Would you drive with this tyre?

[Alex Roux]

On the last day of the river trip, on the last turn, and on a very lame are in terms of tyre risk, I cut the sidewall of my Dueller MT.
A sidewall cut is pretty much a death warrant for the tyre, and a TPMS would not have helped in this case.

But if the cut is small, I learned that one can still "valcanise" it.
I am not clear on the actual process, but the people who helped me on this, also told me that it is apparently illegal for them to endorse it.
So I have not put it on a rim yet.

Looking at the picture below, would you take the risk and drive with it?

Valcanised Tyre.jpg (116.73 KiB) Viewed 3661 times

[Picasso]

Hallo Alex,
about a year ago I did a trip to Lesotho. On one of the rocky uphill climb I "scratched" the rear right Tyre (Hankook Dynoprop MT). It looked very similar to your picture (perhaps slightly less) I decided to keep the Tyre on the vehicle as it appeared to be just a surface scratch / cut. I continued driving through Lesotho for the next 3 days. Thereafter we returned back to Gauteng. (Highway speed for ~ 400 km) Just before Jhb the Tyre decided to let go on the highway. Luckily nothing further happened. The car was slowed down and the Tyre was changed.

To come back to your question... No, I would not risk trying to repair this kind of damage.

Regards
Henning

[Tinus lotz]

Alex.....times are hard for all of us ....tires are going for 3700 for a 33.....but putting your family in danger is not a good idea. ....next time invest in stonger side walls.....if you want to check it put it on a rim and pump it to working pressure normally if there is no deformation its ok for a spare any deforming chuck it.....

[Russ Kellermann]

Not even a question. NO. Dont use it. Use as a second spare out in the bush only. Certainly not for any road use whatsoever.

Appreciate and respect a person who has the balls to ask this on a forum and/or group of likeminded folk as it shows we dont all know it all and are always willing to take others advice.

Stay safe boet. Chuck that tyre.

[Kagiso II]

Pity you missed out on the INFO day on 29 Aug.. .. Creative Wheels displayed the new range of Cooper tyres. And since Bridgestone dont make the 694 A/T any more, i will give the new Cooper some serious thought.

As for "side wall styrength" as Tinus puts it .. I lost more tyres on ONE set of BF Goodridge in less than 50,000 km than on the 4 sets of Bridgestone Duellers with a bit over 300,000 Km total .. Soms is dit die moer wat die stuur vashou se fout WWW

[Alex Roux]

It cost me nothing to do the valcanising, so I had it done to see what it looks like.
Agree looking at the end product it is not worth it.
As regards the 'moer' at the wheel (that would be me), everyone on the final stretch of the river trip knows how lame that was. I followed the tyres in front of me.
So that was just bad luck.
I saw 33" Maxxis Bighorns for 3200 in Roodepoort.
People can say what they want about tyres, my experience of the Duellers is that their sidewalls is simply not as strong as the Khumos that I have in front.

[Alex Roux]

Appreciate and respect a person who has the balls to ask this on a forum and/or group of likeminded folk as it shows we dont all know it all and are always willing to take others advice.
Stay safe boet. Chuck that tyre.

Russ, when I saw the end result of the patch, I already decided not to put it on the rim.
But thought it a worthwhile point to raise here.
Unlike certain other forums, this is a safer environment, so one is not made to look silly when raising simple questions!

[ricster]

Yeah look.... this debate can go on forever about sidewall strength, sometimes a softer sidewall can form around a rock better than a stronger ( read harder ) sidewall causing the tyre to slip and cut itself. Having said this, and as everyone knows I am possibly a bit biased towards the Kumho tyres. It just takes a bit of bad luck to make almost any tyre become the next childrens garden swing. It hurts when a tyre has so much tread left has to now be chucked.

As a spare ..... yeah possibly, but bear in mind that at the next town you need to get a new tyre asap. I don't know how well the vulcanizing holds up on a deflated tyre ( 1 bar to 1.5 bar )

[hugejp]

Maybe as an emergency spare...

But keep the speed down & change it the first chance you get! Definitely not to be used at any reduced pressure as the sidewall "flex" on each rotation & the resulting heat generated by this will fail sooner or later.

Safety first.

[Jorrie]

Alex, I would keep it as a second spare.