[Camaro1989]

It's about that time that I can't squeeze anymore life out of my tires and am looking to get a new set. I am leaning towards non run flats though as they are cheaper and people swear that you get performance gains.

Anyways, I came across this youtube vid for a spare tire kit for our cars. I'm thinking it might be a good way to go seeing as I don't want run flats.



Anybody have any experience with it? It's a big of $, but I like that it all fits in a little case and it seems well put together.

[Alanarchy]

Nice! Definitely considering this.

[OMEN]

amazing review bro
i must buy 1

do they ship it internationally?

[mekirk2]

Looked at these the other day - wondered if they would go in the verts trunk in front of the divider.

[mekirk2]

just measured - looks like this will fit in the trunk with the top down BUT will NOT fit in front of the divider. Vert owners could disconnect the bottom clips but would need to remember that the divider is not correctly in place when operating the top.

This is not my DD and I have AAA, so most times I wouldnt need the spare even without run flats. That said, I might buy this for trips - would hate for a trip to be ruined because Im somewhere waiting on a new tire to come in to get me back on the road.

[JamesNoBrakes]

Originally Posted by Camaro1989

It's about that time that I can't squeeze anymore life out of my tires and am looking to get a new set. I am leaning towards non run flats though as they are cheaper and people swear that you get performance gains.

Anyways, I came across this youtube vid for a spare tire kit for our cars. I'm thinking it might be a good way to go seeing as I don't want run flats.

People don't "swear that you get performance gains", it's quite simple, non-run-flats (aka, normal tires) are better for performance, lighter, more supple, less unstrung weight, better traction, etc.

The whole run-flat thing is somewhat of a way to increase profits, rather than give you anything useful. Most punctures are such that sealant will seal them easy, at least long enough to get to a place to get a new tire. Most holes that can be sealed, will be repairable, but not always of course. Modern tires, even run-flats, are much stronger than tires of old and as long as you are keeping them in good order and replacing them when necessary, it's highly unlikely you are going to have a massive-blowout, and if you do, a run-flat won't help you one bit. Let's say you actually DO use the run-flat feature, driving ON the run-flat destroys the sidewall and it must be replaced if you actually do this, and you'll need at least TWO new run-flat tires to account for the tread-wear. So what did the run-flats get you?

Are there situations where run-flats would be useful? I suppose, but the kind of punctures that they protect you from are usually the kind that can be plugged on the side of the road or sealed up with a can or two of sealant until you can get to the shop. I wouldn't recommend them unless you do a lot of driving in a lot of uninhabited areas. I think it more comes down to people don't want to have to get out, put some sealant in there, put some air in there, and get to the shop. When I've had flats, sometimes it was just a matter of adding air, because the gummy-inside of the tire seals pretty well around the screw or nail or whatever, but it seems that a big part of the run-flats is the convenience of just being able to "bring it to the shop" without having to do anything to the tire, so you can later buy some more run-flats. The premium for that convenience is not worth it for me.

[Camaro1989]

Originally Posted by OMEN

amazing review bro
i must buy 1

do they ship it internationally?

I would imagine so. When I went to calculate the shipping it listed a bunch of countries. I would just send them an email on their website and ask.

[Camaro1989]

Originally Posted by mekirk2

just measured - looks like this will fit in the trunk with the top down BUT will NOT fit in front of the divider. Vert owners could disconnect the bottom clips but would need to remember that the divider is not correctly in place when operating the top.

This is not my DD and I have AAA, so most times I wouldnt need the spare even without run flats. That said, I might buy this for trips - would hate for a trip to be ruined because Im somewhere waiting on a new tire to come in to get me back on the road.

My car is almost the same as the one in the video but that should be helpful for others. I'm not sure if I'd keep it in my car full time but it would make trips a lot more enjoyable for me. Where I live there are some long roads with bad cell service and not a lot of gas stations and whenever I go on one it scares me a bit thinking of being stuck out there. Plus, I really don't want bubba from the nearest small town garage putting my car on a tow truck haha.

[Camaro1989]

Originally Posted by JamesNoBrakes

People don't "swear that you get performance gains", it's quite simple, non-run-flats (aka, normal tires) are better for performance, lighter, more supple, less unstrung weight, better traction, etc.

The whole run-flat thing is somewhat of a way to increase profits, rather than give you anything useful. Most punctures are such that sealant will seal them easy, at least long enough to get to a place to get a new tire. Most holes that can be sealed, will be repairable, but not always of course. Modern tires, even run-flats, are much stronger than tires of old and as long as you are keeping them in good order and replacing them when necessary, it's highly unlikely you are going to have a massive-blowout, and if you do, a run-flat won't help you one bit. Let's say you actually DO use the run-flat feature, driving ON the run-flat destroys the sidewall and it must be replaced if you actually do this, and you'll need at least TWO new run-flat tires to account for the tread-wear. So what did the run-flats get you?

Are there situations where run-flats would be useful? I suppose, but the kind of punctures that they protect you from are usually the kind that can be plugged on the side of the road or sealed up with a can or two of sealant until you can get to the shop. I wouldn't recommend them unless you do a lot of driving in a lot of uninhabited areas. I think it more comes down to people don't want to have to get out, put some sealant in there, put some air in there, and get to the shop. When I've had flats, sometimes it was just a matter of adding air, because the gummy-inside of the tire seals pretty well around the screw or nail or whatever, but it seems that a big part of the run-flats is the convenience of just being able to "bring it to the shop" without having to do anything to the tire, so you can later buy some more run-flats. The premium for that convenience is not worth it for me.

I agree with what you say about run flats. They were just on my car when I got it and I never really planned on replacing them with run flats. I've had two flats on other vehicles in my life. 1 I hit a massive pot hole and bent the rim (cheap car so not that big of a deal) and 2 the tire shredded when I was going down the freeway. Run flats would have done nothing for me in those situations so I guess my experience is what has me looking for a spare. It's stupid that GM just didn't include one with the car...

[beflat10r]

Worth piece of mind for me. Lame to sell a new car without a spare.

[JamesNoBrakes]

Originally Posted by Camaro1989

It's stupid that GM just didn't include one with the car...

But for what purpose? It'd be like running around with another whole battery in your trunk, "just in case" you get back to the car and the battery is dead. Can it happen? Sure. Is it likely? Not really, and you can get jumped, so it's not very practical to run around with an extra battery. Same thing with the tire, modern sealant works pretty darn well, I've used it more than once, for the type of punctures that are likely to require you to actually use the run-flat feature, but again, if you do, you often wipe-out the tire's sidewall, rather than just bringing your tire with sealant to the shop and getting the puncture plugged.

I think people are "conditioned" that a car should have a spare, but as far as actually using one, on a passenger car, I never have. Someone will always come into these threads and talk about the time they were driving along at 50mph and the front left tire hit an IED and blew apart on them, but again, modern steel-belted radials are very strong and unless you are taking tires out well past their wear limits, these types of events are so rare that I don't think it would ever justify having a spare.

In some applications, a spare makes some sense, but IME, not in this one.

[Camaro1989]

Originally Posted by JamesNoBrakes

But for what purpose? It'd be like running around with another whole battery in your trunk, "just in case" you get back to the car and the battery is dead. Can it happen? Sure. Is it likely? Not really, and you can get jumped, so it's not very practical to run around with an extra battery. Same thing with the tire, modern sealant works pretty darn well, I've used it more than once, for the type of punctures that are likely to require you to actually use the run-flat feature, but again, if you do, you often wipe-out the tire's sidewall, rather than just bringing your tire with sealant to the shop and getting the puncture plugged.

I think people are "conditioned" that a car should have a spare, but as far as actually using one, on a passenger car, I never have. Someone will always come into these threads and talk about the time they were driving along at 50mph and the front left tire hit an IED and blew apart on them, but again, modern steel-belted radials are very strong and unless you are taking tires out well past their wear limits, these types of events are so rare that I don't think it would ever justify having a spare.

In some applications, a spare makes some sense, but IME, not in this one.

I think that comparing it to a spare battery isn't a very fair comparison. Jumper cables maybe, but not a spare battery.

I can't remember where it is, but I read somewhere that AAA recommends that you get a spare tire if your car doesn't have one. When I looked for it in google this came up "In 2016 alone, AAA rescued more than 450,000 members who had a flat tire, but were in a car that didn’t have a spare."

I don't think that people are conditioned to have a spare, it seems that it happens more often than you would think. Again, I might be biased because I have had to use a spare in the past. I don't plan on getting another flat, but it would be good for me to have peace of mind that I won't be screwed if I do.

[Chevyman2]

Group buy maybe cut us break?

[JamesNoBrakes]

Originally Posted by Camaro1989

I can't remember where it is, but I read somewhere that AAA recommends that you get a spare tire if your car doesn't have one. When I looked for it in google this came up "In 2016 alone, AAA rescued more than 450,000 members who had a flat tire, but were in a car that didn’t have a spare."

Data like that is meaningless though unless we can understand it better. How many of those were in an RV? How many of those were towing something? How many of those were tires that were already worn to limits? How many were easily fixable with a pump or pump+sealant? AAA making an overall recommendation like that based on overall data is fine, but does it apply to you and me? That's not necessarily the same answer. AAA probably doesn't recommend a Camaro SS either, but it's a reasonable compromise for me. Jumper cables would be more like the sealant/pump kit to me, because they may work, or there might not be a vehicle to jump from. A spare battery though would be a nearly 100% fix to the issue, and car batteries do go dead (I had one on a different car last week). There are other things you can do with battery maintainers and so on, but again, for most people, this just isn't necessary.

I can see the run-flat thing being a little more realistic, for some people who don't want to fuss with changing a tire or a sealant kit, but for the spare, I'm perfectly happy to keep that to after-market like pictured above. It's dead weight and when you really think about it, there are a lot of things that you "might need" that you can rationalize as "I'd rather have it and not need it", but we don't seem to apply our own rules to these other situations. Blankets, gloves, extra food, extra water, extra washer fluid, fuses, wrenches, first aid kit, fire extinguisher, flashlights, would probably be far more important and likely to be used before a spare-tire these days, yet do we carry all of these items in our car? Maybe a few? You could probably make quite the list of other items likely to be used before a spare tire. Do we make this list based on realistic probabilities, or based on what "feels good"? I'm not providing any answers, just more questions, questions that don't necessary have a "right" or "wrong" answer.