Tire repair Nealey vs. Tire Plugger

[John Ranalletta]

Aired up tires b4 taking a ride today to find the rear much lower than a few days ago.  Aired it up and took the ride.  Home, a spray test revealed a very, very small leak.  I tried the Nealey kit after enlarging the hole to allow the Nealy "needle" to pierce; however, all I got was the rubbery compound smeared the entire length of the the needle and none of the repair strands left in the hole.  Hmmmm..

 

Took out the trusty Tire Plugger and screwed up the first attempt by not apply enough pressure when squeeing the trigger.  2nd plug worked like a charm.

[TEWKS]

Stop & Go  

[John Ranalletta]

1 minute ago, TEWKS said:

Stop & Go  

Plugger is a Stop & Go.  Old Style

 

[Dave_in_TX]

56 minutes ago, John Ranalletta said:

Aired up tires b4 taking a ride today to find the rear much lower than a few days ago.  Aired it up and took the ride.  Home, a spray test revealed a very, very small leak.  I tried the Nealey kit after enlarging the hole to allow the Nealy "needle" to pierce; however, all I got was the rubbery compound smeared the entire length of the the needle and none of the repair strands left in the hole.  Hmmmm..

 

Took out the trusty Tire Plugger and screwed up the first attempt by not apply enough pressure when squeeing the trigger.  2nd plug worked like a charm.

I've never had that problem with the Nealey.

[lkraus]

Have to check my Nealey instructions, but I think the string only goes in halfway, rotates a half turn, the center is pulled out, then the four strands are trimmed flush.   So no strands suggests you pushed it all the way in?

[John Ranalletta]

Illustration & directions suggest plunge to handle which leaves required length of patch. wanted this to work to eliminate heavier, large tire plugger pouch. 
 

[lkraus]

Well, you made me go dig out my kit.  The directions are a little different,  though the pictures are essentially the  same and do show the handle up against the tire.

 

Top of the hole in the tool to the handle is 3.125", my strings are 7" long, so I don't see how it is even possible to push the whole string inside the tire.  A quarter inch or so  should stick out on each side....

Oh.  Twisting the plug probably pulled the ends inside.  Which explains why your text instructions say to leave an inch (outside), but not why they did not fix the illustration.  And then maybe the string broke at the eye of the tool??

 

I think I'll add a note to my instructions to keep the ends long, or add a spacer to the tool so it cannot go so deep.

 

 

[John Ranalletta]

I believe hole size caused the poor result with the Nealey.  It started out as a pinhole and it was difficult to see the very small bubbles in the wet test.  Forcing the Nealey needle into the hole scraped the rubbery material off and deposited it along the shank of the needle.  It took a solvent to clean it.  The hole was even too small for the plugger before I enlarged it.  YMMV. 

[szurszewski]

I've also never had that issue in many repairs with Nealey ropes - but maybe I've never tried on such a small puncture. I've done several that required lots of effort to get the rope in, but never so much that it scraped it clean - I didn't even know that could be done. I think I'll stick with my Nealey kits on the bikes in the cars and assume a leak that small will still let me ride home with maybe some air added along the way. 

 

[JCtx]

I carry the Stop'nGo in all my vehicles, including the bike. It seems to be the most reliable, if not the best, because it doesn't dry up. Having said that, it's VERY important to ram the hole thoroughly, since any errant steel strands cut the plug in short order once rolling. I've only used it once in my life so far, on a new M3, and after the first plug failing shortly after installation, once I rammed the hole better, the second one held up for 300+ miles, and up to 80 mph speeds in 100F heat, so that proved to me I made the right choice. Oh, and I chose the Stop'nGo kit after checking another kit with 'ropes' that something was dry and useless, so a rubber 'mushroom' plug made more sense to me, since I've had them for YEARS (if not decades) now.

[Oldrider51]

11 minutes ago, JCtx said:

I carry the Stop'nGo in all my vehicles, including the bike. It seems to be the most reliable, if not the best, because it doesn't dry up. Having said that, it's VERY important to ram the hole thoroughly, since any errant steel strands cut the plug in short order once rolling. I've only used it once in my life so far, on a new M3, and after the first plug failing shortly after installation, once I rammed the hole better, the second one held up for 300+ miles, and up to 80 mph speeds in 100F heat, so that proved to me I made the right choice. Oh, and I chose the Stop'nGo kit after checking another kit with 'ropes' that something was dry and useless, so a rubber 'mushroom' plug made more sense to me, since I've had them for YEARS (if not decades) now.

Just to second what @JCtx said, I put three plugs in a rear tire once after going through a construction zone on I65 between Indianapolis and Nashville, no loss of pressure after over 100 miles at speed. I also carry this kit every time out on a long ride.

[szurszewski]

On 4/15/2024 at 12:02 PM, JCtx said:

I carry the Stop'nGo in all my vehicles, including the bike. It seems to be the most reliable, if not the best, because it doesn't dry up. Having said that, it's VERY important to ram the hole thoroughly, since any errant steel strands cut the plug in short order once rolling. I've only used it once in my life so far, on a new M3, and after the first plug failing shortly after installation, once I rammed the hole better, the second one held up for 300+ miles, and up to 80 mph speeds in 100F heat, so that proved to me I made the right choice. Oh, and I chose the Stop'nGo kit after checking another kit with 'ropes' that something was dry and useless, so a rubber 'mushroom' plug made more sense to me, since I've had them for YEARS (if not decades) now.

So…you’ve had a 50% success rate with the stop’n’go? ;)

While I get what you’re saying about the ropes drying out, which I have seen in other ropes, I have a Nealey kit that’s older than my kid (so, probably almost 20 years old) and this ropes still seem fine. 

 

[Michaelr11]

Maybe some of it is marketing hype, but my observation is that the Nealey ropes are different than the auto store rope kits.  I carry both the Stop N Go kit and Nealey rope kit on my RT.  I added the Nealey kit after some partially unsucessful Stop n Go repairs.  I have never had a Nealey rope repair fail.  I generally will ride a repaired rear tire until it has worn out. One repair was losing a few psi between rides, so I changed out that tire early. I purchased a tube of rope refills from Nealey a couple of years ago and added it to my kit.  The older original ropes are still sticky  and gooey.