a coworker of mine used to work at the gm proving grounds and his job was driving at different speeds with the donut spare on the vehicle until the donut blew, then they would send it out for inspection.

he said one of the tires lasted for 2 hours at 75 mph in 100° heat

 

sounds interesting but i still prefer my full size spare

 

What about all the others?

I wouldn't want to risk my family's safety on a freakishly durable temp spare...

 

couldn't they have just put a normal tire on it from the tire shop,and waited until they got back home to get a run flat tire put back on,and maybe not have had to stay the night?

 

there should be a warning system that tire pressure is low...did this person ignore it...and how many miles does it take running flat before the tire comes apart?

 

As per bridgestone's website they will go up to 50 miles at speeds up to 50 MPH.

 

wonder how many tire shops they passed in 50 miles...

 

There were several tire dealers along the way. However no one with in 60 miles of where I picked them up had a replacement for the OEM.
The Firestone dealer had one brought in from the warehouse the next morning. 68 miles from the warehouse to the tire shop.

 

Because standard tires are stocked at more locations. And, in reality, those temp spares are able to go much further than 50 miles, especially on the rear axle of a typical FWD car, where the load is light.

None of the cars in the family "fleet" currently have temp spares. The Ghia, 325i and Camry passenger cars came with full-size spares. Trucks either come with full-size spares, or none at all ("Work Truck" package fleet models).

Jim

 

Thanks, Jim, for clearing that up!

Shorebird, any idea how long these folks drove on that flat tire before it shredded?

 

thats easy...you don't have to get your yuppie azz out of the car to install a run flat tire!

 

No I don't know. They said that they stopped because of the vibration of the wheel. I honestly think that they would have driven on to Houston with it flat. I believe that they did not know that the tire had a limit.

 

Now you know they cant put spares in cars anymore because they need to make room for air bags. Safety first! I worked at Honda for a year (dont blame me, I just took work where I could get it) and many people would come in with their Odyssey vans and buy 4 new wheels and 4 new tires to replace the run flats. I dont know why they wouldnt just buy one with regular tires anyhow. TPMS is the stupidest thing ever and that fix-a-flat stuff is horrible! It makes a huge mess. I hated fixing tires with that in em.

 

The problems I have with the run-flat tires:

Stupid people think you can drive forever on them. They don't know that you can only go 50 miles @ 50 MPH on them. People assume they are indestructible.

You can drive further on a donut spare than you can on a run-flat. A donut spare is rated at the same as a run-flat, but normally won't start to shred until much longer. After that 50 miles on a run-flat, your time is very limited. The other year I drove for four days on a donut spare because it was the Thanksgiving holiday and the only place that could get me a tire for my Mazda couldn't get it until Monday.

Nobody keeps run-flats in stock. It is almost impossible to find one at a tire shop. And they normally have only one or two in stock at a time if they do, so I sure hope I don't run over a board with nails in it or a bunch of glass with run-flats.

To go from run-flats to normal tires takes more than just new tires and/or rims. You have to change out your suspension because run-flats are stiffer than normal tires and to change to normal tires totally changes the way your vehicle rides.

 

the only thing i own that does not have a full size spare is my capri, a 245/45r16 doesn't exactly fit well in the spare tire well...

i would probably be ok with run flats as long as i had the cash for them and had a AAA membership or something.

I had a 91 crown vic a while back, total beater. always wanted to but donuts on all four corners and find an empty parking lot...