More than one unrepairable punctured tyre?

[Alanymarce]

Has anyone ever had two tyres punctured and unrepairable on the same trip, so that two spares were actually necessary?

We’ve carried two spares on a couple of long trips, however have never actually needed more than one. On the two occasions we’ve experienced unrepairable punctures we switched to the spare and had other unrepairable puncture prior to getting to a place where we could buy a new tyre.

We now carry only one spare, and I’m wondering how many people have ever had to use both spares.

 

[El-Dracho]

Has anyone ever had two tyres punctured and unrepairable on the same trip, so that two spares were actually necessary?

We’ve carried two spares on a couple of long trips, however have never actually needed more than one. On the two occasions we’ve experienced unrepairable punctures we switched to the spare and had other unrepairable puncture prior to getting to a place where we could buy a new tyre.

We now carry only one spare, and I’m wondering how many people have ever had to use both spares.

Very similar experience here. On two trips over several months I had a full-size spare wheel and another tyre with me. But I never needed the second tyre. Since then, I've only taken one spare wheel with me and of course a tyre repair kit, spare and emergency valves, patches and an inner tube that I can put in if necessary in the event of major damage. Incidentally, the last puncture I had was on a dualsport bikeyears ago. But the tube or tyre is quickly patched with the appropriate equipment anyway and you can carry on.

 

[oneleglance]

Has anyone ever had two tyres punctured and unrepairable on the same trip, so that two spares were actually necessary?

We’ve carried two spares on a couple of long trips, however have never actually needed more than one. On the two occasions we’ve experienced unrepairable punctures we switched to the spare and had other unrepairable puncture prior to getting to a place where we could buy a new tyre.

We now carry only one spare, and I’m wondering how many people have ever had to use both spares.

Well I see you are in Columbia, so really only YOU can answer your question.
I have traveled some "remote" areas of the USA (Nevada has areas with a long long ways to a tire repair) and Mexico.
In all my years I have always been able to "repair" a tire, including sewing big slits down the sidewall. At least enough of a repair to get to some sort of professional.
I don't know Columbia (my wife is from Peru and some areas there you should have 2 spares if you use a tire very different from the locals)...but it sounds like you already know that 1 spare is enough.

 

[MOAK]

A long time ago I drug two spares around. No longer, the wheels&tires on the trailer match those on the 80. One spare is plenty. Worst case scenario would be moving both flats to the trailer, leaving the trailer and going to find two new tires.

 

[John and Mandi]

From our experience most only carry one spare when their tire size is somewhat available. Many trucks (MAN, Scania, etc) carry two spares but we have never heard of a double irreparable failure on any size rig. One truck owner told us they carry two because of how expensive their tires were, they flew (as checked luggage) a new set of six to S.A. from Europe when they were returning to their rig to resume their travels. We only carried one and have several friends that kept the best old tire as a sixth when buying new ones but none of them kept it very long, too much weight and space. With satellite communication and the number of travellers on the road today it makes more sense to carry more food and water to wait for the calvary if it is ever needed. The really gnarly remote stuff is usually run in groups, as it should be.

 

[Alanymarce]

Well I see you are in Columbia, so really only YOU can answer your question.
I have traveled some "remote" areas of the USA (Nevada has areas with a long long ways to a tire repair) and Mexico.
In all my years I have always been able to "repair" a tire, including sewing big slits down the sidewall. At least enough of a repair to get to some sort of professional.
I don't know Columbia (my wife is from Peru and some areas there you should have 2 spares if you use a tire very different from the locals)...but it sounds like you already know that 1 spare is enough.

I'm looking for global experience. I recognise that local road conditions are relevant, however I thought it woul;d be interesting to gather experience from everywhere. We've never had a puncture in ColOmbia; our only unrepairable punctures have been one in Australia and one in Bolivia. We've carried two spares in NW Australia (Government advice for the GRR) and didn't need the second, and in Africa (no punctures at all).

 

[Alanymarce]

From our experience most only carry one spare when their tire size is somewhat available. Many trucks (MAN, Scania, etc) carry two spares but we have never heard of a double irreparable failure on any size rig. One truck owner told us they carry two because of how expensive their tires were, they flew (as checked luggage) a new set of six to S.A. from Europe when they were returning to their rig to resume their travels. We only carried one and have several friends that kept the best old tire as a sixth when buying new ones but none of them kept it very long, too much weight and space. With satellite communication and the number of travellers on the road today it makes more sense to carry more food and water to wait for the calvary if it is ever needed. The really gnarly remote stuff is usually run in groups, as it should be.

Great - thank you!

 

[Alanymarce]

...but it sounds like you already know that 1 spare is enough.

PS: - I've reached that opinion, however want to challenge my conclusion - it's always good to listen to others.

 

[Alanymarce]

A long time ago I drug two spares around. No longer, the wheels&tires on the trailer match those on the 80. One spare is plenty. Worst case scenario would be moving both flats to the trailer, leaving the trailer and going to find two new tires.

Good thought - we never haul a trailer so had not thought of this, although we don't plan to do so in future so not really relevant to our situation. The point thought was to learn for others, so this is helpful.

 

[MOAK]

Good thought - we never haul a trailer so had not thought of this, although we don't plan to do so in future so not really relevant to our situation. The point thought was to learn for others, so this is helpful.

We’ve had the trailer ever since we began exploring really remote places. If no trailer? Different story- we were out & about in southern Utah a few years ago and a rookie driving his father’s 100 series, had sliced open both tires on the driver side - Yikes! Fortunately they had two spares, my help & my jack. Without the two spares, they were screwed as we were about 6 hours from the nearest tire shop. Then again, I’d of gotten us to camp, somehow, then picked one of the guys up the next morning, thrown the shattered tire on my rack and gotten him into town & back.

 

[Diamond_king999]

I had a similar experience on a road trip once. We were driving along and suddenly got a flat tire. We switched it out with the spare and continued on our way. But guess what? Just a few miles down the road, another tire blew out! It was such bad luck. We ended up having to use both spare tires before we could find a place to buy new ones. It was quite a hassle, but it taught me the importance of being prepared and having backups. So yeah, it's definitely possible to need two spares in some unfortunate situations. Stay safe out there on your trips!

 

[MidOH]

Get better tires.

Also a lightly loaded DRW truck doesn't need all 4 rear tires. So you have another free spare, or two. If you're a slide in camper guy, consider this. Yeah, you ain't putting 35" tires on a DRW. But do you need to?

It's also another reason to prefer tandem axle trailers. You can always remove a wheel and ratchet strap up one axle side.

I want at least one actual spare for truck, and one for trailer. But if I'm stuck with a trailer, I see absolutely no reason not to carry two trailer tires and one truck.

 

[MOAK]

Get better tires.

Also a lightly loaded DRW truck doesn't need all 4 rear tires. So you have another free spare, or two. If you're a slide in camper guy, consider this. Yeah, you ain't putting 35" tires on a DRW. But do you need to?

It's also another reason to prefer tandem axle trailers. You can always remove a wheel and ratchet strap up one axle side.

I want at least one actual spare for truck, and one for trailer. But if I'm stuck with a trailer, I see absolutely no reason not to carry two trailer tires and one truck.

I’ve looked into the sprinter type platforms and I’d never even consider one unless it was a dually. True about tandem axles- for livestock, utility & camper trailers, but for a 6’ expo trailer, not too practical, that’s why I always advise folks to have matching wheels & tires all the way around.

 

[Dave in AZ]

Interesting thread. I see I can buy an inner tube to fit my 265/70R16 tires, for $29. Would this be a good backup to carry for "unrepairable" sidewall issue? I figure a puncture in tread can be plugged, and a sidewall can be patched... even if a side patch won't hold pressure, it should be able to hold up with an inner tube temporarily installed?



I have a decent patch kit, but for $29 if a tube gets me an effective "2nd spare", why not carry one?

 

[bgenlvtex]

My truck and trailer both have the same size tire (35/10.50R17) although regrettably not the same bolt pattern wheel (despite me spec'ing the trailer with it)

I wouldn't carry two if i wasn't pulling the trailer, but I'm also not traveling in the third world in most cases.

 

[John and Mandi]

Something you already know, but others that may be planning a multi-year or multi-country trip that one day might read this may not, is to replace your tires sooner rather than later. We all like to stretch our money but replacing a set of tires that may have at least 5,000 miles on them is better than kicking yourself about not doing it while dealing with a problem tire on a trail or remote track. While we only had one tire failure over 100,000 miles, on a highway oddly enough, we did have a incident with our fridge that was entirely my fault for not taking the 10 minutes to check the mounting bolts. Fortunately no damage was done but staying on top of that preventative maintenance cannot be stressed enough. In the case of our fridge, I had tightening those bolts on my list for at least a year. I kept putting it off because it was a little inconvenient to do because part of our kitchen would need to be removed (which I intentionally made easy) but I just figured it was so unlikely to ever be a problem I kept putting it off. Murphy came a knocking on a true single track that had Mandi cradling the fridge on the floor while I crawled the van to the first sorta pullout to assess the situation. She was a great sport and didn't hammer me on not tightening those bolts. A couple was driving by and asked if we needed help, we didn't, but a few miles further (after we re-installed our fridge) we stopped to see if they needed help with a flat. They were good but we ended up plugging and airing their tire up in camp (small dead end parking area at a glacial lake in the Andes). He said they were buying new tires as soon as they went back down the mountain. They didn't look bad but he said he experienced a puncture on a different tire the week prior, thinking he may have left his repair kit along the road. We ran into them about a week later and they had 5 new tires and a pieced together repair kit. I would have guesstimated they had about 8k miles easy on their old tires but obviously that wasn't what they actually had based on the road conditions.

 

[Alanymarce]

We’ve had the trailer ever since we began exploring really remote places. If no trailer? Different story- we were out & about in southern Utah a few years ago and a rookie driving his father’s 100 series, had sliced open both tires on the driver side - Yikes! Fortunately they had two spares, my help & my jack. Without the two spares, they were screwed as we were about 6 hours from the nearest tire shop. Then again, I’d of gotten us to camp, somehow, then picked one of the guys up the next morning, thrown the shattered tire on my rack and gotten him into town & back.

Thanks - this is good insight. I know that one of the concerns in the African bush is tree stumps concealed in undergrowth, momentum can take you for enough to destroy both tyres on one side of the vehicle. Hasn't happedn to us (so far...).

 

[HighVoltOverland]

I am comfortable with only one spare but I also have multiple repair option for longer trips.
Personal experience, about 10 years ago I experienced a triple (!) failure on day 9 and 10 of a 15 day Baja trip.
Day 9, First puncture was easily plugged with some bacon strips.
second one was about an hour later and unfortunately was too close to the sidewall so swapped the full size spare.
Day 10 had a blowout on a third (not repaired from prior day) tire.
I was able to use my farm jack to break the bead on the cut tire, and do an internal patch. Rim went back on the spare mount and newly patched tire went back in duty with no issue
I made it back to CA and ultimately home without issue.
There is always the theoretical condition that you get simultaneous unrepairable failures, but you theoretically can have your rig blown up by a meteorite impact.
The only real benefit I would have with a second spare would be saving an hour or so to avoid repairing in the field.

For me, having the right tools, and knowing how to use them (practicing before go time is ideal) is going to be much more useful than trying to plan and carry everything for every possible contingency.

 

[Alanymarce]

I had a similar experience on a road trip once. We were driving along and suddenly got a flat tire. We switched it out with the spare and continued on our way. But guess what? Just a few miles down the road, another tire blew out! It was such bad luck. We ended up having to use both spare tires before we could find a place to buy new ones. It was quite a hassle, but it taught me the importance of being prepared and having backups. So yeah, it's definitely possible to need two spares in some unfortunate situations. Stay safe out there on your trips!

The worst we've experienced was two punctures in 13 km, on an unsurfaced "road" in Bolivia - we repaired the first and 13 km later another was destroyed, so we had to use the spare (all this in 42 deg C!).

 

[Alanymarce]

Get better tires.

Yes, this is a good starting point. I'm probably over-cautious with tyres - we had two punctures on the same tyre last year, one northbound on the Dempster, then other southbound about a week later. We replaced the tyre when we reached the next town with a tyre dealer - probably unnecessary, but I prefer to have no known weakness in the connection between the vehicle and the planet.