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Over my experience riding I learned early on that a plug kit was a necessity to pack along with an abundance of plugs and some sort of air pump. Over this time I have seen some tires work well with plugs but some tires split wider when inserting plugs and I have seen many many plugs back out and have had to plug the same holes on more than one occasion due to the soft and thin walls of some atv tires depending on the nature and size of the puncture. Well a couple years ago when I found out about this stuff I got to say I was a little skeptical but I had to try some. Over the last couple years I have ran the QuadBoss tire sealant in a couple different sets of tires including my lawnmower, my Rhino, and my RZR but until recently I did not know if it really worked or not. Not knowing in my opinion although a little disconcerning is a good thing because in the woods puncturing a tire is almost inevitable and not knowing means if I did puncture a tire the sealant worked and I never knew it. Many times I have wanted to take a day and a drill along with a few various sized bits and start the day by making a hole or two in one of my tires to test the sealant and as the day went by make a few more holes to see how good this stuff really was but I could not bring myself to puncture a good tire on purpose, Although I feel it would be a good cause. But on the TRX build I decided not to install the sealant till after I punctured a tire. Well Recently after a long day of riding I found the left front tire on the TRX was flat so instead of looking for the cause I simply aired it back up and when I found it flat again a few minutes later I removed the valve core and added 16 pumps of sealant to both front tires and aired them back up. After installing the sealant I haven't had any issues with either tire leaking down which tells me it is doing its job. In the future I want to do a more in-depth test of the sealant by drilling holes in a tire and riding to see exactly what this sealant is capable of but until then all I can say is I know it works.
Ever wonder what makes a good tire sealant and how it works? I did so I did a little research..
A good modern tire sealant is made of several components including high quality synthetic fibers and fillers in a thickened ethylene or propylene glycol (anti-freeze) and water mix. This mixture moves freely inside the tire in a liquid form coating the inside of the tire as it spins and pooling at the bottom. When a stick, nail, or some other trail obstacle punctures the tire it usually punctures the side of the tire that is in contact with the ground (where most obstacles will be) and due to gravity along with the sealants liquid state that is where the most of the tire sealant will be when it happens!
When this happens due to the sealant being heavier than air and it being on the bottom side of the tire the air pressure inside the tire will force the sealant into the puncture where the fibers and fillers in the sealant will snag to the rubber filling the puncture and permanently sealing the leak in a matter of only seconds. The Fibers and fillers are what seals the puncture so You might ask why anti-freeze and why water? The water is a base for the fillers and fibers and the reason they pool in the bottom of the tire instead of clotting up and seperating. The anti-freeze works with the water and acts as a base as well plus it keeps the mixture from freezing so the sealant even works in below freezing temperatures. Now you must be thinking water? isn't water going to rust or corrode the wheels? A good sealant has corrosion inhibitors similar to the corrosion inhibitors found in automotive cooling systems which protects the wheels from damage.
In conclusion When riding in the woods a good tire sealant like the QuadBoss sealant can be a mans and a tires best friend.
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