WINDYWATSON wrote:Any one out there had any similar experiance as this one? Due to running with out a spare tyre because I've an LPG tank where it should be I have done the following. I've installed a product called Sealawheel into the tyres. This product has been on sale for some years & I've personaly seen it at the Boat Caravan & Motor Home Show at the NEC on a number of occasions. Checked out web site spoke with the supplier about suitability and having been convinced that it was a sound product purchased and installed. Gone would be my worries about being spare less, after all the claims say it will seal monor punctures for the life of the tyre. However I now have major wheel balance problems, so much so that I'm going to have to have all tyres off rims and cleaned out and rebalanced. Thats assuming I can get a garage willing to do it. And return to running without spare until I can track one down. Will have to carry the sealant in a can type stuff, and hope I don't need it. Should have known better really, the product is so viscous that I did wonder how it was going to spread evenly enough not to effect balance. For legal reasons I must point out that this is of coarse only my experiance of the product & that other similar products are of course available. In my opinion it's best suited to off road low speed vehicles & plant machinery where punctures are more likley, and speed & therfore balance is not an issue.
Any comments?
Cheers
Windy
Hi Windy. Sorry to hear you're having
exactly the same problems with Sealawheel that I had late last year. After I complained about wheel balance probs with the original formulation, bought at a caravan/motorhome show with no caveats as to usage, I was told "sorry, we inadvertently supplied the slow speed off road stuff". They then sent me their so called "high speed" road use formulation f.o.c., and I was stupid enough* to install that, after first paying £40 to get the original stuff washed out and the wheels re-balanced. The new formulation increased the speed before wheel balance severely affected the steering from about 50 to 58mph, so was therefore still useless. Another £40 spent, and wheels again re-balanced, and then no more problems.
*(Mind you, I wasn't just being stupid. I too had lost my spare to an LPG tank, and did not trust Tyreweld and other temporary sealants, rightly as it has turned out recently - see below.)
I did extract a verbal promise from one of the Sealawheel Bristol franchisee partners that they would reimburse clean out costs, if I tried the second formulation but I haven't yet found time to put that to the test. It's remained in a pile of jobs not done - glad you've reminded me about it.
More generally, I did a lot of research on the subject online and could only find unqualified support for any of these permananent install sealants from off road users, heavy plant users, and the military - the Australian Army are particular fans. Several makers claim to have produced a high speed formulation but, at the time I checked, all except Sealawheel admitted that they were still being tested and the jury was out. Perhaps they do work well on some vehicles, and yes the Bongo is probably a difficult application for them, but peeps be warned and don't use them.
Tyreweld, IMHO, is not a good solution either. It's supposed to have been endorsed by the UK Tyre Distributors Association but, even if that's the case, their members seemingly do not like to deal with it. Three or four weeks ago, my younger son had to replace two big Transit 4x4 tyres because between us we could not find a tyre dealer in our local area willing to clean out Tyreweld after a puncture in one of his fronts. They would not even look at it! One of the dealers, who I know well and trust, simply said we've never managed to successfully wash it out, and it has often caused ongoing
balance problems! Anyway, there seems to be a tyre trade conspiracy/revolt against the stuff, around here at least!
Having, as I said, already suspected that this might be the case, and being fortunate enogh to have a Terzo ladder on my Bongo, I had meanwhile devised a simple way to mount a space saver spare on it. Details were in my posting on Mar 28, 2009 7:38 pm, in the thread "Re: jacking points"
http://www.igmaynard.co.uk/bongo/forum/ ... ba#p286717. Since posting that, I've moved the mounting bolts apart to fit into wheel mounting holes, instead of the simple through the wheel centre original approach. I don't reckon this would happily support a full size spare though.
no one would touch it after that. Would never touch the stuff again 
He only used it because he found the wheelnuts on his Transit had been torqued on so tight, he couldn't shift them to put on his spare.