Who sells a good tire/tube patch anymore?

BarnyardEngineering

Well-known Member
Location
Rochester, NY
When I was a kid, Dad patched tubes ALL THE TIME. Not so much in the last 20 or so years, so all the tire patching supplies and tools have dried up or disappeared.

Yesterday a tire on the dump trailer was flat. Hole in the tube. I scrounged around and found an old patch and a tiny tube of "rubber cement" in a tire plug kit. Needless to say it was a waste of time. Put it all back together and the tube split wide open.

I'd like to find a set with all the essentials. I've tried the slime brand which is all you can find in regular stores, and haven't had much luck.

Didn't the patch glue used to be called "cold vulcanizing" or something like that? Now all you can get is "rubber cement" which. I can't even get two pieces of paper to stick together with rubber cement.
 
Did you rough it up 1st? Let the glue dry before pitting on the patch? I use old
patches too with fresh cement. Peal the backing off the old patch & use cement on it
too but let it all dry before putting it on. Napa has good cement but I wish they
would put it in a tube so it doesn't go bad as soon.
 
I have been able to buy patches and glue at fleet farm and fleet supply, most of the time I
have good results , the patches and glue are sold separate a can of glue will last a long
time if you keep the cover on tight , I grew up wearing Tingly over shoes and still do,a
patch kit is a good thing to have for them , as for the new tubes we get now they seam very
thin and sometimes seam to be to small for the tire they are supposed to fit in making them
even thinner when they are inflated , my 2 cents Bryan
 
Hello I forgot to mention I use a 4 1/2 angel grinder with a grinding wheel to buff the
rubber ( lightly )it works good once you get the hang of it ( I have ruined more then one
of the paper thin tubes ) Bryan
 
Does anyone still make the old hot patches where you roughened up the tube surface, clamped the patch in place, and then lit the top material with a match or lighter? Spending my summers in the late 50s through 60s on my Uncles farm, this was all we used for patching tubes.
 
All you can get anymore are cold patches.

And they take the special cold vulcanizing compound and cleaner.

Without the exact combination and following the directions, there is no chance of success.

But add to the equation the short life of today's tubes, and some of the Chinese tubes being made of plastic,
the odds are even less.
 
This was an OLD tube.

Fortunately after a few hours of moping, my $1 trailer buy from last year paid off AGAIN.

That trailer has yielded me >$1 worth of scrap, $100 worth of usable steel, a $35 tongue jack, an axle and wheels for my chainsaw trailer, and now a $25 tire tube.
 
I usually buy Tru-flate or Rema patches wherever I find them online. The last can of glue, I got form Oriellys, but I needed it now.



A couple tips: keep the glue in the refrigerator, it lasts much longer, and never touch the glue applicator to a patch or plug. It will make the
whole can go bad.
 
(quoted from post at 09:22:19 09/26/22) Does anyone still make the old hot patches where you roughened up the tube surface, clamped the patch in place, and then lit the top material with a match or lighter? Spending my summers in the late 50s through 60s on my Uncles farm, this was all we used for patching tubes.

My local Farm Service did this for me on a front tractor tire about 3 years ago after I ran I locust thorn into it. Held extremely well. Found the hole, pulled the thorn, roughed it up, glued it, rubbed it in, lit it on fire, put back on. Cost me like $12 I was over the moon it was so cheap.
 
If you have a decent NAPA in your area they still sell the good ones but you wont find them up front. Their main business is the
shops they have contracts with. They are boxed items sold individually. They also sell the old style boots, some of them quite
large. If the counter person doesnt know what you are talking about ask for the manager. Most of the time they will take you in
the back and let you pick out what you want. At least I did when I worked there.

If its a small store they cant stock everything but they get a truck from the warehouse every night so if they order it before
3:00pm it will be there the next morning.

Not associated with them anymore but I doubt much has changed in the last three years. Also all the other parts chains operate
the same way, just got to find someone that knows what you are talking about and is willing to go in the back and get it.
 
Probably the wrong way, but...

Had a fairly new heavy tube that got mostly destroyed.

Saved a hunk of it that was good, been patching tubes with it and rubber cement for a few years now.
 
I have used Tech for years,they sell mostly to tire stores, heavy truck garages
and bus companies. What ever brand you use buy everything from them,no mixing
and matching unless you like to do the job over again! FYI I started storing my
glue upside down,the air goes to the top. I just patch my own now.
 
been patching tubes for many years, starting out with limited sucess. in my opinion the thing that made the difference for me was when i started to use
liquid tire buffer. you just rub it on with a towel, it takes the dried soap off the tube so the glue will actually glue the patch on. i started out with
buffing wheel, wire brush, the little scratchy thing on the lid of the tire patch kit. i buy the buffer, glue and patches at local fleet farm
 
I use a couple different patches and boots along with some valve stems that all glue on. I have used nnalert and Tech. I prefer Tech they have a bigger supply of patches and they have a couple different glues for their patches. I gleaned this off their website the other day. I'm sort of in the same boat as you are. Big problem is they want to cater to the tire shops and don't care much about the individual. I'm trying to find a tire place using the Tech stuff I could order things through then be able to get what I need for things. Buying the onesy twoesy thing don't work for me. I need more supply with more variety for patching things I need some patches suitable for a nail hole then something for a bigger hole and then bots for the tires as well as some plug patches and air water valve stems for rear tractor tubes . I hate to throw tubes out just because the rubber pulls loose from the pipe at the stem and the rest of the tube is still in fine shape with no patches on it. With probably close to 300 tires around I can't run to a store for each tire job and on Sunday night I need them at the house. I'm going to talk to another guy I found out uses Tech patches and see if I can work some kind of a program with him for them. I can order some of the patches online with some reason able quantity just not wanting to have a box of 10 air water valves on hand at about a 100.00 for them and have them go bad over 20 years. I have not yet lookeed at Camel or Milton for pieces yet.
 

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