Last time you had a flat tyre?
 

There is currently a thread debating the wisdom of not carrying a jack and spare tyre.
Not wishing to hijack that thread I have started this one asking when you last had a flat tyre on your vehicle.

For me it was about 11 years ago and it was caused by a brand new wood screw in a carpark where builders were parking their vehicle adjacent to a construction site.

The one before that was around 5 years prior.

Cheers , Pete.

i picked up something last summer while driving, tire was completely flat

Summer, a year and a half ago.

Currently its been 8 to 10 years since I've had a flat. I had a steel belt rupture inside the tire while going 70 MPH down I-95. I was able to safely pull over and stop, took the spare out, and changed the tire.

Now I've had nails, screws, and other stuff stuck in tires, and had to get them removed and patched, but its never needed roadside attention.

-Jay

About 5 years ago. Picked up a nail.

Oh wait, I already voted but...

Do you mean a flat that requires roadside repair/assistance?
Or do you mean any sort of puncture?

I seem to pick up a nail or screw every 3 to 5 years, but those don't leave me stranded, they just leak out slowly. I only had to stop and change a flat on the side of the road once about 18 years ago.

I also drive without a spare tire. Instead I carry a can of instoflate sealer/inflater.

I've had my license for 22 years and I've never gotten a flat.

I've picked up a nail once or twice, but nothing that I couldn't fix and no need to change the tire.

(Knock on wood!)

-BC

Probably an average of once or twice per year I have a puncture that doesn't need roadside attention. I had one a month ago, and I remember plugging one in my yard last summer.

I can't remember for sure when the last time was that I changed a tire roadside. It might be 3 or 4 years ago when I ran over a curb near NYC that was taller and sharper than I expected. The tire sidewall was wounded badly but not leaking, and the rim was dented. I was unable to get the lug nuts off, and the only garage that was open was Pep Boys; they did me a favor (thanks guys!) and loosened them, which took quite a lot of time with their biggest impact gun.

Before that (probably 2 years before) I tore a sidewall on a rock wall when I got too close while entering a driveway.

Before that (probably another 4 years) I had a tire blow out on the highway (I was doing 105mph and the tire probably wasn't inflated well).

Somewhere in between those last two, an unexpected difficult-to-see pothole or raised manhole cover (I can't remember) in a construction zone destroyed one of my tires.

Patience and more responsible driving would have avoided most of those ones that I can remember. I'm pretty sure there were a couple more. I have always driven a LOT of miles -- these days I drive less than ever.

never had one require changing myself in the...6 years I've had a license. I do have a nail in one of my summer tires that I need to have fixed before I swap them back on but it loses about 20 psi per year (out of 50 that I have it at) so I just check it every month or so. it's also a SSW run-flat.

that being said, I've got a spare in both cars cause I work in a shop and do half a dozen repair or replacements a day.

Holy Crap........you are lucky to be here to write about that one.

Now you made me forget what i was going to post.......

Heheheh...it was a rear tire on my FWD 1997 Pontiac Grand Am, which is about the least dangerous tire to blow at that speed. Something taller or RWD or it being a front tire could have been disaster.

The tire that had the belt rupture @ 70 mph was a rear tire on my RWD Regal... And my sister and her kids were in the back seat. Luckily I used to take my cars out on the driving range where I trained people to drive ambulances. I always wanted to know how my vehicles would behave in emergency situations. I just kept a firm grip on the wheel, took my foot off the accelerator, and gradually coasted to a stop on the shoulder.

I've had only 3 flats in my life and they all happened within a 2 month period. One was a nail the other 2 were torn valve stems. Then I got a letter 4 months later stating that the valve stems were being recalled:thumbdown:

2/15/09

I've had 2 flats in the last 8 months. One was on my secondary car , a 1986 Jaguar XJ6 with 137K miles and the other on my motorcycle ( 1982 Yamaha Vision 550 RJ) Both vehicles have older tires approaching the end of their service lives. Both punctures were from sheetrock screws. Before the flats I had removed the spare tires from my cars for a while but after reading and finding that the weight savings benifit had a minimal effect on fuel economy I put them back. The motorcycle tire was a slow leak that I found when checking the tires before riding. The flat on the XJ6 wasn't noticed till the ride and handling went sour so I had to pull off the road and change to the spare.
The punch line is you need to carry a spare and jack or at least other means to fix flats.
best wishes, low&slow

While driving? Probably close to 10 years ago. By the time I got off the bridge (Vestal, NY, if you know the town, you know the bridge) to a safe place to stop the sidewall was done. I finished that business trip, another 350+ miles, on three studded snows and a temporary spare.
Coming out to discover the tire had gone down in the hours since I last drove? Maybe 5 years ago. Yet another piece of carpentry fastener, screw, nail, whatever.
On my bicycles? Too darned frequently, maybe five flats and one blow-out in the two years since I resumed pedaling regularly.

I have gone as much as several years without a flat tire, then had several in a short period of time. One day, a couple years ago, I had to change a tire (steel belt was protruding). Put on my spare, drove about half way home from work and the spare blew out while I was going about 65 or so. The tire was probably about as old as the car (1984 Lincoln Town Car). Had to get towed to a tire store. (I had been planning on going there anyway.) Didn't replace the spare...then it blew in the trunk a couple days later.

never had one personally but i started driving late. only been on the road maybe 2.5 years now.

last time my family had one was ages ago.

Last one that required a roadside tire change was ~3 years ago (ended up requiring 4 new tires because you can't put 1 new tire on an AWD subaru).

Last spring I came out once to find my Comet in the garage with a flat tire(with a nail in it), but it had been 1-2weeks since I'd driven it so I don't know how slow the leak was.

I've picked up a least 1-2 slow leaks in the last few years.

In my ~14 years of driving I've probably had about a dozen flats.

A couple months ago, I got caught in a snowstorm, and had to drive. I hit a curb, and punctured the sidewall, and yesterday, I had a nail removed from my tire. I still carry only fix-a-flat.
I'm a hard-headed Airies.

How did you deal with the sidewall puncture in the snow without a spare?

I haven't had a flat since I bought my 2 current vehicles. However, my previous car (1999 Civic Si with some mods) had 215/40R/17 tires, and I had 5 flats in 2 1/2 years (45,000 miles). I went through 3 full sets of tires and replaced 2 extra tires.

I think my last flat was on the motorcycle. Couldn't find that jack and spare nowhere. LOL The tire just broke loose from the rim, but I still ended up having to walk about a half mile to a gas station to borrow their air tank, walk back to the bike, then walk the tank back to them, then back to the bike again, because I had no way of carrying it on the bike after I got the tire aired up. So I got about 2 miles of exercise in about 100* weather. I was not a happy camper.

Some interesting results so far.

I was expecting a pretty much straight correlation between time and number of flats but not so.

They start off and rise and then dip and rise again.

Pete.

I had a puncture last year, but not a flat. My 60 psi tire was down to 45 psi and still completely drivable.

My girlfriend and I walked to a nearby Nissan dealer (everything else was closed) to see if I could buy a spare. They didn't have any, or my size tire. I caught the general manager on his way home, but he stayed and trudged through the snow, in his nice GM shoes, looking for a decent "Take off". He couldn't find one, so he drove us to our hotel, picked us up in the morning, and got us a new tire at his cost, and put it on for free! He even let me put my car on the lift, and bend the exhaust back into place.
If anyone wants to buy a Nissan in tehseattle Tacoma area, go to fife Nissan in Tacoma, and ask for Brian Winter!

I had a puncture on my way to class last week. It was some kind of stainless steel self-drilling machine screw with this weird bonded rubber/stainless washer. Luckily I noticed it almost immediately and stopped within about a mile.
I could have pulled out the jack and spare, but I had a faster alternative... I carry a plug kit and pump around with me. I found the screw in the tire, rolled the car forward about a foot so it was in a convenient position to work on, pulled out the plug kit, a pair of pliers (to remove the screw) and the pump. After a little prep, I removed the screw, reamed out the hole and worked the plug in before the tire had drained. I hooked up the pump, cut off the excess plug, cleaned off the tools, packed up and was back on the road. Total time lost: about 15 mins.

Uh-oh. That sounds exactly like the kind of screws I use to attach coroplast to the underside of my car! They're self tapping screws that can be installed with a regular hand drill. I like the rubber coated washer because it doesn't cut into the coroplast due to vibration and movement. Wouldn't that be ironic if us gassavers and ecomoders were dropping hardware that produce more flats?

I wonder how many tires it had to stick in on its journey from SF Bay to Delaware. :D