What makes Tuff-Stuff a better repair than an inside patch?
With an inside patch, a very thin flat piece of rubber (patch) is glued over the puncture (similar to a band-aid on a wound) on the inside of the tire, leaving the remainder of the injury exposed to the outside elements, such as rain and snow, highway salt and other corrosives which can rust the steel belts and cause other problems such as ply separation. When you use Tuff-Stuff, you have filled the puncture or injury completely with basically the same materials that the tire itself is made from; namely, butyl rubber and reinforced nylon cord. Also; Tuff-Stuff mushrooms out onto the inner liner of the tire as it spins down the road (centrifugal force effect). So, to sum it up, Tuff-Stuff utilizes a three-way sealing effect: (1) vulcanization, (2) compression, a lot of repair material is squeezed into a puncture thereby compressing the material, and (3) the mushroom effect, which results in an added safety feature similar to a plug patch combination!
