I need some help on a tough decision. I am nearing the end of my original tires life having just hit 23,ooo miles. I will need 4 new ones soon. Well here is the delima...I had decided to get non-run flats as the replacement. However, last week my wife's Honda Accord got a flat...while we were on our way to Disney World. Well we got a can of fix-a-flat and pumped it up. Well it all came out of the hole in the tread. Yea we found the non repairable hole. The tire was dead. A quick change to the spare...a trip back home to grab the mini and we took the Mini ti see Mickey.

So here is the delima. I travel for work and 2-3 days a week I go like an hour away from home. Which means that if I ever get a flat it would really stink. I'd have to wait for 2+ hours for the wife to bring a spare. Then limp home on it. I dont really have room in the car cuz of all the boxes I carry.

What do I do?

 

Maybe you could also join AAA or some other auto club or group that has roadside assistance.

I have been thinking of all the times I have had a flat. Almost every time the car is my driveway or office parking lot. I can't remember the last time I had a flat on a roadside.

 

AAA will only take me to a gas station. Hey wait...they will tow me 100 miles if I have AAA Plus. Thats the ticket. That gets me home where I can do a spare replacement. But I think that would work. Great idea. Looks like its time to get AAA again!

 

Tire plug kit can fit into one of the rear access panels along with the can of fix-a-flat. Heck I'd even plug a sidewall if it'd get me to a tire store at low speed and avoid a tow.

 

If I'm not mistaken, the three-year roadside assistance program that comes with your US Mini will tow (more likely flatbed) the car to the nearest dealer.

I'm driving on non-runflats, with a can of juice, a compressor, and a cellphone - am I missing something about roadside assistance?

 

Yep, once you're at the dealer, they'll probably want you to buy four new runflats. 'Cause mixing runflats with non-runflats is dangerous, see... and they probably only stock non-runflats in 15" anyway.

 

No problem, as I'm not wearing stock tires anyway - TireRack can have a tire there tomorow, if necessary.

 

I got 3 flats on my run-flats (in 1200 miles) and must admit that the car could still be driven. But after switching to standard tires I haven't gotten a flat at all (in 800 miles). Ran48 recommended using a MINI spare wheel and so I got one in my trunk now--except I haven't got the tire yet.

 

I carry a donut spare in my car that sits right behind my driver's seat in a bag. Doesn't move around and best of all, it still allows the rear seats to go down flat. You'd have no problem carrying any and all of the boxes that you mentioned for work. :smile:

 

For daily driving I keep a plug kit, Slime and a 12 volt pump in the back and none of this takes up much room. For a road trip I take a full size run flat with me.

 

when I dumped the runflats, (which ,incidently was the best thing I ever did to the car) I bit the bullet and bought a jack, lug wrench and donut spare (which I keep in one of Robyn's (jerseygirl) spare tire bags directly behind my passenger seat in the rear foot well). I rotate my tires front to back every 5 K. and get reasonably good use out of a set (35k).

 

Did you get that donut from mini?

 

This is true. I too switched over to after market rims and tires...non-runflats. My deciding factor was the cost (and looks). No matter how I crunched the numbers it was just not cost effective to have runflats compared to standard. But I also know that i would have to deal with the circumstances of a serious flat...and that is exactly what happened 2 weeks ago. 90 miles away from home me and the fam have a blowout. The inner sidewall has a nice clean 1 foot slit on the circumference (way too long explanation of why...but it had nothing to do with crappy tires). So my ContiComfortKit was useless. Called up Mini roadside and they dispatched a flatbed to our locale and towed us back to Atlanta (Hank Aaron BMW). I went and picked up a new tire the next day and they put it on and mounted it for 30 bucks. I had to sign a waiver saying they were not responsible for the tire seeing how they are not the ones who provided it...they didn't have the size or brand. So basically the most I will have to deal with is that little adventure hopefully less than once every 6 years (my average for major flats). I can do that.

Oh...and the tow to the dealership is totally free.

 

--Someone on this forum put together a spare donut in the boot of the cooper s. But if you really do travel that much and time is more important to you I'd pick up another set of runflats. So long as you're okay with $600 every 25k miles that is. I wouldn't look at the same tires, but perhaps something better from Tirerack.com.

I'm not too fond of my Pirelli's and as soon as they near their last 5k of wear I'm going back to standard radials and a patch kit with a compressor tire repair kit. I live in Honolulu and our island is barely 40 by 70 miles long so I can get to a dealer or tire repair shop in no time on most days. I'm also looking forward to a softer ride on radial tires too as the run flats brutalize me on Honolulu's pothole central roads. The radials will also cut down on weight which should help my fuel economy. But if I had the extra dosh and shortage of extra time and didn't care about fuel economy and ride comfort I'd get me some high performance run flats to replace my old run flats. Just mho tho.

--pyratio

 

yep.

 

Second generation run flats are far more forgiving in sidewall flex than the first generation (biggest complaint) as manufactuers are now using less rubber in the sidewalls, run flats are now nearly as light as their non-run flat counterparts (and getting lighter all the time), and have equivalent grip (sure, you can always find more grip at the expense of mileage). Ultimately, run flats are the future. You'll see more and more as OEM-equipped...just look at the new BMW 3er. Besides, MINI designed the car around run flats. What more do you want? There are also side benefits...having no spare equals more space for engineers to locate components/stuff, saves sprung weight, etc. I'm hoping the third generation run flats will be available by the time mine wear out. I'll definitely buy run flats regardless, but I do hope that manufacturers keep the evolution going. What we need is more competitors in our standard sizes. My Dunlop SP9000 DSST-shod 05 MCS has almost 3,000 miles. Tire wear is dead even, grip is great, and the ride quality is a hell of a lot better than my friends Z-3. I think once I mount Koni FSDs I'll be in heaven.

Cheers!

 

On the cost issue, I've found runflats to be pretty darn cheap, if you leverage the secondary market. For my last Cooper, I bought a set of nearly new (200mi) S-lites and Euphorias for $600 and sold my R84s and runflats with 25k for $400. $50 per tire with no mounting/balancing costs is not bad. I'm planning to do the same for my S soon.

 

One thing always bugs me when we discuss run flats. Wouldn't stiffer side walls give better handling high performance wise?



Paul

 

And if lower-profile=better handling, then why do F1 cars seem to ride on such high-profile tires?

 

Heres a link to give you a brain cramp. Its from a auto engineering site.

http://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=56923&page=1

They get into it.


Paul

 

It's for only one reason...tradition. F1 has used a 13" wheel for many many years. F1 is currently undergoing many changes to improve the sport (with 2005 being an all-time disaster due to crap qualifying rules, the 2-race per engine rule, no tire changes, reduced aerodynamics, etc.). One of the future proposed changes is in a larger wheel diameter. It'll probably get bigger some day. In '06 F1 is going to tire changes during the race again (like '04 and before), and in '07 F1 is going back to slicks. The future is looking brighter...05 was a joke.

 

Counter point:

You are assuming that one has kept the stock rim size. Not only is finding a 215/35-18 runflat pretty difficult, you are not going to find a set for $600.