Used a Spare Tire Recently

[lupinsea]

I finally had to use a spare tire for the first time in about 9+ years.

Jeep:
Thought I'd mention this but after 5 years of intense offroading in my Jeep I finally had to change out one of the tires and use my spare.

Given all the sharp rocks I drive over and scrap the wheels along and airing down all the time I figure this isn't bad.

It also gave me an opportunity to use my bottle jack for its intended purpose in changing a tire on the Jeep. Prior to this I'd only use it for other purposes, such as jacking up framing lumber on my bathroom remodel, or to push parts together and such.

In this case I had crude in my tire bead that caused the leak. I've had this before but the leaks were always slow enough that I could go a few days before needing to reinflate, giving me time to get to the tire shops. Not this time.

Anyways, not too bad. 5 years for all the tires have seen.

Oh, and it also reaffirmed my decision to buy a cheap used full-size tire for the spare all those years ago when I went to a larger tire than buy 5 new big tires (and put the 5th on the spare). Even my used tire has 5,000 - 10,000 miles of use out of it still. Good enough to get me to a tire shop.

Other Cars:
As for other spare tires changes, I can't remember the last time I needed to do a tire change. It's not like the roads in Seattle are smooth and debris free so I'm not sure why I've not suffered more flats (or at least needs to use a spare tire) all this time.

Carry on.

[Terri Kennedy]

Originally Posted by lupinsea

As for other spare tires changes, I can't remember the last time I needed to do a tire change. It's not like the roads in Seattle are smooth and debris free so I'm not sure why I've not suffered more flats (or at least needs to use a spare tire) all this time.

Same here - 100K, no tire problems. That's between the BMW and the Atom. Full-size spare on the wagon, no spare on the Atom - and running A048's.

I did get a screw in the right rear BMW tire (RE750) outside of Boston. I heard the tap-tap-tap of it and pulled over. I saw the screw and changed the tire, since I figured it would develop a slow leak. When I got back to Jersey, I pulled it out of the trunk and looked at it. When I pulled the screw out, it turns out the shaft was less than 3/16" long (it was a drywall screw where the shaft either rusted or snapped off) and there was no damage to the tire.

And the roads here are abysmal. Even with trying to avoid our killer potholes, I wind up having to get all 4 summer wheels straightened when they come off and the snows go on (I don't bother with straightening the snows, even though one wheel has the lip really folded over - it isn't leaking. The $650/year I spend at Wheel Collision sucks. This last time, I sent a copy of the bill to our mayor. He ran his campaign on a promise to fix the streets (this is his second full term *) and he spent over $1500 for each vote he received.

Humorous footnote you won't believe - his first term in office was a partial term because our previous mayor died in office. They actually had the previous guy stuffed (as in taxidermy) and standing up in the lobby of City hall for a week or so before they buried him. Creepy.

[lupinsea]

Is it just me or does it seem like the tires are getting more durable in the last several years. . . and this goes beyond the whole runflat stuff.

I don't hear of people getting flats too often. Even with the low-profile tires that are more prevalent these days.