Do you have a spare flat tire in your car?

It really is a serious question.
Desperado's thread about single trunk towns and redundancy got me thinking about it.
About things like flat spare tires or empty first aid kits, stuff like that.
So how many people do you know who use their emergency gear and never replace it?

Funny that you mention that. I just put new tires (5) on son#2's truck this evening. He had a blow out and had to put the spare on. It was the original spare from the GM factory... in 1997. Seems it was a little brittle looking, so I had a new spare installed.

I check air pressure every Sunday on all of the vehicles including spare tires. This results from a 12 mile walk home in a cold rain as a teenager due to a flat spare.

My "Favorite" thing to find is an empty/defective fire extinguisher. I have had that happen twice. Both were in an employees' company truck. I allowed 2 hours each Friday at the end of the day for what I called PMCS from my army days. Preventative Maintenance Checks and Services, meant make sure EVERYTHING was ready in the vehicle. Both fella's had to find new work really fast.

I bought a matching wheel to replace the non matching spare then bought 5 tires so I can do the 5 tire rotation. This way my spare gets used as much as the rest and gets the air checked and doesn't get old.

Forgot to mention, I also carry a valve core tool and spares and a patch/plug kit.

I have had the occasion to put a spare on a car, and have it be flat. Even through I try to do air pressure checks (incl. spare) every 6 months, some times Murphy butts in. In all our cars now, I have stowed a small 12-volt air compressor to address this. They have already come in handy (filling other people's tires).

Hopefully that was the lesson they needed. Seems a shame that we don't learn until we experience something very difficult. Human nature I guess. We're lucky if we get to be around after those choice "life lessons".

I have a full sized spare and a donut in my car.

I also have a Roadside Emergency Kit, BOB, Axe, Prybar, Shovel, FAK, extra fluids and so on. It really weighs down my little Toyota Corolla. LOL

It is interesting you mentioned the donut spare.

One of the ideas behind that tire was to deliberately make it just good enough to get you to a tire repair but not good enough to drive for a longer time on it.
This was supposed to prevent people from driving around with a flat spare tire in the trunk.

The fact that it took up less space and cost less to make were important considerations too, but not the only ones.
There was a lot of market resistance to them at first, enough that a full sized spare was still offered if you wanted it.

Speaking of donut spares, how many are aware that they are designed for short term, low speed (usually 45mph max) usage? If you are "bugging out" ahead of a hurricane or something, with a destination that might be hundred of miles away, what are you going to do it you have a flat and a donut? I have no doubt that they can probably make a couple hundred miles, no matter what it says on the sidewall, but I personally wouldn't want to chance it. Every time I bought a car with a donut, the very first thing I always did was buy a real tire and wheel...

i replaced the toy spare with the "best" tire out of four when i bought a new set..the price of a rim at a junk yard and mounting was worth the peace of mind.i also keep a couple of those cans of sealer/inflators..i do a fair amount of back road driving and leave my car for weeks at a time by the canoe landings out of cell phone range so a good tire is a must.

The point is not about whether donut tires are better to drive on or not.
It is about how many people use up emergency gear and never bother replacing it.

I remember an oilfield services company at Ft. MacMurray.
They expect their crews to work in isolated areas, often 40 miles out of town and 20 miles into the forest, sometimes a lot farther.

They had 5 pickup trucks at their field office and one of them had a tire go flat while sitting in front of the office. The company had to call a tire service truck out from town. None of those trucks had a good spare tire even though they had all been issued with 2 spare tires.
It was also realized that even with the same manufacturer and all the same size trucks not all of the rims were interchangeable.

Tires are just one example.
Desperado mentioned fire extinguishers.

There are many other examples.
Empty first aid kits, empty eye wash bottles, empty reserve fuel cans, missing spare light bulbs, electrical fuses, water cans. The list of individual items goes on and on.

It applies inside of houses and workplaces too, not just vehicles.

I carry 1 full-size spare on the back of the Jeep, a patch kit, a plug kit, and air compressor, valve core tool, and a can of fix-a-flat. I also have a can of ether that can be used to seat a bead or I can use a ratchet strap to do it also.

Even if I paid for them, AAA doesn't go where I do. When the pavement stops, you're on your own.

I felt bad for the two truck driver one day when we had to call AAA on a sunday morning and woke him up out of bed. Now imaging your taking the kids to a relatives house Christmas day and have to call AAA.

You could not be more correct! If you use it, replace it. More than once I started a shift by inspecting my vehicle, found no flares, fire extinguisher empty, spare flat, first aid kit open and partially empty, cigar butt down the shotgun barrel, a round in the chamber of the shotgun, dope or a weapon under the back seat, bald tire, no gas, etc etc etc. So I repeat, if you use it, replace it. And if you have to share equipment with anyone else, check it before you use it...

A little trick that I learned about replacing expendables was to leave the wrapper/can/bottle/whatever somewhere visible until it's replaced. For example, I filled up the washer fluid in the car the other day during the ice storm, and used up the bottle from the back of the truck. I put the empty plastic bottle on the floor on the passenger side of the truck, rather than throwing it out at the rest stop trash can. When I got home, I grabbed a fresh one from the garage, and put it back in the truck. It's hard to forget, because if my wife gets in the truck, the first thing she'll notice is the empty washer fluid bottle at her feet!

FAK's are notorious for having stuff used and not replaced. To a certain extent, you expect that. I know we have a checklist on all of ours, and a little golf pencil in the kit. If you use something, put a tick mark next to it. Of course, someone has to check the list on a regular schedule. (The missing link!)

At work, I know that we have a professional service that comes and replaces fire extinguishers with recharged ones, puts new batteries in the emergency lighting, and services the FAK's. I think those FAK's are designed with a significant excess supply of commonly used items, so I think the annual check is all they do, unless something bad happens around the place during the year.

Have pulled out more than one spare tire that had little or no air in it, none of the spares were mine. For my own i try to check every six months or so, which reminds me that i am due. Even had a flat tire the other day on the car with no spare, and it comes from the factory with no spare tire. Luckily i was at home so i just changed cars, fixed it later when i got back from work. All of the vehicles have a bottle of slime with a small air compressor and i also carry an industrial grade plug kit and that is one of the things i move to the vehicle i am driving that day.

Ingenuity and caring how it looks are all that'll keep you from carrying a full-size spare, lol. This is a guy on an offroading board I'm a member of and his FULL-SIZE spare.

Good Topic!

I suggest that if you are going to carry a tire plug kit, practice with it.
Most of those kits are pretty cheap and basic and the handle design can make or break the actual usability of the kit.
I had to use the cheapo kit I kept in my car once and it was significantly more difficult than I was expecting.
The plug did the job but had I known how much exertion was going to be required I would have sprung for a better quality kit in the first place. It was a lot harder than I was expecting and I've changed my own motorcycle tires before. I got it done and the plug worked fine but it was a good learning experience.

Those guys in tire shops make it look much easier than it is.
Something to consider if we're expecting our significant others to attempt plugging.

Along those lines, does anyone have a recommendation for a top quality plug kit that they actually HAVE EXPERIENCE with?

http://www.safetyseal.com/store/offroad.htm

These are really nice. A friend of mine has this set. This is the offroad kit, they also make a car/light truck kit. Mine is the Walmart el cheapo, but I've gotten pretty good with it.

I've plugged a tire in less than ten minutes, counting airing it back up, without removing the tire or even jacking it up. (I only run the tires at 10 PSI when I'm in the woods).

I have a cheap kit from one of the automotive stores and it worked fine and wasn't difficult at all. My truck came with tires that were labeled all terrain but it seemed that anything could poke through them so I ended up plugging some holes.

Have you beat Izzy, my car that has a spare is a Mazda Miata. Little car, itty bitty spare. It doesn't have the smallest trunk that i have ever seen but it ranks right up there. The hardship of driving cool cars is very little trunk space.

i've got a late model mid-sized car. it has lots of trunk space. it also has a lot of spare tire well storage space under the trunk space.

it could hold either a full size or doughnut sized spare tire, but alas, it comes with neither. it has a 'system' that is supposed to re-inflate the tire while pumping in a sealant.

next week i'm buying a spare.

Safey Seal kit=
Those are great tire plug kits. I've been carrying them in my Jeeps since the mid 90s. Have used them quite a few times. Easy to use and they have saved my bacon more than once.

+1 on the Safety Seal kit. Great plug kit have been using mine for years.