After the great Denver GTG, my Wife and I headed to Las Vegas to spend a couple weeks with our Daughter. We traveled around California a few days, then back to Vegas.
We finally left Vegas on the 17th. of August for our 2100 mile trip home, so we could make it to an old friend's "Daughters" wedding on the 20th.
We made it to Tucumcari New Mexico on our first leg of the trip, and got a hotel for the night. Later, we went out for food and fuel, and that's where the whole nightmare started about 10:30PM.
After filling up with gas, I pulled out onto the street where I fell prey to a kids prank. Somebody stuck a 1/2" "open end" wrench in the expansion joint of the concrete where it some how found its way into the left rear tire of our car.
Now Tucumcari is a nice enough place, with a lot of Rt.66 history. But one thing it doesn't have, is a tire store that stocks "Crossfire" sized tires. So at the suggestion of a local tire store owner, we had the car flatbedded back to our hotel, and in the morning another flatbed picked us and our car up for a 113 mile trip to Amarillo Texas. The closest town that had tires that would fit the Crossfire. So off we go back out on the 110 degree highway for our 1 and 1/2 hour ride to the tire store. Fortunately the AC worked quite well in the cab of the flatbed.
AAA, All Rite Towing in Tucumcari, Johnny at Discount Tire in Amarillo Texas all carried out their jobs very professionaly, and went that extra mile to make an unfortunate stuation a little easier to swallow.
We had to buy 2 new rear tires because they didn't have the correct sized Hancook tire that matched my blown tire in stock, and it would take a week too get. So over $800 later we are back on the road again, only about 5 hours behind schedule.
Now I'm starting to wonder how good my car would look with 235/60/15" tires on all 4 wheels. One thing for sure, they would be a lot cheaper to buy and locate.

 

Ouch! If you were driving, say, a 1969 Buick Riviera it would have not been an issue!

Sorry, I couldn't help it. I just KNOW these kids don't know it's a felony to do crap like that.

$400 each for OEM size tires? OUCH! TWICE! Glad you two weren't hurt by this "prank". That's what counts.

 

Of course there are always the run-flat tires. Peace of mind, I suppose.

But personally, I'd rather gamble the 12 hour inconvenience of a conventional flat than put up with the harsh, noisy ride of RFT's forever.

Sorry about your horror story, +fireamx, but glad that you carry AAA.

 

Those are only good for 50-60 miles which wouldn't have helped in this situation............and they would be even harder to locate and cost an additional $100/each. F run flats.





PS That sucks about the tire Mike.........maybe throw a M-B (211 body) E Class spare in the back for long cruises.

 

Sounded like a real pain. Glad to see you made it back home. I often think of things like that without a spare, but soon forget about them once behind the wheel.

James

PS What size did you end up with on the rear?

 

Sorry to hear about your incident, but glad it all turned out OK, and that you are safe. This is the risk we take with these cars, but on the other hand they give is great pleasure.

Safe travels,

 

I had 275/30/19's on the back when it happened, wound up putting the "stock" size back on.

I even considered getting a Mercedes "donut" spare for the trip. But the way we were loaded, even if I could have found a place to store it, there would be no place to put the flat tire after I got it off.

Still doesn't change the way I feel about the car though.

 

As long as you feel that way about the car, or whatever you're an enthusiast of, it almost doesn't matter what the cost IMHO ... "almost" If it did we'd be driving Nissans.

 

I took a 3400km trip in northern quebec and the maritimes, then down to Maine about 6 weeks ago. I carried a front wheel/tire assy. in the trunk, I have a XF coupe. It squizes in horizontally. I put it in face down so you can use the inside of the mag wheel for small items like tools and shoes. We could still fit a full size suitcase, a mid size suit case, a small cooler for drinks and munchies and a small backpack.

 

This particular one is a bit pricey, but do you think it would work for a compact spare?

08-09 MERCEDES BENZ S63 AMG SPARE TIRE 19" W221 - eBay (item 220842621691 end time Sep-28-11 14:44:02 PDT)

 

An 18" with low profile squeezes in flat. This is a 19" with higher sidewall. Too xpensive as well

 

mike,
i'm sorry to hear about your bad luck. the good news is you got home safely.....that is a long drive.
ttyl,
gryfan

 

Yea Nick it was a long trip. We drove over 7k miles total. On the + side, the new rear tires were balanced so much better than the old rear tires the car felt 100% better on the way home.
Thankfully the "blowout" happened when I was doing about 20 mph so there were no injuries except to my wallet.

 

I have already realated m tire story with the General Excalim GHP's
Bought one to replace a road hazard failure. Then we noticed the tread on the ole tire was only 3/32. So I ordered a second one to match the other side..

None to be found. NADA now where.

MIMI05SRT came thru witha shop in southern CAthat had some in inventory. IN CONNECTICUTT!

So, three weeks later after shipping them to CA and then to me, a tire with more than 5,000 miles on it(having never touched the ground) arrived at my shop.
I like Southern CAl but 3 weeks would have been a long wait.

I'm told I likely found the last one inthe USA. Good thing because everytimeI drove aggressively m TC would activate. Seems the baldy was slightly smaller and slipped more, setting the computer to thinking I was slipping.

Put it on last nite. Now I can leave my TC on.

roadster wit a stick


BTW the only place a a rear wheel/tire will fit in the roadster is in the passenger seat. I imagine a demounted one could go in the boot if the top was left up. Why wold anybody do that?

 

Sorry to hear about your troubles, Mike. I'm glad you and Barb are OK.

 

Sorry about your problem. For the longest time I considered getting an SLK spare. But now that I have an air compressor and have used it successfully on other cars, I would sooner consider plugging and re-inflating a flat ... given the limited mileage you get on a space saver lol...

 

Sorry to here about your experience Mike. My wife and I also went to Vegas, California and drove through Amirillo on our way back. I was about a week sooner comming back and am sure glad I didn't find that wrench.

 

Larry, You had my deepest sympathy when you were talking about rolling into Vegas with no AC. I don't think we ever turned ours off the whole trip.

 

Thanks, But we did get it going. It turns out that if you take the covers off of the vent fan and tap on the shaft of the fan motor it would start working again. Sometimes it would come on by itself but most of the time it would have to be tapped on.
Thank goodness for cell phones and a knowledgable brother back home. I have to say though that kneeling on the pavement in a gas station parking lot at 115 degrees trying to work on it wasn't the greatest thing I've ever done.

 

kinda stupid trick kids were doing about a year+ ago here. haven't seen/heard about it since.