[aaaaaaaaaz]

For people with cars without spare tire option, especially PHEV that cannot option with spare, what would you do on roadtrip?

- Do you carry an after-market spare tire solution like modernspare? Where do you store it?

- Do you carry a tire repair kit?

- Do you keep RFT or get rid of the RFT?

- Do you rely on roadside emergency service to tow the car? What plan/service do you use? AAA? BMW? thru insurance?

- When things go wrong and tire need to be replaced, how hard it is to find a suitable tire? Would a RFT make it much harder to find / take longer time to order than non-RFT counterpart?

[LDT]

Originally Posted by alanzyy

For people with cars without spare tire option, especially PHEV that cannot option with spare, what would you do on roadtrip?

- Do you carry an after-market spare tire solution like modernspare? Where do you store it?

- Do you carry a tire repair kit?

- Do you keep RFT or get rid of the RFT?

- Do you rely on roadside emergency service to tow the car? What plan/service do you use? AAA? BMW? thru insurance?

- When things go wrong and tire need to be replaced, how hard it is to find a suitable tire?

Interesting question. I’d stick with RFT. You have BMW roadside assistance and they use the same service providers as AAA. Getting a new tire depends on where you are at the time. Metro areas that have a BMW dealer should be much quicker (perhaps in stock) than if you’re in Podunk, Iowa where Joe Blow's tire shop will have to order one from his supplier which can take 2 or 3 days.
If you go to non RFT, personally I’d bite the bullet and carry a spare. Don’t forget the jack. www.bimmerzone.com sells the OEM space saver spare. Perhaps there are more compact spares out there but I don’t know. If you have a hitch you can put stuff in a cargo “basket”.

[Gene Horr]

Originally Posted by alanzyy

For people with cars without spare tire option, especially PHEV that cannot option with spare, what would you do on roadtrip?

- Do you carry an after-market spare tire solution like modernspare? Where do you store it?

- Do you carry a tire repair kit?

- Do you keep RFT or get rid of the RFT?

- Do you rely on roadside emergency service to tow the car? What plan/service do you use? AAA? BMW? thru insurance?

- When things go wrong and tire need to be replaced, how hard it is to find a suitable tire?

I stopped carrying a spare about 10 years ago. I have Michelins on everything from extremely light econoboxes to a 15 ton RV and drive between 15k - 20k miles a year.

Flats really aren't a problem in my experience. If you do pick up a nail the leak is so slow that the TPMS almost all of the time reports the problem with plenty of time to reach a repair center. The rare times you get something serious there's always AAA or the manufacturer's service.

Carrying a 12V compressor is good, cheap insurance. If you want to go that extra step then add a plug kit to that (but also have some soap and water mix to help find the leak).

If you are going off roading that's a different story. But on the highway? Meh.

[David3]

I stay with RFT or RFT light (Dunlop Driveguard). I carry a tire repair kit which includes a compressor. I figure once the tire goes flat, it is ruined (even though it is RFT), so plugging it won't matter and will get me to my destination. I stay with RFT because my wife frequently drives the car and she will not know how to do any temporary repairs, nor should she have to.

[nZtiZia]

you’ll get different recommendations because everyone’s experiences are different. while leaks from nail punctures are most common, not all are slow and one still can’t rule out a complete blow out which has happened twice for us: once on two different bimmers; one was local while the other was during a road trip. an air compressor or tire repair kit won’t do diddly.

RFTs allowed us to roll away to safety and drive several miles to the service centers

[bono]

I get rid of fun flats when the first set is done. I do not see any value of having run flats. If I have puncture and the air is coming out fast, I prefer to use spare to get to the tire shop. I prefer to pay $20 for the puncture repair than $500 for a new tire, since I would ruin run flat going on low pressure. If the air is not going out that fast, you can use air compressor to add the air, regardless whether this is run flat or not.

I am frequently going camping in national parks (remote places) and skiing (eastern sierra), where there is no service for up to 100-150 miles. If somebody is driving only in the city, maybe run flat makes sense, as you can quickly get to the repair shop... to pay $500 for a new tire.

With the 50e coming, I need to figure out the setup, but probably I will just put the spare in the back in the cargo area. Another reason to convince family to carry less junk.

[eelnoraa]

I am keeping the run flat this time. It is a family car. The last thing I want is wife and kids get stranded. In fact, I don’t even want wife to replace spare. On road trip, I bring air pump and fix kit.

[jad03060]

So far, all of the flats I've had in over 50-years of driving, have been from punctures that created slow leaks. Well, I cracked a rim once, but it, too, was a slow leak. Before TPMS, depending on the road, you may not have noticed right away, but today, with TPMS pretty much universal (assuming they've been initialized properly!), you have enough time to pull over when it's safe, put some air in, and get to a place where a proper repair can be done. I carry a puncture repair kit (plug) and compressor...I treat a plugged tire as a temporary repair, as the right way for a long-term repair is from the inside with a plug-patch, and you're not going to do that on the road.

The advantage of a RFT in this situation is, if you can't pump it back up, you're still likely to be able to safely get to somewhere where it is safe, if required.

Yes, if say your sidewall gets torn, or you slice it really bad, a patch or compressor won't help, but so far, maybe I've been lucky, that's never happened to me. Now, if I were boondocking, I'd want probably more than one spare, and for them to be full-sized. Different circumstances than most people's needs.

[streborx]

Road trips present an interesting challenge, even with runflats and a donut spare backup. If you have a donut spare, or are considering acquiring one, do a trial run tire change-out in your driveway with the scissor jack. Pulling a wheel, making room for it and lifting it into your boot, and getting the spare mounted/bolted on isn't a chore for folks with weak arms or bad backs. If you decide tire changing is not for you, go the road side assistance route, or rely on the runflat to get you to the nearest tire dealer.

[bono]

Road assistance can change the tire for you. I would not expect my wife to do this, but I won't let her to drive with zero pressure to ruin the tire

[MassWholeBimmer]

Originally Posted by nZtiZia

....you’ll get different recommendations because everyone’s experiences are different. ...

Exactly. I'm 64 years old and have logged around 1 million miles in my life... And I've gotten maybe 3 flats in all my driving. (Nocking on wood). For me, RFlats are fine (not considering debates about ride handing, etc). If I was doing a lot of driving in remote locations where help and service is few and far between, that may sway my decision whether to keep a spare or not. Otherwise, run flats, and maybe a can of "fix a flat" in a can just in case, suffice for me.

[aaaaaaaaaz]

Originally Posted by streborx

Road trips present an interesting challenge, even with runflats and a donut spare backup. If you have a donut spare, or are considering acquiring one, do a trial run tire change-out in your driveway with the scissor jack. Pulling a wheel, making room for it and lifting it into your boot, and getting the spare mounted/bolted on isn't a chore for folks with weak arms or bad backs. If you decide tire changing is not for you, go the road side assistance route, or rely on the runflat to get you to the nearest tire dealer.

I don't know if I am wrong or not, but I think getting help to change spare tire is not very hard - there is roadside service everywhere and changing spare tire is usually covered in even most basic plan.

The major concern is to replace the tire when away from home - last time my friend had a Macan tire completely damaged on curb in Reno during a skiing trip, it took almost a week for Discount tire to get the tire on hand and replace. We had to abandon the car at the tire shop and rent a car home and come back. Seems this is something quite unavoidable with any set up (except full size spare) so far.

[drich]

There are several places that sell a spare tire kit for BMW X5, modernspare.com and sparetire.com. I don't like run flats myself because they can't be repaired most of the time especially if they been run on with no air. If the tread depth is over 3/32 difference all tires need to be replaced on a AWD car. Normal tires are also much cheaper to replace and usually are quieter. on a road trip if you have a flat it's at a very inconvenient place or time. So I carry a spare on those occasions.

[Paul100]

I'm actually sort of impressed with the run flats on my 50e. Last night car alongside me hit something and shot it across into my lane, I thought it was a large rock, couldn't avoid it. I felt it in the steering wheel, monitored the air pressures the rest of the way home, about 10 miles with no issues. Got home parked in the garage got out and checked the front tire no problems, went to walk around the car to go into the house and was like WTF, apparently I hit whatever it was with the back driver's side tire. Dealership is about 35 miles away, they said they have the tire in stock and if I drop the car off (they would not let me bring in just the tire) by 9:30 in the morning they should have the tire replaced by the end of the day for only 508 dollars. Made a point of saying that the tire was not covered by Pirelli warranty, but the replacement one would be. Thats not how I read the Pirelli warranty papers that came with the car but.... Local tire shop, who is a Pirelli authorized dealer, doesn't have the tire nor does their distributor. Talked to Discount Tire close to my work and they said they can get the tire tomorrow, so I will be waiting for a call from them tomorrow. They are trying the "oh its all-wheel drive if you don't replace both rear tires there could be transfer case issues". I seriously doubt that there would be enough difference in diameter with only 1806 miles on the car.

[Guy Fleegman]

I have never in my life had a flat tire on a road trip. I'm 73. But that's no guarantee, only an indication of the odds. I think about it every time I get out on the country roads. But consider that a donut spare also has a very limited speed and distance life, and it has been decades since I've owned a car with a full-size spare.

So it's a risk either way and the main concern becomes replacement availability. From comments on this forum, your odds are better if you have the more widely-used sizes (19-20").

[915M]

I got a glass piece in my rear 21" tire and it had rapid leak.
Run flat managed to get to the dealership but they did not have the tire in stock(They said it is pretty rare size so they don't have it in stock). I visited other tire places but they did not have any 315/35/21 in stock.
Also it was not point puncture but line puncture so it could not be plugged.

After this, I bought a spare tire

[nZtiZia]

Originally Posted by 915M

I got a glass piece in my rear 21" tire and it had rapid leak.
Run flat managed to get to the dealership but they did not have the tire in stock(They said it is pretty rare size so they don't have it in stock). I visited other tire places but they did not have any 315/35/21 in stock.
Also it was not point puncture but line puncture so it could not be plugged.

After this, I bought a spare tire

when my wife’s tire blew out, the dealership also didn’t have the RFT in stock but they did have a non-RFT in the same size, so I asked them to mount that one. the RFT showed up a week later; we kept the non-RFT as a spare

[dream54ing]

Originally Posted by eelnoraa

I am keeping the run flat this time. It is a family car. The last thing I want is wife and kids get stranded. In fact, I don’t even want wife to replace spare. On road trip, I bring air pump and fix kit.

Exactly this! We go on road trips quite a bit and last thing i want is to be stranded in the middle of no where.

- Do you carry an after-market spare tire solution like modernspare? Where do you store it? we have the oem spare, but even if we dont have one, we would not have the room for a aftermarket spare which will have to go in the back. (road trips with kids, our roof cargo and back is packed)

- Do you carry a tire repair kit? yes, a portable air pump and a bottle green slime tire repair. Both cheap and small enough to carry with.

- Do you keep RFT or get rid of the RFT? we keep our RFT for summer set and also have a set of non RFT for winters. would not get rid of RFT as it drives pretty smooth, ime. plus RFT is an added insurance if we do get a flat

- Do you rely on roadside emergency service to tow the car? What plan/service do you use? AAA? BMW? thru insurance? as last resort, wouldnt want to wait for hours with kids if we are stranded in the middle of no where .. .my brother was in similar situation in the middle of the night and waited 6 hrs for a tow truck and another 4 hrs to be towed to the closest town. it was a nightmare, literately

- When things go wrong and tire need to be replaced, how hard it is to find a suitable tire? Would a RFT make it much harder to find / take longer time to order than non-RFT counterpart? never had issues getting replacement on either set in Arizona, but not sure of other part of the country

[aaaaaaaaaz]

Have anyone considered a full size spare? Would that be excessive?

AFAIK, most tire shop no longer stock a large variety of tires on site; they order thru the supply system which in most case take between half to one day to arrive for common tire size. For tire size that is more rare, it would take at least two to three days to get one delivered thru the supply chain.

Anyone know if bmw dealership tends to stock common X5 20” tire size? Common by BMW standards (as x5 is one of most sold bmw) but definitely not that common for tire shop (not at Tesla / Toyota level) to keep stock of such tires.

[eelnoraa]

Originally Posted by alanzyy

Have anyone considered a full size spare? Would that be excessive?

AFAIK, most tire shop no longer stock a large variety of tires on site; they order thru the supply system which in most case take between half to one day to arrive for common tire size. For tire size that is more rare, it would take at least two to three days to get one delivered thru the supply chain.

Anyone know if bmw dealership tends to stock common X5 20” tire size? Common by BMW standards (as x5 is one of most sold bmw) but definitely not that common for tire shop (not at Tesla / Toyota level) to keep stock of such tires.

Need a plan to carry. Trunk will be mostly occupied if you just throw in there. I have seen one member with a hitch mount spare holder. It is a good solution if I am driving across the country. Probably too much trouble for a weekend trip with civilization nearby

[915M]

Originally Posted by alanzyy

Have anyone considered a full size spare? Would that be excessive?

Full size would take almost double volume compare to the spare tire(155/80/19) so it is not convenient to carry all the time.

However, spare tire diameter is smaller(3%) than stock tire so you can not drive long distance with it.

So it will depend on where you are going.

[LDT]

Originally Posted by alanzyy

Have anyone considered a full size spare? Would that be excessive?

Is there a chance we are overthinking this a bit?