Tire Repairs in the Winter

So, recently, my van has slight rips in the sidewall of the back right tire. Being the stubborn son of a gun that I am, I made efforts to fix it. Despite bitter colds and many failures, I persevered and managed to stop the leak as of 11am this morning. I almost managed to give myself frostbite about 8 times, and spent over $25 CAD in rubber patching kits. If you ever find yourself in a similar predicament, I imagine you'd like to know how to do such things in spite of winter weather. So I will outline steps and materials required to do such repairs.

Step 1: Supplies
You will need;
Rubber Tire Repair Kit(s) [I bought about 4, because I kept fucking it up]
Air Compressor [To (duh) reinflate the tire]
Tire Gauge [If you don't know what this is for, go eff yourself]
Hydraulic Jack [To relieve stress on the rim of flat tire]
Heat gun/Hair Drier [To accelerate drying of things]
Sandpaper/Rotary Tool with Sandpaper attachment
Extension cord [If you're not doing this in a garage]
Rubber gloves [To avoid mess on your own hands]
Bucket/Sponge [To clean tire]
Balls of steel [Because it's going to get f***in' cold out there]

Step 2: Preparation
If your driveway is covered in ice and snow that is fairly impossible to clear completely, I recommend laying down a tarp or a decent carpet to avoid electrocution while using the powered devices as listed above.

Raise your vehicle using the hydraulic jack, and completely deflate the affected tire.

Set up all your devices onto the tarp/carpet.
Wash and dry the affected tire to sufficient cleanliness.

Step 3: Preparation Part 2
You can follow the directions on the patching kit. But I imagine it's meant for ideal conditions, so following it will make your repair fail... numerous times. Use the sandpaper or rotary tool to scrape a good area around the tear, ideally, you want the rubber to be flat where you want to patch it. If the side of your tire has ridges, you will most definitely wind up with air holes in your patch, which is a waste of time and money.

Once you've sufficiently "buffed" the patch area, use the rubber cement in the patch kit and apply a decent layer of the shit wider than the actual patch. rub it in to the tear and around the tear using the rubber gloves (or your fingers, if you're a dumbass and want your fingers amputated later that day, which is funny, because you can't drive without fingers, so this whole method become moot). Dry the rubber cement with the heatgun/hair dryer until it is sufficiently dry.

Step 4: Break
You're probably really cold at this point, so take a short (or long) break in order to get the feeling back into your fingers.

Step 5: Patching
Remove the protective backing from the patch. Apply patch to the tear, pushing outwards to release air bubbles (I like to gently scratch the top of the patch to do this). I also like to put more rubber cement around the outside bits of the patch and dry it to ensure proper adhesion. Make sure the rubber cement is dry before continuing. I left it overnight.

Step 6: Reinflation
The patch kit claims the repair is completed once you've applied the patch, but in the winter, that's pretty much bullshit. It also says to inflate the tire to full capacity, which is also not true in the winter. The max on my van tires is 44psi. If I had inflated it any more than 33psi, the patch fails. So I inflated it to 30psi, and leaned in to listen for leaking. If it continues to leak, do the following;
- apply rubber cement to the outside of patch; look for bubbling.
- scratch outwards from center to bubbling area, hold at the end of the patch. Dry the rubber cement where the bubble is.
- Reinflate to 30psi
- Check for leaks again.

Step 7: Finished?
If you were successful, hooray. Maybe your tire will last a while longer. You'll still need it replaced at some point, but for now, you can drive it around and not worry TOO much about it. Keep checking the tire from time to time. If the patch gets fucked up, replace it.



This is a lot to read, but it's better to know what to do, then struggle to figure it out the hard way. Hope this helps.