Emergency Road service

I, too, carry a tire repair kit having the 'ropes'. It sure works better when in the boonies or between towns than trying to get cell service to call a tow-truck and/or tire repair facility.

Once I get to a reasonably sized town I can have it repaired properly.

BTW, some tire repair facilities snip off the inside bit of rope and then patch over it. I'm told it makes for a good repair.

I have even seen patches with a rubber finger that gets inserted into and pulled out through the hole of the tire.  That seems better yet.  But that can be used only when the puncture is at 90 degrees or no so far off.

Since I used to use the sticky rope method with good results, I did some more "googling" on the topic. It appears a lot of people still use the kits, but no reliable tire dealer will.  It seems that two things drive this: first, most tire manufacturers will void tire wear warranties if plugs rather than internal patches are used and second, the National Highway Traffic Safety Association says the plugs are not an acceptable way to repair a tire.  One thread also had an assertion that in Florida it was against the law to use plugs on commercial vehicles. I guess the sort of middle of the road consensus as I read it was if you're in the middle of nowhere and a plug gets you going, do it and then get it replaced when convenient at a repair shop.  Nobody seemed big on the aerosol inflation and patching mixes (usually refered to as slime) which I also used to use on occasions;  I know from experience that tire shops hate it because it can make the tire hard to balance and isobutane is used as a propellant and will blow up the shop when a mechanic with a ciggy in his mouth depressures the tire.