I bought a used 08' C6 (and love it) but I discovered that it does not have run flats (came with a new set of Michelin's but not run flat).
I'm concerned that if I take the car on a vacation and have a flat I might be in trouble not having a spare.

What do you guys without run flats do?

 

Tire plugs, 12v air pump and AAA membership. Take the trip, you'll be fine.

 

My spare tire fits in my pocket.

 

Plugs and pump are fine, but I would highly suggest you take a quart of "Green Slime" along too; it is often VERY difficult to find/see the puncture location to plug. Unfortunately, I know from experience...... I now carry a combo pump/slime unit in my car at all times. I have run-flats, but that does not count for much when you are out here in the wild west boonies, and have a flat at night while 100 miles from the nearest town that could help!

 

Carry cash, credit cards, cell phone, and possibly a sidearm. That'll handle 99% of car problems and leave the fear at home. The bigger concern with Vette tires is finding replacements, since you can easily be a looooong way from any tire store that has one in stock. However, tires are just one of several parts that could fail and require a couple of days to get replacements.

122K on my '08 and an alternator failure delayed me 2 days while right next to a dealership, yet I only lost 3 hours of travel time for a tire blowout in the boonies, because I was willing to buy a non matching brand replacement.

Enjoy your vacation and don't let tires worry you.

 

http://www.tirerack.com/accessories/...Tire+Inflation

This what I did as a backup.

 

Carpe dm makes a good point. I run Michelin Pilot Super Sports, very grippy tire for a street tire. For trips I use a motorcycle tire repair kit which includes a small portable air pump. All very high quality. I'll use the air pump during track days to adjust tire pressures. Taking some slime along is a good idea if you can't find the hole in the tire. The one flat I had was really a slow leak, one that I could find without taking the tire off the car. If it were a dark and rainy night - we never get those in the Northwest, a can of slime would be really handy though a messy clean up for the tire tech's. I don't think Slime will effect your tire pressure sensors either but would double check that.

 

Get two cans of sealant / inflator and a 12v air pump you power off the cigar lighter. The sealant is available everywhere. Harbor Freight has pumps cheap.

The chances of flats today are rare but no problem if you prepare.

 

Join AAA and carry a cell phone! Good luck.

 

Manual says the green slime WILL mess up the TPMS sensors.....

 

Makes sense, but I think cleaning them a fair trade if the alternative is hiring a flatbed. The ideal solution is to plug the hole and then fill but finding the puncture has been, in my experience, often challenging on a bike. Doing same on these huge tires which have only small sections visible at any time is unlikely.

 

Did you look in the trunk for the GM compressor and goop to reinflate the tire. if the car came with runflats, it may not bee there, I bought two off fleabay, on for my wifes sadan, and a spare for mine, which came with the car. Just to be safe. that said,I blew a sidewall cuz I was too cheap to replace tires that were >5 years old. Check tire dates on sidewall. No problems since, and I have tracked on these tires maybe 4 days, in addition do DD. Goodluck.

 

This is the right answer!!!! Don't forget the tire pressure gauge.

 

. I have a coupe with run flats- no trunk.

 

Three different new corvettes used for over 160k miles total with non run flats and I agree this is all you need.....yet I would add a flashlight as well in case any issue with the car occurs at night. Never had a problem and it actually takes longer to type this than to fix the flat..

Target, walmart or K mart sell the little air compressor kit for around 20 dollars. A tire plug kit is a few dollars and even though I've never done it in the past...took just minutes to properly fix..(all this fits in corner storage of the trunk)

Hope this helps and enjoy your new corvette!

85 trouble free and enjoyable miles on my daily driver 2008 c6 z51 m6..

 

I changed out my GY runflats at 12K miles, and since then nothing but non runflats.
We do many long road trips, and we now have 65K on the car.
I carry a plug kit, a can of goop, a pair of side cutter pliers to help pull out nails etc, a tire guage and a 12v compressor. I also have OnStar, so if I do get stranded, they can pinpoint my location. We only travel during daylight hours, so no danger of getting stranded during the dark hours.
Of course CC , cash are a must. I also have a laptop on road trips.

On all those road trips, I picked up one screw , and got warned by the TPMS, that I was slowly losing pressure. At the next rest area, I pumped up the tire to a few psi over normal pressure, and it was OK until we stopped at a hotel at 4PM.
I was able to find the screw in the tire, by rotating the tire to a suitable spot, pulled it out with the side cutter pliers, and plugged it with the kit. I pumped up the tire to normal pressure, and it never leaked the rest of the road trip ( we were 1200 miles from home at this point in the trip)
As a matter of fact, that plug stayed in that tire until I got a new set of tires the following year.

Just have some sort of game plan. I personally never worry about getting a flat or getting stranded. If it does happen, I'll deal with it at that time.

 

Not my first car I've had with non run flats and no spare. Tire plugs and a pump and a can of that tire slime. Should be able to get you somewhere that you could get a tire.

 

Probably not if you're in Glasgow,MT (pop. ~3,000), but no one stocks anything that would fit a Vette. The next largest town is 150 miles away, however it's over 200 miles to a Goodyear, Firestone, or Michelin dealer.

They do have a hotel while you stay and wait for something to be shipped in, so you're not really stuck without food and shelter.

The whole point is that a flat or a ruined tire, RF or non-RF, is simply nothing more than an inconvenience. A dead battery is not much different. We've all had those experiences and survived. Thankfully they don't happen real often, so don't let the fear of the unknown stop anyone from enjoying life driving a Vette.

 

Join AAA Plus, for 100 miles of free towing, or Premiere with 200 miles free towing.