By Jon Maib
When it comes to the tool box, there are several things that are important to keep on hand: Pliers, vice grips, screw drivers, tire repair kit and even a valve repair tool. A valve repair tool?

What happens if you're off-road on the rocks, back roads, or just out exploring and a rock or tree limb happens to get into your wheel and rips or tears the tire valve off the wheel? Naturally, you would replace the tire with your spare. Now you have to jack up the vehicle, remove the tire, remove the spare and swap them out. If you were without a spare and happened to carry spare tire valves, you would then need to remove the tire from the vehicle, somehow pop the bead off the wheel to gain access to the inside of the tire, just to replace the broken valve.

Colby Valve has come up with a way that you can replace the cheap rubber valve stem without removing the tire. The Colby Valve is a solid brass unit that is 20 times stronger than the old rubber valve and fits all standard .453 wheel holes and installs from the outside of the wheel, making it the perfect tool to keep in your car, truck, Jeep, RZR or other vehicle.

The Colby Valve comes in a couple different types, the 'Emergency Tire Valve System', the 'Ultimate Valve System' and the 'XL Emergency Valve System'. For this review, we will be taking a look at the Emergency and the Ultimate Valves. If you own tractors or larger vehicles with the larger 5/8" (.625) wheel openings, you will want to check out the XL version.

The Emergency Tire Valve System:
This system is perfect to keep in your glove box or center console should you ever need to replace a valve without having any tools on hand. The Emergency Valve System comes with a plastic/brass wing nut that allows you to use your fingers to tighten the valve in place. The Emergency Valve can be used as a permanent repair, but if you want to have a lower profile valve, we recommend swapping it out for the extra short Ultimate Valve.

The Ultimate Valve System:
To avoid an issue with a valve getting ripped or torn out from the start, Colby recommends that you replace all of your valve stems with their Ultimate Valve System. These extra short valves are also made from brass and have a 7/16 nut on the end that will need to be tightened with a wrench to seat the valve into the wheel.

What separates this valve from the rest is, if you want to change out your existing rubber valves with the Ultimate Valve or repair with the Emergency Valve, you will not need to take the tires to a tire shop to replace, you can do it right at home because the valve is installed from the exterior of the wheel. With either the Emergency or the Ultimate Valve, you simply tighten the wing nut with your fingers or the 7/16 nut with a wrench until it is snug in the wheel and you are ready to air up the tire. The valve compresses the rubber stopper against the wheel to provide an airtight seal, and within 5 min, you can be back on the trail.

These are a smart tool to keep in your vehicle and we highly recommend that you pick up a set (or replace all 4 of your wheels with the Ultimate Valve System). We think that everyone should have at least the Emergency Valves on them if they are headed out for an off-road adventure, so much so, that we decided to give away a free pair of the Colby Emergency Valve System!

If you would like to have a chance to win a FREE pair of the Emergency Valve System, simply click HERE for details on how to win a Colby Valve System from C4x4.com!