Thank goodness you have a compressor as well!Soooo if you got 5 minutes I got a story!
So I had a bit of an unexpected adventure. I got up yesterday and had the urge to go camping for a night and go for a bike ride and just enjoy being outside and not having any distractions. So 30 minutes later I was on the road I just threw my bike on the back and grabbed my camping bin and hit the road. I decided to camp up on Pearl Pass just outside of Crested Butte. I set up camp pretty close to the bottom of the trail then road my bike to the summit. Really good workout and was honestly more pushing then riding towards the top Peal Pass starts pretty easy but gets pretty gnarly towards the top.
Anyways so I get to the top and I head back on down and I find this camp spot probably a mile from the summit that is just awesome. Just around tree line so you can see all the surrounding peaks but it was still protected from the wind and I really decided this was the camping spot I had to be at tonight. So I road on down and hoped in the cruiser and started the treck on up. Like I said the first 3ish miles are really pretty easy but then it starts climbing and its pretty loose in some spots. But no biggie the cruiser does it with ease. So i get up to this camp spot and set up the tent and grill myself a burger and reading a book and life is good. But then I decide around sunset I want to drive as far as I can up to the “top” (still a little snowed it) and get a poser shot and just enjoy the sunset as high up as I can.
So I close up the tent and put all of my crap away and start heading up the hill. I no less then get around two corners from where I was camping and all of sudden I hear the pshhhh boom. Sidewall on the driver rear tire blows out. All the air is out of it within probably a minute it was a pretty big gash.
At this point I’m sorta freaking out I don’t run with a spare, nobody really knows where I am because I don’t really know where I was going to end up and here I am around sunset at just under 13,000 feet. Great.
I am so so lucky that a few days ago I had a impulsive day on amazon and ordered some stuff that just seemed liked it would be fun to get. So I ordered a new cook set, silverware set, sleeping bag, AND the ARB tire repair kit. I no joke got this kit two days ago and threw it in the truck still in the unopened box I really did not think today was the day I was going to be getting myself into a hairy situation. But I guess you always need stuff when you don’t expect it. So I unbox this thing for the very first time and follow the simple ARB 6 step instructions and put 8 plugs into the sidewall of this tire and I was shocked this tire aired up with no leaks and made it all the way back down the pass and the 30 minutes on the highway back to my house.
I don’t want to dis on the tires too much they are Cooper AT3 XLT and I have about 50,000 miles on them. I have honestly loved them they have been awesome on the trail and in the snow and really awesome on the road. So I don‘t want to complain about them to much. But also, this should not have happened in this spot in my opinion I think the rear tire just slipped off a rock and got stabbed I have really pushed these tires before and this was not one of those situations where I think there was extreme stress on it I couldn’t really even pin point what rock gashed it.
I have never run a spare because I like my rear bumper and when I am actually going out on a wheeling day I am always with someone who runs a spare. Welp I guess that makes sense in theory but not in practice.
Soooo I am in the market for some new tires I think I am going to make a jump to a mud terrain as I am planning on going to Alaska next year and I am sure I will run into some mud but if that wasn’t on the radar I would 100% run these tires again. Any recommendations? Currently between the Yokohama Geo and Cooper STT Pro I think. But let me know what y’all think.
Any if anyone is wondering if the ARB tire plug kit works, it works and it works well! Totally recommend I will never leave home without it from here on out.
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That's an impressive hole to fill. Please post a pic of the ARB box of tire repair for others.