Nate Kiowa Jones wrote:
Hi Doc, I was wondering if anyone remembered the hot patches. I grew up helping my dad patch tires and we used the hot patches. We had 18 wheelers before they were equiped with tubeless tires. The cold patches did ok in a pinch but the hot patch was much better. But, you had to be able to get the tube into the clamp that holds the hot patch while it burns and cools. The little portable clamps didn't work well on most truck tubes. We had a big bench mounted clamp that worked for the big patches too. Patches as big as 6", boots I think they were called.
Yeah, the tire shop I worked in had one of the big bench mounted clamps as well. For the really big tires, we'd use a C-type clamp for hot patches.
I can remember a few occasions when we'd install a liner in tractor tires when the owner couldn't afford a new tire. The liners were boots that covered the entire inside of the tire. If we didn't fit the liner just right, it would pinch the tube and we'd have to start over again. Sometimes we'd even bolt the liners or larger boots to the tires. We'd drill through the tire just below the bead and through the liner as well. We'd attach the liner to the tire with panhead bolts, with the heads inside of course. Those liners would generally give another season of life to an old tractor tire.
I remember one large tractor tire brought in that had a hold at least 2-3" in diameter in the sidewall. The farmer couldn't afford a new tire so we bolted on a triple thickness boot and he ran with it. IIRC he had several flats that summer, mostly from plum thorns, but some were simple sand cuts from where sand had worked in between the tire and the boot.
I got out of the tire business just as tubless truck tires were starting to catch on. Jesus, Mary and Joseph but I hated tubeless truck tires!
I'd better quit before I start reminiscing about some of the funnier things that happened in that old tire shop.
Doc Hudson, OOF, IOFA, CSA, F&AM, SCV, NRA LIFE MEMBER, IDJRS #002, IDCT, King of Typoists
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