I recently read somewhere that newer cars don’t have a spare tire anymore. Instead, there’s a pump you can plug in to the cigarette lighter. Well… Maybe that’s a useful alternative if you live in a place where roads are well maintained! Here in Panama a spare tire is absolutely necessary!
I don’t remember ever getting a flat tire while driving. Ever! In 40 years of driving! Well, no, in 39 years…In the last two years I needed to put on the spare tire 12 times! And replace - that means buy! - a new tire 8 times!!!
Why? Because the roads in Panama are treacherous! Even the autopistas around Panama City and the interamerican highway have many potholes, which haven’t been fixed in a long time. The heavy rains, of course, are not helping the situation, but wash out these holes further and further…
The side roads are sometimes even worse! And the last 17 km of the road to Santa Catalina are, well, a disgrace, to put it mildly! I had to replace the suspensions on both cars sine living here! Also a first in my life!
So, you drive on what appears to be a road in reasonably good condition, and suddenly there’s one of those monster holes! With experience (of which I have PLENTY!), it is often possible to avoid getting a tire hitting that hole by performing an emergency slalom move. But sometimes it’s not possible - because there’s a car next to you, or because there are several such holes and the best you can do is to choose the one (or ones) that are the smallest problem, or because you noticed the severity of the hole too late.
And when that happens, the tire (or two or four) get a big bang squeeze against the rim. And all too often the sidewall of the tire gets damaged.
Now, if you get a nail or screw in the running pane of the tire, it’s bad enough. But that’s very easy to fix! I, and many other drivers, carry the plugs in the car, to be able to fix that kind of problem anywhere along the road. Plus a 12V pump is also in both of my cars.
But, when the tire‘s sidewall is damaged you cannot fix it reliably.
Thus, an otherwise brand new tire needs to be discarded and replaced!
That’s what happened to me already 8 times over the last 2 years…
Funny! I stopped buying higher quality - i. e. higher priced - tires, and am now getting the cheapest I can find! I wonder why? If I even have a choice - most of the little “llanterias” (tire repair stores) don’t carry much options; you’re lucky if they have any tire at the size you need! And if they don’t, well, then they vulcanize your tire’s sidewall and send you on your way…
Luckily, the speed limits here are very low, so even if the tire blows while you’re driving, you should be able to safely stop the car… At least, so I hope…
A related further adventure started about six weeks ago. A tire blew on my Prius, and as usual I put on the donut. However, on the way to the llateria - which is about 60 km (almost 40 miles), that 20 year old tire gave up the ghost, too… Hitchhiking with the broken original tire the rest of the way, and back, is standard procedure… The real problem, though, is: where to get a replacement donut?!?
Impossible to find a tire that fits on the donut rim. It’s not a radial tire, but the old fashioned technology. First I thought of visiting junk yards to find an old Prius from which I can source such a donut. But then it dawned on me, that it probably won’t be much of use anymore - being also 20 years old, and having been exposed to sun and rain for who knows how long in the yard…
Alright, so let me see if I find a rim that’s the same size as the regular rims, and put a regular tire on it. It won’t be possible to put that tire in the space where the donut is, because the donut has a slightly smaller diameter and is only about 2/3 of the width. But, hey, I just put it behind the driver seat. Being on the road here without a tire is highly unadvisable! And usually I don’t have more than 2 passengers anyhow… Panama helps you improve your improvisation skills!
About four weeks ago I found and bought such a rim, and had a tire installed on it, too. Yeay! I’m safe! At least so I thought…
Yesterday, on the way back from Panama City, I hit a monster hole again - on the Centennial Bridge across the Panama Canal (center lane, direction leaving the city, at the gap between the bridge and the bridgehead; for those who are travelling that stretch…). I stopped and checked, but all tires seemed to be ok…
90 km down the road, however, one tire blew… again!
Alright, first try to simply pump it up again - maybe it’s just the seal between rim and tire that leaked. No such luck! So, unpack the loaded car to get at the car-jacks - the Prius is so low I need to lift it in stages using two hydraulic jacks - take wheel with torn tire off, put on the new rim…
But, when the spare wheel was on, it turns out that the nuts’ outside diameter is larger than the holes on that damn “pretty” rim!!!
So back to hitchhicking, buying new tire, hitchhiking back, taking new rim off and store it, and putting on wheel with new tire…
And later trying to find nuts whose inner diameter fits the bolts, and whose outer diameter fits the holes on the rim. Now, the nut loosing tool doesn’t fit anymore either! So need to buy a socket that serves as adaptor between the fancy nuts and the loosening tool… And find a good spot in the car to carry these items around, for when the next tire gives up the ghost…
I’m hoping, that new spare wheel actually will serve its purpose… we’ll see…
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