Re: How Do You Manage Without A Spare Tyre?
roberttan;996284 said:
fully agreed with Mr Roberto
the premium may not sound good to some but is still acceptable to some of us.
buy simply paying (not %) est $400 more for set of 4 tyre using over 2 years.
and this runflat is not only help save all the trouble and also can prevent sudden lost of AIR which could lead to sudden drifting your car to 1 side when on high speed driving (is rare )
If every body know how to handle both Pre and Post situation like what Mr Roberto mentioned , one can consider running on Non runflat tyre.
The repair kit sold to layman like us is only for temp mearsured and still best to get it check professionally (internally)by shop if you want.
I must warn is not going to be EASY to do the repair until you try it
you will be more frustrated when you got the repair it and you cant fix them on the road.
There's no question about the convenience of run flat tyres. And yes, there is a mild safety aspect as well, but imo its not significant as the rims can handle the car's weight (rims might not survive unscathed though). I recently had a tyre go flat on me while driving north on the CTE at near 100kmh. Dub dub dub sound and the car began to pull to the left, but it was very recoverable, I hit the hazards immediately and started moving to the left. Did this despite traffic.
Of course, if the tyre went out while driving at a high speed, on a wet road, and while negotiating a turn, a run flat would have introduced less instability. However, we are talking freak situations. For that kind of extra money, better to invest in an LSD for your rear end.
Secondly, always carry a spare tyre with you, whichever came with your car. And always have the tyre changing tools with you, whatever came with the car. Go through the process in your mind when you first buy the car, and have the owner's manual in the glove compartment for reference if necessary. And finally, have a 3g phone with 3g access. You can hit up youtube for any videos on showing you how to do this (and everything else, for that matter).
Run flats are great. However, for the vastly increased costs, and reduced fuel economy, and low probability of catastrophic failure when using good tyres, general good maintenance of your tyres and air pressures, and also new portable and inexpensive tools to manage flats (90% of flats are from nail punctures, not from side splits etc), I think the argument for runflats is still not compelling for me.
When travelling to other countries, always have simple tools, emergency numbers saved on your phone, and a spare tyre with simple steel rim if you're not using runflats. Have a charged torchlight with you if your phone does not have a good LED static flashlight, if a situation happens to present itself at night. And above all, don't panic. Stay calm, begin, and the solution will unravel itself as you go along.
Or buy runflats lor !