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Reaming and enlarging a hole in an ATV tire using a reaming tool.

Lynn Blamires

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I have described how to plug a tire in past articles, but I got an email from a member of the Sand Rock Ridge riders that made me want to spend some time to be more specific.

In the message, the writer described a ride the club took in the fall where the club was split into two groups — some fast riders and a group that wanted to just mosey.

Among the 19 mosey riders, there was no one who knew how to plug a tire. Fortunately, no one had a tire problem, but I was on a ride out of Marysvale last summer when one of our riders picked up a nail in his tire. He had never plugged a tire, but I had a kit in my emergency bag and we made quick work of it. The tire did not lose any air the rest of the trip.

So here is the skinny on plugging a tire. Fortunately, I had a tire with a nail in it on one of my machines. (What am I saying? I hate finding a nail in any of my tires.) Anyway, conveniently, there was a nail in my tire that needed to be plugged.

Lynn Blamires

I dug my machine out of the shed and pulled it into the garage. It was cold, very cold, but I was determined to fix the flat.

I pulled the nail out. This one was a narrow gauge and about two inches long.

I used the reaming tool to rough up the hole and to enlarge it. This makes the plug easier to insert. This one was made more difficult because of the size of the nail and the cold, so I coated the plug with Gorilla Glue. In the summer, I have used rubber cement to help seal the plug. However, the glue made the plug so slippery that I have lost several plugs as I have pushed it into the tire.

In this case the Gorilla Glue made it possible to push the plug into the tire. This type of glue expands, which helps seal the hole.

Once the plug is in place, you need to have something to inflate the tire. I use a portable compressor that plugs into the power outlet on my machine.

A tire with a lot of plugs is not real pretty, but if you trim the excess, no one will notice when it is spinning at trail speeds. I can handle a little ugly when I think about the cost of a new tire.

I remember one ride on the Paiute when a rider passed a sharp rock and put a slit in the sidewall of one of his tires. It took 13 plugs, but it held air for the rest of the ride.

When you go, take plenty of water, keep the rubber side down — and make sure you have a tire kit in your bag.

Lynn Blamires

Reach Lynn Blamires at quadmanone@gmail.com.