So, What's your actual plan when you do get a flat?

If you have a RF & are close to home?

If you have a RF & are more than 100mi from home?

If you do not have RF's and are in either of these situations?

The damage is beyond a Slime/Fix-a-Flat or even plug roadside repair...
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The convenience of a spare not only allows you the ability to keep it moving along to your destination but it also buys you some time to find a proper replacement tire. (ie matching & not getting ho$ed because of your 'emergency situation')
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More than 50mi from home.
Say you get a free Mini tow to a dealer, then what? you buy a $400 RF?
*if they have one in stock & are open.

Your basically w/o a car and at the mercy of the stealership. If your on a road trip, MINI will tow your car to their closest dealer. If its Sat. @ 6pm, your down till Monday am, maybe later?

Now even worse.
In any scenario, you are using a non factory tire of your choice on an aftermarket wheel. It's not a RF. It's not repairable.
Catch a flat & get towed to nearest corner garage. What are the chances they even have a tire in your size? A tire of your choice to match the others? not likely.
If your after hours or outside of a major metro area that doesnt have a 'tire warehouse' near by your basically screwed.
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Just wondering if anyone has thought about this quite possible scenario? I take a lot of road trips, I usually have to be 'at my destination' (wedding/work/event/wkend getaway, etc) & dont have time to spare(no pun intended).
I now have 19's on my CM, I have a plug kit & an inflator/slime kit as well. None of these will help sidewall damage.

Just curious. I am working on a spare mentioned in another thread. It's a pricey option, but doesnt leave me stranded. I guess I've become mentally dependent on the practicality of a spare. (what a great invention huh)

 

I have had cars with runflats and no spare for 7 years now. Planning is useless, you deal with the situation when it occurs. Here are my three occurences:

- Complete blow out and dented rim while driving through a dodgy part of town. I had replaed the Run flats with standard tires so the car was not driveable. I called MINI and they agreed to have the car towed to my house instead of the dealer. I had another set of wheels so I just swapped the bad wheel and ordered a new tire from tire rack.

- Leak halfway through 215 mile trip in winter at 10PM with runflats. I stopped four times for air and to check on the tire condition and kept speed around 60MPH where safe. We made it our destination, and again, I ordered a new tire from the tire rack.

- Nail in tire with audible air leak at about 5PM on a Saturday with runflat. I drove directly to the tire store, the nail was in the middle of the tread so they were able to do a proper patch and that tire is still on the car.

I have compressor and goo kits in the cars that have standard tires instead of runflats.

 

My plan if I imagine so many things that could possibly go wrong/be inconvenient that I am truly stuck on the side of a road with no help in sight?

Don't worry; be happy.

Part of the adventure of life.

 

I have just a can of green slime in the car with non-runflats. Thinking about winter runflats though heh

 

I agree. Wayyyy to much worry to worry.

I'm just happy to be alive and take it as it comes. Though I do have goo and a pump when driving with the standard tires. When the run flats are on I just don't worry bout it.

 

Dont take it the wrong way, I'm not 'worried' about it. Just wondering what others have thought about and well, I like having a plan.
My situation that made me think about this some(& to have a solid answer for my wife )
were my last 2 wkends.
A 1000+mi trip to NC. All along 95 during the day I would be ok. even it a non RF replacement of any cheap type were needed for the factory 17's. Thats a more common size. No biggie, plus I had the RF's on anyhow.

Labor Day wkend I went a few hrs north to CT. half of the trip was on rural back roads, it was a holiday wkend & there was no mini dealer even remotely close.
I was still on RF's (ie less chance of being stranded, more common 17" size if I did need a replacement).
This week I put on my 225/45-19's. A $200+ tire & Not a size likely stocked at the local 'tire place'.
If I got a sidewall pinch(non repairable) on a sunday or holiday, game over! Tirerack or shop replacement wouldnt be until at least Tuesday. Thats not an option for me. I run a business, my wife has a professional job. A $700 tow across state lines seems crazy. No one is going to drive 3hrs to come get us..

Now, of corse I'm laying out the worst case scenario, but it's not all that hard to imagine or happen.
Now, in 20+ yrs of driving Ive had 2 simple flats. A crap tire on a college car & a wear through on a coned out tire after a spirited drive. But I have also lived in NYC, where I split 2 tires at once on a man hole cover, my wife has split a sidewall on the Brooklyn bridge, I have split a tire in a water filled pothole & maybe 2 others(all on that same car w/ 18's). I've had a spare to get home. When I had two flats I called a friend so I could ride 2 spares. None of these were road trips. I simply got home & ordered more tires of my choice. I'm working on a spare, at least I can toss it in the car for road trips.

I take a lot of road trips, I head to the mountains quite a bit. Places off the beaten path. a non repairable flat can mean a big hassle. (in the winter, my AS RF's will be back on)

 

Probably your best bet (the spare in the car). 19's are an interesting choice. Do you have any pics posted with them on the car?

 

thats why I am working on a spare. My wife wont want to deal with this hassle if we get a sidewall flat.. because I chose a car w/o a spare & then decided to ditch the RF's because I wanted 19's. I would never hear the end of that. (happy wife, happy life)
As for now I can simply toss a stock 17 RF in the hatch when making these road trips. Again, a permanent spare would be better. I'm working on this with someone here.


CM on 19's (not lowered yet)

Part of the reason I went w/ 45's (which no one seems to have yet) was for the slightly taller sidewall.

 

I'd suggest that instead of worrying about what to do in case of some catastrophic tire failure incident, you spend your time developing a business continuity plan for your business that includes steps to ensure your business keeps running in the event you end up out of commission for a few days. There are way too many events in life that could result in the need for such a plan and such a plan means you wouldn't have to worry so much about things like your original question.

Hopefully your wife's job can be organized such that she can be out unexpectedly for a few days as well.

 

My plan is to keep on the factory runflats. If I get a flat, drive to the nearest dealership if I can. If I can't make it then I'd have roadside assistance tow me. Then I'd wing it. There are too many variables beyond that to make it worth planning in detail.

If I REALLY REALLY had to be somewhere then I'd probably do my best to rent a car. If it was just getting back home for a normal day of work I'd call in and let them know I wasn't going to make it.

I used to work at a company where people travelled often, and in any form of travel things come up. And while you can plan for a few contingencies, every once in a while a volcano in Iceland will remind you that some things are just out of your control and it's best to not worry TOO much!

 

I haven't had RF's since the original tires wore out. I keep can of slime and compressor. If slime won't fix it enough to drive, I have AAA gold for free 100 mile tow.

 

I've got a plug kit, and a few cans of fix-a-flat in the back. If I ever do get a flat (knock on wood)...I'm planning on plugging the hole, and filling the tire back up in order to drive it to a tire shop for a proper repair.

 

Same here for me. I have the factory RF's for summer and aftermarket wheels with snows for winter. I always carry the slime/compressor kit with me and so far the only time I had to use it was to put air in the stock wheels/RF's that I had shipped to me because I wanted black instead of silver. Apparently they let the air out to save weight lol.

 

Since ya can't plan for every disaster just make a plan you'll be Ok with to get you to the next comfortable place to rest and get a repair, tire or wheel..I carry AAA, a nice ViaAir kick butt compressor+plugging kit, a easy to use compact lug wrench, and a bottle of Slime. Keep in mind when there is a major snow strom AAA will not call back for 24hours_your on your own.
Best rule of thumb is to learn to rotate your tires with the MINI jack and then your comfortable with the tools you always have on the car. Every brakedown is unique and so make sure you have food, water, charged cell phone, and towels or blankets to use as pillows, blankets, or a picnic if ya have wine...Your gonna get lots of offers for help as people are curious to see what's under the hood of your Cooper...

 

I am actually quite amazed with some of these responses.
So most of you have no clue as to what you would do?
Im not talking about RF deflations. I already mentioned I have a slime kit w/ plug kit & compressor. I am talking about non repairable sidewall damage on a 19" tire.

Most of you, well I think at least a few of you actually might understand that a 19 is not a readily available tire from you local Walmart/gas station. Rural means 50+ miles from a town, from a 1 horse, dont blink town.

So if I spent big money on a Snowboard vacation on a holiday wkend & happen to get a flat in nowheresville VT/NH/Maine enroute Friday night, I should sleep in my car until morning & **** away the entire trip while thinking about getting a replacement that fits, maybe on Tuesday when the 1 guy in nowheresville opens, only to order a tire for Wednesday. wow... that thinking kinda boggles my mind.

Believe me, I like to enjoy my life, hence my many road trips & performance non-RF tires. But living in reality I know 'life happens' and you gotta be a little prepared, a little more than a can of goo when you are making moves on the road of life & cant be inconvenienced for days for such a simple thing as not having a spare.
I thought I would get more of a realistic & knowledgeable reply from this forum.

 

After I switch to non-runflats, I plan to take a spare with me on long trips. Easy peasy.

Waiting for the inevitable "what is your plan if your spare gets a flat?!"

Edit: if it gave me an excuse to miss a few extra days of work, I wouldn't complain too much.

 

But what if the world collapses into a Mad Max meets The Walking Dead post apocalyptic zombie nightmarescape?!??

 

Then I'd wish I had a Justa 'cause it gets better gas mileage.

 

I carry the compact spare when traveling to remote areas. If traveling locally or going to Sacramento or San Francisco bay area, I leave it home. I always carry a compressor + sealant. I would use it immediately even with my run-flats.

I have had (I think) one sidewall puncture/failure in my cars in 50 years of driving, although I've seen it happen to others. Last tread puncture was in 2002. I like the odds.

 

I always carry a compressor and a plug kit. I have runflats but if you can plug them before the pressure gets too low you can keep the tire - I had a tire go down to 10 PSI, inflated it back to 30, drove to the dealer with 15PSI in the tire... but by the time they got to looking at it, 0 PSI and new tire. I had picked up the car just two days before so I talked them into replacing the tire for free, but it was a good wakeup call to be able to maintain pressure in the tire if possible and a plug kit is really easy to use with no mess.

The runflats work REALLY well. If I had to go 100 miles on them with 0 PSI I would trust them 100%, so I like to leave them on for emergency use.

 

Same thing I'd do with a transmission or engine failure: Utter a few expletives and then get on the phone.

 

This matches my experience, though I've only been driving 15 years now. The last time I had a flat while driving was 1998 I think, and it was a direct result of me driving on bald tires (I was a teenager, what can I say). Getting a flat just isn't something I worry about too much.

 

OP I completely understand what your trying to get at it here as I have possibly have the worse luck when it comes to these type of things. Seems like the universe aligns and all that can go wrong does. I'm very new to the MCS as I have only had mine for a week now and actually thought it had a spare underneath everything just like a regular car did. Knowing this now, I will prolly pick up a wheel and tire for those situations. I've only ever had 1 sidewall blowout and that was because I was on my way to the gas station to air up a deflated tire.