I've never had a patch leak but you can't do it near the shoulder of the tire. I've had one plug leak (very slowly) and many plugs hold, and they can get a little closer to the shoulder (especially on a road trip). Plugs are also an easy DIY, I carry a kit.

patch only is inferior to a plug. make sure that it's a plug/patch combination. I've had many plugged tires and no issues with them.

My plugged tire failed today but it was on a mountain bike:)

A couple of times I've been offroading with people in the Mojave desert where people have gotten flats. The rule is "if you have one spare and you use it, you turn back". One time a guy limps back into camp with two flats, one where the bead unseated. And of course since everybody has different vehicles (mainly Jeeps, but with very different sized tires and even bolt patterns) it isn't just a case of borrowing somebody else's spare to limp back to civilization.

We set up a team operation where one guy filled an air tank with the highest pressure portable compressor the group had, somebody else was standing by with the highest airflow rate compressor, and 2 other people contributed a can of starting fluid and a plug kit. A quick shot of ether and a lighter to reseat the bead, followed by a blast from the high pressure tank got it to stay seated after a few tries. Then we switched to the high flow compressor and started pouring bottled water on the tire while rotating it to find the leak (no big dunk tanks full of water in the desert). With the leak spotted, it was patched and the tire inflated to the proper pressure and reinstalled. on the Jeep The other tire was a simple case of plug and fill.

That's the group I hang with. Not everyone is so resourceful. One time I was driving down CA 136 by Keeler in my E46 wagon when I spot a heavily customized super duty Jeep at the entrance to Cerro Gordo Road with its hood up. So, being a good citizen I pulled over and asked the guy if he needed any help. He said no, he was just airing back up after coming down from Cerro Gordo. I said "Really? I was just up there yesterday in this (pointing to the wagon). It was obvious he didn't believe me, so as he didn't need help I got back in the wagon and drove off.

Admittedly, Cerro Gordo Road is a bit extreme for a wagon. Here's my BMW in the center of the picture. Note that everything else is Jeeps or pickup trucks:

https://www.glaver.org/transient/CerroGordoBMW.jpg

The road seems fine in many places, but then there are very bad spots with deep ruts, washouts, or sheer rock made smooth by 150 years of pack animal and vehicle travel. Often with 1000' drops on the edge of the 1-lane road. Once you head up there, you're committed - no place to turn around. Here's someone else's picture of one of the mildly bad spots:

https://www.glaver.org/transient/CerroGordoRoad.jpg

Yup, I did that in my E46 wagon with 205/50-17 Potenza S-02 A tires. :eek:

:lol:

That looks like fun. I'd love to do proper off-roading. The LR4 (especially with the options I have) is quite capable. But there is nothing anywhere near me and I don't have the time for traveling far for it. Also, for now, the LR4 is still our nice family vehicle. Maybe some day in the future.

I have done a fair amount of crazy stuff - here is the wagon overlooking the Old Spanish Trail:

https://www.glaver.org/transient/IMG_1382-s.jpg

This used to be a popular spot for manufacturers to take still "beauty shots" of their vehicles. What I didn't know when I drove up there was that they brought their vehicles in with helicopters, not the trail. :dunno: The BLM put large boulders across the trail the next year to prevent anyone else from doing this.

But the craziest stuff (some unintentional) was what I did in the Atom. It has been on both the lowest (-282 feet, Badwater Basin) and highest (14,260', Mount Evans) roads in the US. Those were on purpose. One time I mistakenly moved the slider on my PC-based navigation too far away from "prefer highways" and ended up doing rock crawling on the Wagon Mound Cutoff of the Santa Fe Trail. When I got down off the mountain I ended up in somebody's pasture and had to get them to open the gate so I could get back onto a paved road.

Crazy!

Nice!

LOL
Excellent

So I think the answer is, Alan, don't worry about it too much! :lol: