The great tire debate

[Mondo]

I thought I'd share this little tale of woe with you guys as I'm sure at one time or another we've all had to discard something we believe should or could technically be repairable.

2 weeks back I picked up a nice new and shiny wood screw in the front right Goodyear G90 tyre of my little XD90

It was right on the corner of the tire, in that "no man's land" area between the tread and sidewall, so the possible repair of this tyre was a debatable issue among me and a few friends who are also Land Rover owners/enthusiasts. The general consensus was to buy one of the "DIY" tire plug repair type kits on FleaBay and do it myself, I was more than a little sceptical about going that route

Today I took the Land Rover with it's slow (self tapping screw induced) puncture to a tyre shop to get a professional opinion. I wasn't surprised when I was told the tyre was not repairable by them. The tire dealer referred me to a large truck tyre company that undertakes BSI level repairs of this nature.

Fortunately the man in dirty overalls noticed a small split on the outer wall of the tire, I put this down to a trained eye, as I had missed this.

I probably did this damage to the sidewall offroading, the same time I dented the XD's front right rim scrambling up a rocky incline on a rainy day.

That was the death knell of what once was a perfectly good G90 750R16 tire, I knew no one would repair the tyre plus I have an MOT coming up in a few months.

I am glad I took it in for a professional opinion as it paid off and saved me an unnecesarry trip on a defective tyre

I bought a newish (less than 1 mile done when fitted) 750R16 G90 for £70 on FleaBay, which is anywhere from £15-£30 cheaper than tire shop new, plus £10 P&P, which is reasonable in my book. All's well ends well and again, EBay was my saviour