If your vehicle gets a hole in its tire’s sidewall, and you don’t have a spare, you’re basically screwed. Driving that thing, especially on public roads, is a bad idea. But what if you’re off-road, and you’re desperate? Then what? Well, I’ve heard of people shoving lots of tire plugs into their sidewalls, which is sketchy. There’s also a kit called “Glue Tread” that involves glueing a patch onto the sidewall. But now I’ve learned of a new sketchy method, and I have to share it with you all; it’s called the “Sidewall Slug,” and while it’s really meant for UTVs/ATVs, I’m tempted to slap one into my Jeep’s glovebox. But just for emergencies.
I saw this somewhere while scrolling on my phone, wasting away what’s left of my youth. The video was by an Alabama-based UTV repair company called Max Off-Road, LLC.
Here’s the clip:
Though I don’t drive UTVs often, I am an avid off-roader, so I’m surprised I’d never heard of these. They’re basically little plastic hollow egg-halves/cups, one appearing the size of about half an actual egg and the other a bit smaller, and both with holes drilled through them.
The way this works is, you insert a bolt and nylon (?) washer into the hole in your sidewall, preventing the bolt+washer from falling into the tire by holding the cable jutting out of the end of the bolt. Then you pull the cable through the smaller cup, which you then also shove into the hole in your vehicle’s sidewall.
With the inside of that smaller cup contacting the tire sidewall from the inside and the inner cup’s clear plastic string aligned with the tear, you just line the bigger cup’s two holes over the protruding bolt and string, then slide it down until it touches the outer sidewall. Then you install a nut on the bolt and torque it all down, squeezing the tire between the two cups.
I suppose the theory is that, so long as no air can get around where that inner cup contacts the tire, and no air can get around that washer, then the sidewall hole should be sealed. Sidewall Slug shows how the sealing actually happens with these two photos on its website:
The two different cup sizes pinches the tire, which I assume is meant to prevent a sidewall tear from growing.
“This patch will work with ATV tires, Side by Side tires, 6×6 tires, Zero Turn tires and Garden Tractor tires,” Sidewall Slug says on its site, which includes these instructions for installation.
You’ll notice that the instructions say you should snap the (hollow) bolt once the nut has been tightened; this way there’s less jutting out of the sidewall.
The result looks something like this:
Elegant? No. Something that would hold up (and balance) at high angular velocities? Definitely not. A bit sketchy as something that is actively deforming a tire’s sidewall/carcass? No doubt. But I could see it working temporarily and at low speeds, off-road. In a true “oh shit” situation.
Again, the Sidewall Slug is really just meant for UTVs/ATVs, though some overlanders on the “Overland Bound” forum say they carry them just in case, plus the video above by someone named Sean Hartman on the Two Rivers Off-Road Facebook page shows someone having installed it on a Cooper Discoverer STT Pro, a tire that Cooper says was designed for “pickup trucks, Jeeps and SUVs.”
So you could install this onto an SUV/pickup truck tire, but you probably shouldn’t.
Still, I figured I’d show y’all this, because I found the orange egg hanging onto an off-road tire rather bizarre.
Topshot: Sidewall Slug
That looks like a rubber washer. I once drove several weeks with a metal building screw in a tire and didn’t lose any air because the rubber washer under the head sealed it.
As an emergency keep you going solution this makes sense, but it would be terrifying at speed.
This falls into the “desperate times call for desperate measures” category, and I love it for that!
Why don’t they paint it black like a tire? 😛
So the state trooper can see it when someone actually tries to drive it somewhere AAA can reach them. Bright orange is a legal CYA for the company since that’s a “when” not an “if.”
Simple and elegant patch in a pinch. Love it!
I feel this is a missed opportunity to not have some glue or epoxy or rubber cement between the egg surfaces to chemically seal the hole even better.
For the love of God don’t let my urologist see this.
Just add lube.
Given that sidewall damage is pretty much the end of a tire’s useful life anyway, there’s really no reason not to try this if you’re stranded somewhere. Just maybe don’t jump on the highway with it.
Seems like a great option to get you somewhere you can safely change to a spare.
I’m sure no one at all will try to drive one of these all the way home.
You thought Jeep Death Wobble was bad before….
Big Altima Energy sees this as a permanent fix.
If you see a Jeep driving 35 on the highway, look for eggs on the tires.
I may have seen one already, who knows! Usually I’m distracted by the stickers and rubber duckies
The rubber duckies and angry eyes, although those Jeeps normally are never off the pavement enough to need tire patching.
MacGyver taught me that you can use raw eggs to patch a Jeep radiator.
I miss Richard Dean Anderson. He’s not dead AFAIK, but I haven’t seen anything with him in ages. Recent pix have him looking a bit like a chubbier Tim Robbins. Not a sin… most guys soften a bit over time. At least he doesn’t have that weirdly botoxed look that so many late-middle-aged male actors adopt.
This is awesome. I love stuff that doesn’t need new tech, but just needed some creativity to exist. This could have been invented 100 years ago. Brilliant!