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So many flats....
- Thread starter DartScott180
- Start date
Entire thread here. Company contact info inside it... I made the thread with an unbiased opinion because I didn't know how they were going to be, and I don't have any affiliation with the company. Few other people have ordered and posted in there as well already. For these in the 18's that I ordered, they are 17.8 lb each on my scale, so they're light as hell.
Custom monoblock forged wheels Info
Get yourself a good plug kit, and watch a couple of YouTube videos on how to use it.
Then equip your car with:
1. An electric tire inflator
2. A good plug kit
3. Some side cutters
4. Needle nose pliers
5. A tube of rubber cement (use this to lubricate the plug to make for amazingly easy plug insertion)
6. Cheap pair of garden gloves
I don't know how my wife does it, but she manages to get a flat tire at least twice a year. I average one per year. No idea what it is about the area that we've lived for the last 30 years, but flats happen a lot around here.
Anyway, plugs are considered to be a permanent repair. I've been using them for 40 years now, and have never had a problem with a tire I've plugged not lasting until it was down to the wear limits.
Plugs are much more reliable than tire slime or goop, don't unbalance your tires like the aforementioned products can, are a permanent repair, and easily done on the side of the road. You don't even need to jack your car up to plug a tire.
Also keep in mind that tire slime/goop won't work on the stock tires, as they have a layer of sound absorbing foam on the interior, which prevents the goop/slime from reaching the hole in the tire.
I agree with all you said, except this ... a plug is only considered a permanent repair combined with a patch on the inside ... Now I'll grant you the first two links are kinda the fox-guarding-the-henhouse (the guys who sell new tires...) But the third is the NHTSA itself.
Tire Repair Basics
Tire Repair
Tire Safety, Brochure (DOT HS 809 361 October 2001)
(And yes - in a practical sense, the plugs are of course just fine .... but just pointing out the manufacturers and the NHTSA only consider the belt-n-suspenders approach permanent. I travel with an inflator & plug kit with tools exactly as you recommend!)
nocelldontcall
Member
Keep a plug kit in the trunk. I've had my 3 since April 2019. 5 flat tires later I finally replaced 1 tire. The other 3 are still running after almost 40,000 miles with several plugs installed
I'm sure it has absolutely nothing to do with the horrendous quality of the roads in NJ.....plus a little bad luck.
Best,
The "ancestral family business" was an auto repair shop/gas station/inspection station in NY that we opened in the 1930's and shut down about 15 years ago. I worked there many days after school, weekends, vacations, summers, etc. My father did the same. I have probably plugged thousands of tires and my father and grandfather likely did the same. Not only did I never experience one of these coming back myself, but can't recall my dad or grandfather mentioning one coming back either. I have never used a plug in conjunction with a patch....just simple self vulcanizing plug with a simple rat tail rasp to clean out the hole prior to inserting it.
So while I find the recommendations on various web sites interesting, it doesn't jibe with my actual "boots on the ground" experience. Personally, I just keep a plug kit, a pair of diagonal cutting pliers to remove screws/nails, and a small portable air compressor ($20-30 at your local Walmart) in the car and don't worry too much about it. Tire punctures are a fact of life.
Best,
Sorry to hear your family business closed - we need more small family businesses in the US..... </rant over>
On the tire front, I agree with you - never seen a plug fail if done right. And like you said, I keep a plug kit with a couple small tools in the car, and an air compressor. It's a perfectly fine method. I was just pointing out that the NHTSA and the "industry" as it were don't consider a tire fully repaired unless it has a plug+patch. I think it's overkill, personally, but I'm sure there's a horde of lawyers out there that disagree with all of us .... just wanted to point out what their stance is, not that I agree with it.
MXLRplus
Active Member
Most EVs use LLR (Low Rolling Resistance) or Eco tires. These have less protection and thickness in the plies. A screw that was only 0.375" depth punctured a then new tire on our Tesla. These kinds of sheet metal screws have no effect on our non-LLR tires. We saw the same thing with other LLR tires on our other cars.
Plugs: I've installed many of them, certainly over two dozen. I've never had a single one fail. However, not everybody is strong enough to install one. This might sound insane, but a 1/8" drill can help. Also, using rubber cement as a lubricant makes it easier. If you are good with tools, you can also use the weight of the car to install a plug. This is dangerous if not done right.
Needle Nose ViseGrips are very handy for removing nails where the head is small or missing. A utility knife can help remove rubber from around the head of the nail and also cuts the new plug flush with the tire.
Did you know you can display your tire pressure constantly while driving? This is a good idea for long trips. Most flats give you lots of warning.
Plugs: I've installed many of them, certainly over two dozen. I've never had a single one fail. However, not everybody is strong enough to install one. This might sound insane, but a 1/8" drill can help. Also, using rubber cement as a lubricant makes it easier. If you are good with tools, you can also use the weight of the car to install a plug. This is dangerous if not done right.
Needle Nose ViseGrips are very handy for removing nails where the head is small or missing. A utility knife can help remove rubber from around the head of the nail and also cuts the new plug flush with the tire.
Did you know you can display your tire pressure constantly while driving? This is a good idea for long trips. Most flats give you lots of warning.
No worries. My dad wanted to retire and it was hard to justify me giving up a senior exec position at a Fortune 10 company to run the family business. It's also one of those businesses where it isn't very profitable to be an absentee owner. So we sold it instead.
Best,
Interesting. When my stock tires are worn out, I don't intend to replace them with LRR tires. I am completely fine with a vanishingly small reduction in efficiency to get a larger contact patch on the ground.
Best,
Try 9 tires in 15 months. Had it with this car. Cannot wait till I return it.
3400 miles on my M3P still on factory Pirelli PZero's and i literally replaced one due to a big screw this morning.
Ran me $488
I too will go broke on tires if this keeps happening.
I've probably had about 8 nails (never causing a blowout) over 19 years of driving.
Ran me $488
I too will go broke on tires if this keeps happening.
I've probably had about 8 nails (never causing a blowout) over 19 years of driving.
MasterC17
Active Member
I'm sorry but tire punctures come down strictly to luck. There is nothing about a Tesla or the tires on it that are more or less susceptible to a puncture. If you run over a nail/screw it's probably going in the tire, whether it's a Tesla or a Ford or a BMW.
MLXXXp
Member
The relatively high inflation pressure of Tesla tires, thus the amount of weight on any part of the contact patch, could have an influence on whether an object punctures the tire, compared to a tire with a lower PSI under the same circumstances.
Lower pressure is way more vulnerable to pothole and curb damage. A puncture can often be repaired, pothole damage is almost always non-repairable and you might damage the wheel as well. Almost all of the flat protection is provided by the steel belts. The tire's PSI will have a very minor effect. Some tires do have more penetration resistant belts than others.
I love hearing all the cute things these "pros" come up with. LOL, somehow if a car is 500lbs less, a sharp object won't be able puncture through a tire even though it still weighs 3500lbs?
My last 2 cars were Jaguar XF's with 19" rims and they each weighed more than my Model 3, and they didn't have any issue with punctures for the 9 years we had those great cars. So there goes that guys theory.
I'm at 15,000 miles and I'm driving on some of the roads of NY. I've had no flats.
I did have a screw in my tire. I pulled it out and plugged it myself.
I'm on OEM 18s.
I did have a screw in my tire. I pulled it out and plugged it myself.
I'm on OEM 18s.
StealthP3D
Well-Known Member
Tire pressure does impact susceptibility but not in the way many imagine. Higher pressure is more puncture resistant. Before you say "whoa, that can't be right", hear me out.
If you run over a board with a screw or nail sticking straight up, it's probably going to puncture the tire regardless of your pressure. But there are many more loose screws and nails on the road than ones sticking up through boards. And I avoid running over ANY board, no matter how harmless looking, because you never know if it will have a staple, nail or screw sticking up through it. My eyes are simply not up to the task of seeing nails at speeds above 35 mph or so.
The most common kind of punctures I've seen are slow leaks with the screw or nail stuck in the tread. This implies it probably wasn't in a board, it was laying loose on the road. You might wonder how it gets stuck in the tire if it's laying flat on the road? Sometimes the front tire (or the car in front) hits it first and throws it up. Then, your car's tire hits it at just the right angle to capture it between the tread and the road such that it punctures the tire. A soft tire is much more susceptible to this because a well inflated tire is more likely to cause it to "skid" on the road surface back into a harmless flat position. A low inflation pressure tire is also more likely to kick up the threat from a harmless position to a threatening position.
It's also possible for the tire that is punctured to be the one that levers the screw or nail up from parallel with the road surface when a tread block or groove hits the head of the screw or nail just right and there is a void in the tread pattern that allows the point to rotate up into the tire where it can pierce it. This kind of flat is also more likely with low inflation pressures. Hard tires tend to skid the thread away, not capture it.
So, low inflation pressures create more flat tires due to pinched sidewalls from potholes and road debris as well as puncture flats. Low pressures also cause the rubber to run warmer where it is also more susceptible to flats via all three methods (pinched sidewalls, punctures and blow-outs.).
The bottom line, don't set your tire pressure on the low end of acceptable and don't neglect them so long they get low on their own.
Remember, when the weather cools, it is necessary to add air to your tires to avoid all ktypes of flats. I maintain the tire pressures on both our Model 3's pretty religiously and after three years with both cars and multiple sets of tires we have had zero flats in 3 years and over 50K miles. Pressure must be set cold, before the car is driven even 1 mile.
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