Run flat tires. Love or hate?

[HKShooter65]

I just got back from a 2,600 mile road trip hiking in Colorado.
Good to be back in the Republic.
I was in my truck with a real spare, a real jack and a lug nut wrench.
Thanks-God an uneventful and safe sojourn form my work.

The point of this post:
In July I made approximately the same trip in my wife's SUV, a BMW X5.
The BMW has run flat tires. No jack. No spare.

In short.....get a flat in the BMW run-flat tire and you can drive 50 miles at 50 MPH, that's it. Finished.
The tire is NOT repairable and a simple flat, per BMW, mandates a new tire.
To complicate things, the run-flats, I'm told, cannot be mounted by the equipment in most small gas stations or garages. They need new, expensive, gear to mount/dismount.

My greatest anxiety was on the July trip, in Moffat, Colorado, midway between Santa Fe NM and Dillon Colorado and I ran over some piece of metal, angle iron, or something.
This was at 9PM Saturday night at 75 MPH.

Had I ruined a tire I'd have been stuck for a couple or three days in the middle of nowhere (no offense to those who call Moffat, CO home).

My point...the benefit to weight and space afforded by the run-flat tires in the new high tech vehicles (like my lovely bride drives) seems a frightening compromise to real road-trip trekkers!

any experience here?

 

[pronstar]

Not a fan.

Rock-hard sidewalls that can support the weight of the car provide a crappy ride.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[ed308]

As many nails as we run over in my family, run flats would never work. I usually visit the tire store every other month either plugging or replacing a tire. I think I'm up to four new ones so far this year.

 

[SloppyShooter]

I don't like 'em, takes all the fun out of getting even with exes.

Seriously, a buddy of mine laid his bike over at 65mph because of handlebar shimmy and loss of control. He didn't realize his rear tire was low on air, because it was a run flat.

 

[ZX9RCAM]

Must be something new.
Never heard of run flats on bikes.

 

[avvidclif]

New one on me too.

 

[Darqhelmet]

Ex had a 330i with those stupid tires. Picked up a nail somewhere between her house and work. No light, warning, etc. After working for 8 hours came out to a bad tire called me. We had to tow the car because no spare or patch kit and we had different lug patterns so my spare wouldn't fit. TWO days to get a matching tire run flat. Needless to say we replaced the other 3 with regular tires and threw a donut in the trunk. When she got her x1 we pulled the tires sold them and did the same. Run flats are horrible unless you live in a city and probably don't really need a car anyways in my opinion.

 

[Dawico]

They sound like a good idea for people that stay near civilization and can't change their own tire.

Definitely not me.

They make sense for military applications for different reasons.

 

[oldag]

I want a spare tire, not a run flat.

 

[Darqhelmet]

They sound like a good idea for people that stay near civilization and can't change their own tire.

Definitely not me.

They make sense for military applications for different reasons.

Convoy's that pull security and you have a wrecker on call OR you have a compressor on board that is going to force air into the tire while you are driving. Plus you don't want to stop in an ambush if shrapnel or a round hits your tire. (which it will)

 

[SloppyShooter]

Must be something new.
Never heard of run flats on bikes.

On the contrary, this was over 20 years ago . I guess it was short lived because of things like what happened to my friend . They weren't true run flats, but the sidewalls were stiff.

I'm just going by what he told me, with memory from a long time past. He was not known to lie.

 

[baboon]

A flat now or a flat 50 miles down the road is still a flat! I see little use in them especially in what you'r saying about changing one.

 

[Brains]

I went with regular tires when I wore out the run flats. No point for me, and I don't carry a spare. I kinda rarely go outside of 'call family or friend' distance with this car, and most often less than 10 miles from home. If it's a slow leak I'm within driving distance of a Discount Tire pretty much 95% of the time. If somehow I had a catastrophic failure, call a rollback and grab a ride from someone. Wife's SUV has real tires and a real spare, with real tools and a real woman who has changed more of her own tires (Street tires to ET Streets and back, usually) than many guys.

 

[Dawico]

I went with regular tires when I wore out the run flats. No point for me, and I don't carry a spare. I kinda rarely go outside of 'call family or friend' distance with this car, and most often less than 10 miles from home. If it's a slow leak I'm within driving distance of a Discount Tire pretty much 95% of the time. If somehow I had a catastrophic failure, call a rollback and grab a ride from someone. Wife's SUV has real tires and a real spare, with real tools and a real woman who has changed more of her own tires (Street tires to ET Streets and back, usually) than many guys.

So your wife will change her own tire but you won't change yours?

 

[benenglish]

So your wife will change her own tire but you won't change yours?

When I was growing up, tire changing was done by whoever got there first. Mom was sooooo much faster than my dad; I think it bugged him a little.

 

[F350-6]

Many new cars don't even come with a spare. Just a little pump that plugs into the cigarette lighter (or whatever it's called now) and maybe a can of slime. My daughter found that out the hard way. Luckily it was on the road in front of the house.

 

[SloppyShooter]

Many new cars don't even come with a spare. Just a little pump that plugs into the cigarette lighter (or whatever it's called now) and maybe a can of slime. My daughter found that out the hard way. Luckily it was on the road in front of the house.

I don't even have a spare tire, now a spare wife........

 

[HKShooter65]

They sound like a good idea for people that stay near civilization and can't change their own tire.

So true, though more and more vehicles simply have no place to put a spare.
This is something to think about when shopping for a vehicle.
I used to fuss about mini-spares. This may be far worse.

Jeep wranglers have it figured out! Right there in your face for when you need it!

 

[HKShooter65]

Many new cars don't even come with a spare. Just a little pump that plugs into the cigarette lighter (or whatever it's called now) and maybe a can of slime.

Something cheap and easy I've done for years even in my vehicles with a real spare:
Buy a small but quality cigarette-lighter tire pump.
Buy a pack of the old low-tech tire plugs.
Buy a tube of old fashioned rubber cement. It eases the force needed to insert the plug.
Buy (easy to forget) some needle-nose pliers for extrication of the offensive nail or whatever.

My Yamaha 4-wheeler, my Deere lawn tractor and my old CJ Jeep all have plugged tires.

I once had an old sport car that was a nail-magnet for some reason. When I sold it I think 3 of the 4 tires had plugs that had lasted for thousands of miles.
"Experts" will tell you don't use the cheap lazy-man plugs but my experience has shown, quite anecdotally, otherwise.

Heck, I'll take "lucky" over "good" any day of the year!!!

 

[HKShooter65]

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075XFCQ3...&pd_rd_r=0b7ae2ab-b56f-11e8-8e51-357518f34f72

Amazon says "Durable and not easy to get rusty".
I'm thinking that's a good thing?

I have zero experience with plugging run-flat tires and I'll hope to keep it that way.