Hacked my leaky air mattress with a patch from a bike tire repair kit

Got to the campsite at Algonquin last weekend and my mattress had a slow leak from a tiny hole. Tried the included patch but it wouldn't stick, so I cut a piece of an old bike tube and used rubber cement from my bike bag - held air all night long. Anyone else use random gear to fix camping stuff on the fly?

2 comments

2 Comments

hannah_wright21d ago

Just a heads up, rubber cement and bike patch glue are basically the same thing. You might have just gotten lucky with the patch sticking, not because the glue was different.

wendy7221d ago

Huh, well that's actually not quite right. I've patched more tubes than I care to count and trust me, the regular rubber cement you get at the hardware store won't hold on a tire patch for more than a day. The patch glue has a higher concentration of accelerants and vulcanizing agents. You need that extra bite for the vulcanization process to work right on the tube rubber. So yeah, they look the same but the patch stuff is way more aggressive. Ever tried using plain rubber cement and watched your patch peel off on a hot day? That's the difference right there.