Be Smart With Cars

Spare tires are both heavy and a hassle to maintain. If you're confident in your ability to repair a leak or tear in a tire on the spot, you should consider carrying a tire repair kit in your car in place of a spare tire. While there are many tools out there that could conceivably have a place in your repair kit, make sure that you include these three often overlooked but nonetheless important ones.

Duct Tape

Tire plugs are often enough to seal a small to medium sized hole. Very large holes, of course, will be impossible to seal. But if your tire develops a hole that's just barely larger than the largest tire plug you have, you'll be completely out of luck if you didn't include duct tape in your repair kit.

Duct tape is great for sealing the edges of a hole that aren't quite covered by a tire plug. It's also invaluable in covering the area immediately around a tear to ensure that the damage doesn't spread.

Superglue

Whereas duct tape is handy for covering holes too large for tire plugs, superglue is ideal for covering holes too small for them. While you may think that you'll be able to drive just fine with a very small hole in your tire, air is always escaping from a leak even if you can't hear it.

Normal glue isn't strong enough to withstand the pressures of the road, even if the hole in question isn't on a part of the tire that touches the pavement. Therefore, it's very important that the glue you include in your kit is advertised as being strong enough to be used for industrial purposes.

Flashlight

If you run over a nail in the middle of the night, it'll be very challenging to find the exact spot on your tire that's leaking. In this situation, the light from a smartphone won't be strong enough to illuminate a leak on a tire consistently enough to initiate repair work.

So don't forget to include a strong flashlight in your repair kit. Ideally, you should also have a stand to go with your flashlight so that you can point it directly at a leak without having to hold it.

While the tire repair process can be very frustrating, it's always a good feeling to fix a sudden problem like a leaky tire immediately without having to acquire additional tools. With the right equipment and know-how, you should be able to quickly and reliably repair almost any conceivable tire problem. To learn more, contact a company such as Cadwalader Service Centre, Inc. with any questions you have.