Were’s the leak in this B***dy tyre?

Gidday

Have you ever been out in the bush and unable to locate a puncture? Usually it’s pretty evident, but not always. The usual method is to pump the tyre up then listen for the escaping air. A bit of soapy water or fine grain sand will soon locate the damage, and a plug can be put in.

A while back we were out in a remote area of Western Australia and I had no spares left, apart from the one we were working on. At the time I was travelling with a couple of cattlemen.

Try as we might, we couldn’t locate the source of the puncture. So we diverted to a cattle station about 100kms away, and put the tyre into a trough of water. No problems after that.

It turned out that something sharp had gone through the inner side of one of the lugs, did a right hand turn and then forced its way through the carcass.

This probably explains why we couldn’t locate the puncture, because the escaping air was being channelled down the longitudinal thread of the tyre.

There were a number of other things we could have done, but we were a bit light on for water at the time, and none of us had small plastic bags.

I’d be interested to hear from others who have had a similar experience.

Regards

Kim