For long road trips do you feel a patched tire is safe
 

My daughters new Q5 which has around 160 miles on it has a screw in the middle of the tire thread. Normally I would just remove the screw and put a plug in it myself but being she drives the car 4 hours each way to school and it’s my daughter not me driving I always in the past just replace her tires when something happens.

I spoke to the dealer and they are willing to patch it ... I never take this route but the tire is literally brand new.

Being on the side of caution would you feel safe with just patching it ?

Mentally, I never feel like I can fully trust the tire patches. But I've had a number of them and never had one fail. They've survived long trips, and hot summer pavement without any issues that I can tell.

Can you patch it and turn it into a spare? Buy a rim for it?

I have parched my tires multiple times and never had issues, YMMV

I as well... HUNDREDS of thousands of miles on cars running with one (or more) patched tires and have never had a second thought about using a tire that has been repaired. As long as it has been done properly - should be good.

Yeah, same. I’ve lost track of how many patches are on the Tesla. At least 3. I don’t have any concerns about it. I might be cautious of prolonged high speed use (like, 100+) but for normal driving? No concerns.

Plug and patch followed by forget about it.

Patches are generally better than plugs, but I’ve never had a concern or issue putting on many tens of thousands of further miles, including high speed freeway travel in super hot weather, competition, etc.

The only thing I gives me any pause is when the puncture is close to the shoulder.

An aside...one of my favorite tire repairs was at the Oscoda Pro Solo a couple summers ago. We drove up on the competition tires. When leaving the site for dinner after registration, tech, and practice starts, we picked up a screw. Found it in the right front when we got to dinner and left the repair until after eating.

A couple amusing videos of the repair in progress (second one is more amusing):

https://photos.app.goo.gl/x7a78oGdwBxACA5z5

https://photos.app.goo.gl/7V8tvh3ky6spxJcc9

We completed the plug with the tire on the car and lost no air pressure in the process. Did the event with two drivers and no problems, drove from Oscoda to near Albany, NY to Toronto, back to DC, did another two driver Pro Solo a couple weeks later, one more two driver local event, and added another 1k street miles that year. Did another 1k street miles, a single driver Championship Tour and a single driver Pro Solo the following season on them...all without issue.

Someone might of done track events on a plugged tire in his younger days:eeps:

A proper patch would not worry me at all. Never had any issues. Hand one on the ZHP for many thousands all the way until the rear tires looked like slicks with no issues.


I had a rubber plug kit used on the shoulder of the E91 rear runflat due to an emergency in rural Canada on a Sunday. It got me all the way home with no issues, but eventually started to leak a few weeks later (a week before lease return) and I bought a used tire off ebay for the lease return.

Went out of my way to go to a reputable place where I specifically asked for patch for an LR4 tire only do find they did a sticky plug. I was pretty unhappy but I doubt I'll have to worry about it on a car like that. Smack in the middle of the tire too. Plus, I carry a full spare on that car.

I have had a few patched properly.

That is, where they pull the tire, and do the patch with the integral plug.

I have done the temp plug kit from the outside. I never had any real problems, but I always considered it as a temp fix.

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:

Crazy stuff?

We drove our 2wd VW golf down Shafer Pass in Moab



when we got back onto mixed pavement on the bottom, I got out of the car and kissed the blacktop.

That's a lot better condition, wider, and fewer tight curves / sharp descents than Cerro Gordo Road.

When Top Gear US ran their "Monument to Moab" episode, I kept grumbling that I'd done far worse roads in an Atom, which has approximately no ground clearance.

Notice all the guardrails and 1000-200 foot drop offs! The last couple of miles were relatively flat, but had very bad washout in a few spots.

We had to stop 4-5 times, get out of the Rabbit, and figure out what would be out path for the next 35-50 feet to get through rock wash. (repeatedly scraping the undercarriage.

We had no business being there in a Rabbit. I grew up driving in the woods around reservoirs in northwest NJ. Rule #1 was ALWAYS don't go along, Caravan with vehicles with tow ropes and winches.

I broke rule #1 in an area that could have killed us

:lol:

I hope that is 1-way.:eeps:

All done, it was a pretty cool patch, it actually had a plug too ... kind of like a Golf tee at a driving range. Maybe they all have this I never saw a patch before :dunno:

No two way. plus many mountain bikers on the day we went down

Are there enough spots for two cars to go by?

I have my own footage of Edewissspitze but too lazy to upload so I found the one below. It was narrow and windy. The lack of pavement or guardrails doesn't bother me, but I'd want to know there are spots to pass without having to back up.

The first 1.5 miles (starting from the top) is almost 2 lane. After that is is 1.5 lane. There are a few places chopped out to allow a passing area. Vehicles going down are supposed to yield to vehicles going up, so I did have to stop and wait a few times for the path to clear in front of me. (had to back up a couple of times too so we could get into a wider spot) The last 3 miles were driving through (dry) river wash, so plenty of room, I just had to pick my best path. Pictures are from down at the bottom. I wasn't getting out to take pictures during the decent. The huge blue lakes were actually Potash drying beds, that was where we found blacktop again. it was about a 3 hour adventure

I once stayed with friends at a mountain chalet rental in Switzerland. It had a road like that to get to it, and it was often cloaked in fog. Imagine having to back up to the wide spot in the fog. :eek:

It the village of Lenk, in the Bernese Overland. Incidental, everyone who lives there had a Bernese Mountain dog. https://www.myswitzerland.com/en-us/...the-simmental/

Yikes!

:D OK, so it wasn't such a coincidence then that we saw two Berners while at the top of one of the mountain passes in Bern.

FWIW, the breeder was really touched by that story and I think that is how we more or less got to choose the puppy we wanted.

Clinton Reservoir? I used to drive there a lot in the 70's before it was paved.

NJ has a default speed limit of 25 MPH urban, 50 rural. Since kids kept stealing the signs from Clinton Road, it fell back to the default 50. I had a lot of fun in the Atom up there as it had been paved for years by then. I may have exceeded 50 at some points :cool:.

The road is full of unsigned curves, most of which are off-camber and many of which have unexpected blind elevation changes. Here is one of the few decent YouTube videos. Most of them are about hauntings, killer clowns, druid temples, etc. I suggest you run this one at 2x to get a better feel. Of course, I only was at high speeds in the long section in the middle where there are no houses. BTW, I've never seen as much traffic as this video shows. It is rare to see even one other car in the undeveloped areas. They must have been shooting on a weekend.



BTW, I have a page of mid-70's pictures here.

Splitrock You could go 4 wheeling, or dirt biking all day and not run the same trail twice.

I know Clinton, but grew up in Boonton, Splitrock was much closer to home

Here I was so worried about patching the tire and now it's a non issue ... my Daughter surprised me last weekend by coming home from College for my birthday and it ends up her tire on the ride home shows a low warning ...

No flat but it ends up the same tire now has a HUGE screw in it and a Nail ..

Of course I wake up the next morning and even though both the nail and screw were in the center of the tread I replaced the tire ... I guess I don’t have to worry about the patch now.

For long road trips do you feel a patched tire is safe
 

Found this in the front passenger side tire today. Inserted a patch and now waiting to confirm it holds pressure.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...9159cb75c8.jpg
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...4d6be7bff6.jpg

I think that is just far away from the shoulder enough that you should be fine.