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Originally Posted by Jimmy Stang
I completed the changeover on both of my vehicles yesterday. I had been keeping an eye on the forecast, and it looks like we're in for a bit of winter this week.
Semi-related: I noticed that one of my tires has a small piece of metal stuck in it. Not quite a nail, but more like a heavy duty staple of some sort. I think that it has been there for a while, and the leak is very slow at this point. Does anyone have an experience with those puncture repair kits? Or should I take it in to be fixed? The tires are old and will likely be the last winter before replacing, and I'm not keen on visiting a tire shop anytime in the next few weeks as they'll be swamped.
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Those repair kits work great, if you do it properly. You need a compressor, or else you need a way to get your tire to a compressor (put on your spare or throw it in the wife's car and go to the gas station).
Take the wheel off and pull out the nail. Jam the roughening tool in the hole and work it around pretty good. It may sound counter productive to do that, but remember that you need to be able to get the plug in there.
After you have that hole ready, put the plug on the inserting tool, then blob some of that rubber cement that comes with the kit on the hole and on the plug for lubrication, and then jam it in the hole and yank the tool out. Be prepared to be pretty much sitting on the wheel and holding it steady with your legs, and really leaning on the plug inserting tool to get it in nicely. And also, the tire should be flat when you're putting in the plug, which, if you worked that hole enough, it will be.
After the plug is in, use some side cutters or an exacto knife and cut off the excess plug rubber so that it's flush with the tire tread, then fill up the tire and put it back on your car and enjoy the fact that you saved $40 and who knows how much time. All it costs is a $10 kit that'll be good for at least 5 repairs, and a beer or two.
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Originally Posted by J epworth kendal
Okay maybe someone here can help me out, because the kaltire help line was not very helpful at all and most likely I'm going to need to go into a store to get this figured out.
I have a 2000 Jeep Cherokee 4-door Sport. the placard on the door says I should have 215/75R15. My current tires on the car say 235/75R15. Finally, when I go on sites and try to order winter tires, it says I should be ordering tires with a size 225/75R15. Now which one is correct? My placard, the current tires, or the website?
Does anyone know what the correct tires are for my car? Or am I going to have to go into a store for them to look at my car?
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To understand why this isn't a big deal, you must understand tire sizes. The 235 number is your tread width in mm. The 75 number is your sidewall height as a percentage of your tread width (stupid, I know). Then the 15 is just the rim size. So what you're asking is whether you can change from a 235 back to the original size of 225. The answer is certainly yes, assuming you're on your original rims. Rims can accomodate a pretty broad selection of tire sizes, so I wouldn't worry about them, unless they're some kind of super fancy rims that demand a tire width of 235.
The only caution I would have as far as this question goes, would be if you were going the other way. If you wanted to go with 235s instead of the original 225s, I would point out that you may not have the necessary clearance in the front wheel wells for turning and your shocks. Someone has already decided to find out whether bigger tires fit on your Jeep, and that's why you have 235s.
Sorry for the long answer, just go ahead and switch back to 225s if they're easier or cheaper, or stick with 235s if you want. Both will work, and neither have an advantage (well, one is 1 cm wider).