,000 miles since fitted.
I had checked the tyre pressures the afternoon before, the readings are pretty consistent one week to the next, so there was not any suspicion of an impending problem, but on my return journey, very shortly after leaving, the near-side rear tyre suffered total deflation - I found a small chipboard screw embedded in the tread and this had punctured the inner tube. I must have just picked it up and made contact at just the right angle for this to penetrate the tyre.
I was driving around 30 mph and suddenly, the car swerved (it felt like I was on black ice), and I let the car slow down by itself, but the car was difficult to control, the footage from the dashcam shows how the car was swerving back & forth across the road like some drunkard, getting worse at one point before finally drawing to a halt!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8rRyqPV8LU
I got out, not knowing what I was going to see, but the near-side rear tyre was totally flat and the rim was hard down on the road.
I had never experienced anything like that before. I fitted the spare (which was brand-new & unused) and drove the 30 miles home.
Reviewing the dashcam footage made me realise how lucky there was not any on-coming traffic...
Statistically, that was possibly a one-off event but wheels fitted with inner tubes are more vulnerable than tubeless tyres to deflation following penetration by a sharp object and I guess I was lucky to bring the car to a halt without anything untowards occuring.
However, the experience has left me distrustful of the inner tubes - I could have been going faster and how would the car have behaved at 50mph with a blow-out - rolled over?
I don't really want to think about the "what ifs", but if I could do something to prevent total failure occuring again, then I should (I really hope the new solid tyres Michelin have developed will be made available to our cars...).
I had never considered popping an additive into the inner tube before, but given the experience it might be prudent to perhaps do so in order to hopefully reduce the risk of a total failure again.
Looking on-line, reading and watched reviews on Youtube, I felt that the best option was to add "Slime" - this gives protection against punctures that occur on the tread part of the tyre (not the side walls), it seals holes up to 3mm (my puncture mark was probably only 1mm) and that seemed a good route to follow.
I bought "Slime", on the manufacturer's web-site it gives a rule of thumb quantity to add to each tube, there is a calculator as well and for slow-moving vehicles, the quantity is more, the recommended amount was about 350ml or 12oz, and I bought six bottles.
Installed today, I could not get the full amount in and about 300ml of the "Slime" is now fitted in each tube - I did not do the spare, does not seem much point, the stuff has a service life of about 2 years and putting that in the spare could be pointless, especially if the product lives up to its expectation!
From watching the reviews, there is another benefit from using "Slime" the wheels are more balanced giving a smoother ride, I have not driven at speed as yet so too soon to tell! Time will tell if "Slime" is any good for the little old Austin 7, but hopefully, I will be better prepared for the next time...