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Getting Tired - Spare Me

Norm Peterson

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there's 2 kits, one with gun, one with screw-ram. the gun is as big as your hand and faster to use but you need some decent hand strength. Strictly speaking the sticky-string kits are cheaper but unreliable. it's not uncommon for the strings to not seal right or to work loose and pull out.

I've used the mushroom kits for years.
Interesting. I suspect that getting the string lengths near-equal and pushing as much of them inside the tire as you dare to improves their reliability.


Norm
 

15GTPPinCO

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I would just get AAA and get towed. If a spare wheel and tire is $500, that's an AAA membership for like what 5 years? I just had my car towed on a flatbed, and even without AAA, it was only $140.

I haven't had a flat tire since literally 1997. Knock on wood.
 

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Robert3487

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there's 2 kits, one with gun, one with screw-ram. the gun is as big as your hand and faster to use but you need some decent hand strength. Strictly speaking the sticky-string kits are cheaper but unreliable. it's not uncommon for the strings to not seal right or to work loose and pull out.

I've used the mushroom kits for years.

Anytime I've had a tire plugged they used the little strand of rubber. Those mushroom plugs look like much higher quality since the tire pressure helps to keep pressure on the top of it for a tighter seal.
 

Sivi70980

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there's 2 kits, one with gun, one with screw-ram. the gun is as big as your hand and faster to use but you need some decent hand strength. Strictly speaking the sticky-string kits are cheaper but unreliable. it's not uncommon for the strings to not seal right or to work loose and pull out.

I've used the mushroom kits for years.
My one plug I personally did still hasn't failed. But I still think I may need to upgrade. Thank you!
 

dhborden

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I only saw a dinky funnel and can of slime stuff. Maybe I look again...
In the spare tire well. The compressor is sitting in the foam holder. The funnel is for fueling from a gas can since the no-cap fill tube won't stay open on it's own.
 

Strokerswild

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blowout.jpg


Here's why you want a real spare. My '07 GT500 was the first car I owned that had no factory spare, and this debacle led me to put one in every vehicle since that didn't come with one.

The so called mobility kit is a crock of shit.
 

GreenS550

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Spare is not needed. Flats are ultra rare on a newer performance car. I had a nail in my 2016 and with TPMS, you will know when it is low enough to be concerned. Blowouts almost never happen today.

Unless you have a pickup or off road SUV, I believe they are unnecessary weight and space.
 

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Sivi70980

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Spare is not needed. Flats are ultra rare on a newer performance car. I had a nail in my 2016 and with TPMS, you will know when it is low enough to be concerned. Blowouts almost never happen today.

Unless you have a pickup or off road SUV, I believe they are unnecessary weight and space.
I'm all for not having a spare and currently don't. But it's also untrue to 100% not need a spare. Plenty of crazy debris out there and Semi-trucks leave big chunks of tire everywhere always. Can't always avoid them.
 

Strokerswild

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Spare is not needed. Flats are ultra rare on a newer performance car. I had a nail in my 2016 and with TPMS, you will know when it is low enough to be concerned. Blowouts almost never happen today.

Unless you have a pickup or off road SUV, I believe they are unnecessary weight and space.
LOL, see my post above.

I had virtually no warning when the blowout happened. There was a vibration that came on quickly (highway speed), then it was like a shotgun blast in the back seat and the rubber debris flew. Random tire defect, massive sidewall failure, it wasn't caused by any road debris.

I've had two blowouts in my years of driving. The incident with my Shelby left me stranded for several hours on a brutally hot Sunday afternoon on a backroad, the other car had a spare and jack and I was back on the road in whatever time it took me to change a tire. Guess which scenario I prefer?
 

sk47

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Spare is not needed. Flats are ultra rare on a newer performance car. I had a nail in my 2016 and with TPMS, you will know when it is low enough to be concerned. Blowouts almost never happen today.

Unless you have a pickup or off road SUV, I believe they are unnecessary weight and space.
Hello; I still get flat tires. So do my neighbors. Blowouts do happen. Believe what you want.

I can sort of see sports cars with little space maybe not having a spare.
 

D Bergstrom

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I bought the Automotive Authority spare years ago, shortly after I bought my 2017 GT. (Took it with me when I traded the 2017 in and now its in my 2020 GT.) Was driving to work one morning a couple of months after I bought the 2017. Saw a guy on the side of the road sitting on the concrete barrier rail next to his mustang that had a flat tire, he looked thrilled to be there. Nope, not going to happen to me, bought the AA spare that night when I got home.

So AAA membership may work fine for a tow when you are near home, but I still bet you are going to wait at least an hour for that tow. Been probably 20 years since I was a AAA member, but at that time, they would only tow a certain distance for free before they would charge you, maybe 15 or 20 miles? What if you are on a road trip and out in the middle of nowhere, 100 miles from the nearest town? Bet you will be there for hours. Then if you get towed to the closest town that is near, what are the chances they will have a tire that fits my car? Even if they did, what's that small town shop going to charge me for it?

$500 was a small price to pay to be in control of my own destiny. Would do it again in a heart beat, even though chances are it will sit in the spare tire well unused for its entire life. Besides, I spent over 50k on just the car, plus how many more thousands on mods, whats another $500? I want that piece of mind. I would probably pay even more than $500 if I had to....

Doug
 

Norm Peterson

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Spare is not needed. Flats are ultra rare on a newer performance car. I had a nail in my 2016 and with TPMS, you will know when it is low enough to be concerned. Blowouts almost never happen today.
As long as I am physically capable of changing to the spare, I'm going to rely on me rather than somebody else and whatever else might be on their schedule.

I've had blowouts and even cut down a tire or two over the years . . . and I've probably made over a dozen plug repairs, some requiring the use of the spare to get me home to fix the puncture.

Cut-down tire souvenir.jpg



Unless you have a pickup or off road SUV, I believe they are unnecessary weight and space.
50, even 65 lbs out of well over 3500 (including driver) isn't enough to ever worry about. At the track/dragstrip/autocross where you're chasing max performance, you're going to take it and any other loose stuff out anyway.


Norm
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