I have repaired many tires as well as been a a position responsible for the quality of the repairs performed in a shop.
If you try to patch a tire that has a nail where part of the patch gets sidewall flex, it is likely to fail. Anyway, although the nail was in the tread area, it was within a half inch of the sidewall, and too close for comfort for me. It was a large nail as well.
I'm sure that part of the long treadwear came from finally installing the campber kits, but they were doing very well even before. The longest I got before was 40,000 miles. Less than that on the BFG KDWS pieces of crap that had tread seperation. Three out of four of the original tires had tread seperation before the tire was anywhere near worn out. The original Goodyear Eagle GS-C wore like butter.
I forgot to mention that the new tires have a better rim guard than the old ones.
