Kitchen Garden Forum

Now Before you all start laughing, i am being serious.

I've got a slow punture in my wheelbarrow tyre, and with the farmers cutting their hedges shortly, i'm bound to get a lot more as usual.
I don't want to put a solid tyre in, as it makes my tools bounce about.

Now i've heard that you can get a can of something or other that you put in the tyre, i wonder if anyone has had any experience of this stuff.

I have got a tubeless tyre on the barrow at the moment so i can't mend the punture, i don't know if that would make a difference being tubeless if i used this stuff.

Any thoughts would be helpful.

Some models of car use this "can of goo" instead of a spare tyre.

Halfords sell it, I'm unsure how permanent a repair it achieves,but on a wheelbarrow it may be fine.

Let me know how you do with it OH, cos I have the same problem with a wheel on my four wheel garden trolley.

Cheers for the instant reply Peter, but couldn't you try it first just incase it doesn't work.

I think i will try it, thanks again.

Hello Old H',

I have not used the wonder gunk that you squirt into tyres although I think some top marque barrows may come with some sort of sealant already applied??...and no doubt electronic traction control, all round air bags, cruise control etc etc. .

We run much more basic barrows...and we are still on tubed tyres...we have though changed tyres from standard 2 ply (about the thickness of an inner tube )..to the more durable 4 ply type..perhaps what we saved on cheaper barrows we lost on getting better tyres.??!!..but there used to be method in our madness as barrows came out of one budget and tyres out of another.!!

How about a trade in for something 4x4...??
www.mucktruck.co.uk

Clive.

Hi OH

I get similar problems myself...

Off the top of my head:

what about filling your tyre with builders expanding foam? It might be a really silly idea, but might just do the job. Obviously care need to be taken... might even try it myself if you don't. You would need a vent for the air which is displaced as it expands otherwise large air bubbles will form inside the tyre. If a long applicator tube was pushed into the valve hole to the far side of the tyre, that might work - it would vent back out through the valve hole then.

What do you reckon worth a try or just a daft idea? Is there a blindingly obvious flaw in my plan...
It might make the tyre a bit hard for your liking though.
Mole

I though builders expanding foam set hard, as in brittle like meringue.

Hello OH
You could try your local friendly car tyre outfit. I've taken my wheelbarrow down to our nearest place several times over the years. Get the tyre off the barrow before you take it down to them and explain that it is from a barrow. If they treat it like a trailer or a caravan tyre then it might be a bit pricey. When the puncture was in the tread they patched it but last time they fitted an inner tube to the tubeless tyre - all for a few quid each time.

John

Clive it is a four ply tyre that i have, but we have some big old thorns round our way. Not sure about the 4x4, it might drown my whistling out as i walk down the road.

Mole the expanding foam could work, but i have vowed never to touch the stuff again.
Years ago when the stuff first came out i bought a can to fill round some pipes that went up into the loft from the airing cupboard. i had just about finised when there was a knock at the door, but i couldn't get the can to turn off properly so i stood it on the edge of the toilet.
When returning half an hour later i couldn't believe what i was looking at, the toilet was nearly full to the top with foam. I ended up putting a new toilet in, in the finish.
But please do let us know how you get on if you try it.

John i might take it to a garage, i wonder if i stand there jingling a little loose change in my pocket they might get the hint.

Thankyou all for your replies.

i wouldnt use the expanding foam , you will at best end up with a solid tyre.
ive just replaced a 400x 4 tube on a mower front wheel. started at the ats a mile down the road, "get one for end of next week", and ended up at a large ag/hort machine dealer 15 miles away wno had them in stock @ £3.50. made in china of course.
ive used the goo in a tractor rear tyre, its got a flail hedge cutter on perminantly and the tyre would go down in about a fortnight, it cost about the same as a puncture repair, but hopefully will seal any new ones. you simply take the valve core out squirt the gunge in then refit the valve and reinflate. cant see why it shouldnt work on a tubeless tyre, but remember its in there if ever you try to replace the tyre (when its worn out from cornering too fast???)

Cheers for that Richard, at least i don't live in Milton Keynes, cornering there would be a right problem with all those roundabouts.

OH, remember if you get a new type to get the correct speed rating for your wheelbarrow.

I used the tyre repair foam a couple of times, years ago when I was an all weather biker, very good it is too, probably a good solution for wheelbarrows

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10001&langId=-1&catalogId=10151&productId=220357&categoryId=78415

Got the gunge from Halfords, and the jobs a good one.
I reckon the old girl handles a little better now.

I use the gunge in the tyres of my sit-on mower to great effect. I mow a green lane 14ft wide and almost .75 of a mile long and the hedges are all Hawthorn on one side and cut with a flail cutter and prior to that I had a couple of front tyres with so many holes that they had to be replaced. I put tubes in after that and inserted the gunge and that was about 10 years ago. Fingers crossed!
The mower is used not only for mowing but pulls a small trailer as well. The trailer holds about 12 grass boxes full which helps shorten the cutting time. All the wheel barrows on the plot have 4 ply tyres and they last longer than the wheel barrows.
They also have tubes and gunge in them.
JB.

Looking at the replies, it looks as if puntures are a mans thing.