Tyre Injuries Need Proper Repair
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IF the slates of your roof be brokefi by an fncendiary bomb, and the rain be pouring in, you would probably effect temporary repairs (after you had dealt with the bomb) by covering up the break with a piece of tarpaulin or sheet zinc. Bit you would not leave it like that. You know full well that it is only a temporary measure, and it will not be effective for long.
To stick an adhesive gaiter over an injury in a tyre is about on a par with covering the hole in the roof with tarpaulin. It simply will not last. It may have a certain get-you-home value, but that is about all. Sooner or later it will fail, and when it does it will probably cause the total breakdown of the tyre. You know what they say about a stitch in time.
For the purpose of establishing my point I am going to divide tyre injuries into two classes—I, those which demand immediate attention before the tyre can continue to work, and 2, those which, although serious enough to need repair, do not prevent the tyre from temporarily carrying on.
The first class consists mostly of carcase injuries, which would cause a failure in the tube unless attended to at once: The second class comprises external injuries which, although they constitute a serious menace to the well-being of the tyre, do not take immediate effect and cauSe failure.
Class 1 demands prompt treatment. The tyre may have sustained a cut which has penetrated right through to the inside of the 6aicase, or there may bb a concussion break
which has had the same effect. •
What is the best thing to do? There are. two measures that can be -adopted. One, like the tarpaulin, is a temporary expedient. *The other is permanent.
. The temporary measure is to stick an adhesive gaiter
over the injury. This method is often adopted in the fond belief that it is effective and lasting, whereas, actually, it
is short-lived. and -unreliable. The permanent repair is achieved by the vulcanizing process, and it is safe to say that tyres made good by modern vulcanizing are restored to their original pre-injury condition.
The main purpose of this article is to bring home to the operator the losses attendant on the use of temporary measures, and to show the economies that high-graee repairing can provide. Unfortunately, so far as tyres are concerned, the value (in fact, the absolute necessity) of a first-class job is seldom fully appreciated.
Suppose that you have a tyre suffering from a Class 1 injury, and it is crying for immediate repair. Is it to be repaired by temporary methods, or permanently? The first question, obviously, is " What is the tyre worth? " If it be nearly worn out it is no good sending it away to have an expensive vulcanized repair. In any case, if the mileage remaining in the cover be small, it is to be hoped that the cheaper adhesive gaiter may see it oat.
The second question is: " How long can the cover be spared? " A temporary repair can be effected in half an hour, but a vulcanized job may have to be left with the tyre repairer for a day or two. If the tyre be good enough to justify a proper repair, but cannot be spared at the particular time when the injury is discovered, it will have to be gaitered temporarily, and sent away for vulcanizing so soon as it can be spared.
The unfortunate point about this procedure is that, once temporarily gaitered, the need for a proper repair is either forgotten or neglected. The tyre is run with the adhesive gaiter, which ultimately fails anialacauses the destruction of an otherwise good cover. If the tyre be good, and deserving of a good repair, it is worth while putting up with a little inconvenience in order to have it vulcanized.
Vulcanization will enable the tyre to give full mileage despite its injury, but a temporary repair will surely lead to failure. The reason is fairly obvious. Adhesive gaiters do not mend the wound. They merely cover it up and protect the tube from injury.
But, meanwhile, there is movement and friction taking place between the fracture and the gaiter. Gradually the rough edges of the cut chafe through the plies of the gaiter and, more serious still, the injury ultimately extends in itself.
Vulcanizing, on the Other hand, is like complete healing. It absolutely immobilizes the fracture and prevents further aggravation. To all intents. and purposes' the t, re is restored to its pre-injury condition.
The Class 2 injury is often neglected until it is too late. r It usually consists of,a severe external cut which extends to an unknown depth, but does not penetrate right through the
cover. Thus it does not absolutely demand immediate attention, and the tyre can still carry on.
• But what happens? Rain enters the cut, and with it grit, small stones, and other foreign bodies. Also, internal friction is set up, because the injury allows unnatural movement between the carcase and the tread rubber. Gradually the damage extends. What was originally a tread cut becomes a carcase injury. Localized damage becomes widespread. .Finally, the tyre fails completely and is beyond repair, although it could have been saved if taken in time.
If it be agreed -that the vulcanized repair is the most effective process, the only. question which remains is that of value. Granted its efficiency, does it justify its cost? Certainly it does. Repairs in small covers may cost anything from 5s. to 10s., and in giant tyres anything from 15s. to 90s, It all depends on the job, Generally speaking, any tyre which has 20 per cent, or more of its original tread depth remaining is worthy of vulcanizing. That is, of course, provided that the injury is repairable. With this amount of tread left the cost of the repair will be considerably less than the value of the remaining mileage, so that the repair is well worth while.