Tire Repair for Preppers

When there is no electricity and one of your truck tires has a puncher and is flat, what do you do?  Years ago, when the tires contained inner tubes and everybody had a old hand operated tire pump in their garage it was not as much of a problem.  So how do you handle a tire repair after TEOTWAWKI.

Hopefully the tire has a small hole that you can locate without dismounting the tire from the rim and you have a tire repair kit for plugging holes.  If you do, it is not hard to repair the tire. 

If you don’t have a tire repair plug kit and some vulcanizing patches you need to stock some in your preps. (Those are links to Amazon if you need to buy some).

Your next problem is how to re-inflate the tire.  If you have access to an electrical operated air pump, the type that runs off your cigarette lighter will work fine, you are golden.  If not a bicycle pump will work, but it will take awhile.  You may want to find a good hand operated bicycle pump now while they are easy to find.  I suggest a good quality one, because it can take a lot of pumping with the more inexpensive ones. The old upright T handled pumps or the foot-operated ones work the best.

Make sure that your bicycle pump is adaptable to a Schrader valve.  Some bike pumps work with a Presta (bikes only) valve and these will not connect to your car tires.  A good hand pump I have had recommended to me is the Topeak’s Joe Blow Sport II.

If you have to dismount and remount the tire, you have a much bigger problem.  First, you need to have a sledge hammer and several large bars.  You use the hammer to separate the bead of the tire from the edge of the rim.

The bead of the tire is the portion of the tire that makes contact with the rim.  If you have another vehicle available you can drive it on the side of the tire to break the bead loose. The bars are used to take the tire off and put it back on the rim after it is repaired.

After you have repaired the tire, you have the problem of how to re-inflate the tire.  Since you don’t have an inner tube you have to get the tire to expand so that the bead makes contact with the wheel.  In a tire shop, they use an air tube that causes the tire to expand.  In an emergency, you can use a ratchet operated tie down.

Keeping inner tubes on hand for an emergency doesn’t work, the new radial tires are not compatible with inner tubes and inner tubes are getting hard to find.  You do have the option of keeping a second set of tires already mounted to rims.

If you have never fixed a flat tire I strongly suggest that you find someone who is willing to teach you how to repair a tire.  This could be a very valuable skill.

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