You cant even find or want a repair shop for a run flat in the middle of no where and you don't want to drive 50mph on I 80 where the limit is 80mph.

 

well most of us agree on one thing.....arm yourself

choice of weapon is up to you

 

Wow! Things kinda shifted...my Kimber is my favorite also

 

Mine is a long road trip vette, and daily driver in the summer months. I hated the RF's for reasons already posted, so I opted for the Firestone WO Indy 500's, and now on my second set of those.
I carry a compressor, can of goop, a patch kit, and have On-star so they can they can send a tow truck if I ever get that desperate...
BTW, on long road trips, I never drive at night, so even if I have a blow-out, which is about as rare as hen's teeth, then I'll dial OnStar and they will send a tow.
Most times, the DIC will let me know when I've picked up a nail or screw, and I can fix that in the hotel parking lot.

 

Remember, you have NO spare (nor room for one).
I would go with the run flats.

 

Well the reason why, is because with the development of the C5 and the use of different wheel and tire sizes the run flats were the ideal tire to use. It also save space that would have been taken up with the spare tire as well as the jack.
I am not 100% sure that the performance is all that great with the standard GY run flats either and the life of the tire is poor.

 

The run flats make life easier. If you are far from home and the leak is a slow leak you can extend your driving range considerably by stopping every now and then and adding air. If the tire won't hold air and is probably ruined due to the puncture just keep driving it until you get someplace where you can replace it.

I thought about carrying a kit like I had in the C5Z but then the guy who purchased the car from me had a flat tire about 100 miles from home. He went over a railroad track and the car felt like it had a flat right rear so he slowly drove to a safe place to get off the road (about 600 ft). The stock C5Z plug kit worked fine plugging the tire and inflating it, however, when he started driving the car it didn't feel stable. After getting the tire towed to a Firestone store (it had WOs installed) they found the rim had cut the inside of the tire and it wasn't safe to drive with that tire. If run flats had been installed he could have gotten the car home without staying over night and all the other hassles.

The other thing I thought about is how much clearance do you have to stick a plug in a C6Z rear tire??? Not much. Basically, you need to get the hole located at the rear of the tire, lie down alongside the car and somehow work on your side in about 8 inches of vertical space. If it is the left side tire and you are along a busy highway it probably isn't the safest thing to be doing unless you want to become road kill. Throw in a dark rainy night and it becomes even more exciting and messy.

Bill

 

I went through the same as you, run flat vs. non run flat. I just switched out the Goodyear Run Craps for a complete set of Firestone Wide Oval Run Flats. I could not be happier with my choice.

The Firestone run flats are a great tire value for the price. The ride, handling, and noise level is much better vs. the Goodyear in my opinion. My 2008 Coupe is so quiet now and it rides like a new car. Plus, you get the protection of a run flat.

Good Luck

 

Be wise get the run flats for piece of mind.

 

You know they're ruined in about 10 miles, and collapse with less than 50, right? . And also that VERY few tire shops can actually work on RFs with such low profile, and basically NONE will have a Vette tire in stock, right? So unless you work in the bronx at night, RFs are useless IMO (especially on the open road). You need to treat them like a regular tire, meaning you need to patch it as soon as you get the TPMS warning. Most RF owners are ill-informed about RF tires... and that can even be dangerous.

I have personally tried a 7-yr-old 'Stop'n Go' kit and worked flawlessly. If you have those 'goo' kits, they dry out in less than a year, so don't think you'll be safe if you have one of those. I also understand it'd be a PITA to find the puncture, so besides an electric compressor, I carry a BMW jack kit that fits perfectly behind the passenger seat, so I could remove the tire and do the job more comfortably. Needless to say, as soon as the G:2s are done, am switching to cheaper, better (in the wet), lighter, quieter, grippier, and longer-lasting Michelin Pilot Super Sports on the GS . Plus you can permanently fix them at a ton more tire shops than an RF. But to each his own .

 

Wow -
Anyone that tells me their first line of defense is a tow truck
I cease to regard as credible. Please post up after getting
a flat in west texas and having no cel phone connection or...
after watching Bubba load your car on a flat bed or...
standing there watching your car get towed off to an address
that you have no idea of the whereabouts.

All I gotta say is you guys crack me up.

 

Wow, so many errors in one paragraph:

Runflats are seldom ruined by driving 10 miles, our 2009 Owner Manual says your best chance for repair is with less than 25 miles flat. I'm sure that a few have been ruined with less than 25 miles, but all the unrepairable runflats I've heard of in our club were caused by the same things that would preclude repair of any tire- the puncture was too big, too long, or outside of the center tread area. No one in our club has mentioned ruining a runflat by driving too far, the one I have actual numbers for went 15+ miles flat and would have been fully repairable except it was a cut instead of a simple hole. Without runflats, he would have been sitting by the side of the road in the boonies, waiting for a flatbed to show up some day. With runflats, he drove to the next town and had a new tire the next morning, he could have driven several hours home if he'd wanted to.

They don't "collapse with less than 50", I asked the "How Far on a Flat Runflat" question here last year; none of the people who responded had stopped because they were forced to, the longest distance flat was over 700 miles and he only stopped because he arrived at home:

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c6-c...t-runflat.html

Within a 10 mile drive of my house, there are five shops that I can name offhand that can and do work on Corvette runflats. Based on the "How Far" distances in that thread, I don't think there is a place in the USA where your runflat wouldn't get you to a good tire shop. Or just drive all the way home.

Corvette tires aren't available at every convenient mart, but the longest any of my friends have had to wait for a new tire was overnight. Could you need to wait longer? Sure. But absolutely the same thing is true with any Corvette tire.

Even if the situation was that bad, the guy without runflats is in far worse shape- he has to pull over right now and hope he did it quickly enough to avoid ruining his tire and maybe his wheel. He needs someone who can work on Corvette tires, and if he needs a new one then he's stuck there until one gets shipped in. The guy on runflats can slow down a little and keep on truckin'.

Here's my own runflat story:

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c6-c...flat-tire.html

Not everyone really needs runflats, but for many of us they serve an important purpose. People need accurate information to make good choices, not a heap of nonsense like your statements.

 

I always wanted to run a Nevada desert highway in a fast car. Unfortunately, the only time I've been on one is in a 36foot motor home.

 

I've thought about this a lot as well.

People have different needs, and so there are different correct answers.

The important thing is to figure the key facts as to apply them to your situation.

Here is one perspective that has not been addressed.

I work 4 miles from home, and only occasionally make a 15 mile drive to a different work site.

I work in dress shirt, tie, slacks, and on many days, I cannot be an hour late or else I look really bad at work. That means that plugging a leak at the roadside or anything that creates a stain on my slacks or shirt would be a problem. That means that running late because I had to plug a leak or wait for a tow truck if the tire can't be plugged is a problem.

So I like runflats.

4 days ago, it was raining and I was on the freeway when the DIC indicated low tire pressure that kept dropping and dropping. I was 5 miles from home and by the time I got home the pressure was about 15psi, and as I pulled into my driveway I stepped out and heard a hissing sound and saw a shard of metal sticking out of my tire. If all the air had leaked out of my tire, I would've been glad to not be stuck at the side of freeway in the rain waiting for a flatbed. Even if I have to drive 50 miles and destroy the tire, at least I can get to my destination and deal with it later. If I have to pay 500 dollars for a new tire then that would suck, but not suck as much as if I showed up at work 90 minutes late soaking wet and THEN had to pay 500 dollars for a new tire.

If there's a very large leak and the tire deflates quickly, if I am driving on the freeway then at least with the runflat I can still drive to the next exit, find a good place where I can park my car until the evening, and hail a cab and get to work. Compared to being forced to immediately pull my car to the side of the freeway - and I'm NOT going to leave a Z06 at the side of the freeway - and waiting for a flat bed tow truck, that flexibility provided by a runflat is priceless in that situation.

In regards to what happened to me a few days ago, it looks like my runflat can be repaired (that's what the tire shop said from looking at my cell phone pics), and I'm having AAA bring it to the repair shop on a flatbed tomorrow morning, 4 days after I've posted on Corvette Forums to get ideas of the best places to go, talked to friends, read reviews, made various phone calls etc. I've researched and found a place where I'm confident they won't scratch or dent my nice wheels getting my runflat tires off the wheel. None of that could happen at the side of the freeway, with or without a firearm or smartphone.


Given that some runflats (Bridgestones, Michelin PS2 ZPs) offer fairly high performance, at the cost of a less comfortable ride, for me personally it's an easy choice.

 

A lot of cars don't even have run flats or a spare tire anymore. Run flats are inferior in just about every category. I know some run flat owners will say you can drive for hundreds of miles on run flat that has no air or is damaged. Seriously? You are going to drive at 40-50mph on a highway that has speed limits up to 80mph. Try that in Utah and you WILL have a semi up your exhaust pipes. I drove two hundred miles on a temp spare in my wife's Yukon and it felt unsafe. The reason I drove that far is because there wasn't a repair shop open. Now I carry the can of slime, air compressor and plug kit in all my vehicles for long trips. I would do that if I owned a vehicle with run flats (which is not many).

You don't want some mechanic in the middle of nowhere to attempt to remove your runflat tire off your rim. That could be real expensive. I've seen even good mechanics ask for someone to help them when removing a run flat. What will the one mechanic do in the middle of no where?

 

It seems that no one understands that run flat will get you home
when it is cut or punctured irrepairably.
A can of slime/ a plug kit/ a compressor will not help you get
home if your tire is cut or the hole is bigger than 1/8 inch.
Non run-flat be sure to pack an appropriate caliber for Chupacabra
if you're in the Southwest and you plan on crawling around on the side of the road. Also - the coyotes out there are the size of German Shepards.

 

I certainly understand!

I hit a piece of sheet metal that sliced the inside sidewall of my '05 vert 50 miles from Richmond, VA in the middle of nowhere. In the rain on a Sunday, in a TMobile dead spot, with NO shoulders, just mud drop offs.

I drove it for ten miles before I got a signal, called mrowc6 who got busy googling for open shops who might be able to help. Found one, and when I got there, he told me he couldn't fix it as it was in the sidewall. He then told me that had that been a regular tire chances are, it would have shredded.

I did have to spend the night, but I was able to go to ZIP in the morning and they fixed me right up. They also said that they didn't think the tire would have stayed on the rim if it wasn't a run-flat. They also said the tire would not have been ruined by driving that long, if it had been a puncture in the tread rather than the sidewall. Michelin PS+ A/S ZP.

Needless to say, I won't be running non run-flats anymore, and I was grateful to have had them on.


lisa

 

Ruger 357 Magnum in my vette......

 

 

See others' responses.