Flat tire on my Cybertruck... still waiting for a tow

[Trekboy]

Why not just carry an emergency tire plugging kit? I don't understand the sheer number of people who still think it's a good idea to carry an entire spare wheel and tire assembly. It's not the 1960's any more, but old habits die hard. Did you carry spare fuel pumps, water pumps, spark plug wires, alternators and belts, starter solenoids, fuel lines, radiotor hoses, radiator fans, and a bunch of other spares just in case one of them decided to give up the ghost? Of course not!

It's a lot easier to plug a tire than change out a spare wheel! And with the TPMS warning you as soon as a tire goes below the warning threshold, you might catch it in time to not have to re-inflate, depending upon how far you have to go with the plug in there. You could jump out, find the puncture, move the truck forward or backward a few inches to make access easier, put the suspension in Extract Mode to make access easier, thread a plug on the insertion tool, use the needle nose pliers to pull the offending item out of the tire and immediately poke a worm in there and be on your way. Or you could ream the hole and use a small air pump to re-inflate afterwords and maybe not have to buy a new tire.

Much quicker than changing an entire wheel/tire assembly! And less huffing and puffing.

Spot on. Tires built today are a different animal than they were in the past. Much higher quality. Although blowouts are possible (don't run on the highway with low tire pressure), they are infrequent. A nail or screw is easily remedied with a plug kit and a small air compressor. If you are close enough, you might get by with inflating with the portable compressor couple of times and limping back to a garage. The danger for me, is ripping out an entire sidewall on a rock while I'm 4wheeling and miles from help. However, that scenario is unlikely to happen on the highway.

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[HaulingAss]

I don’t know about that I had them on all my Bimmers and my INFINITI. Plus my C8 and C7 Corvettes (Michelin Pilot Sport 4 S summer on the former). Never had a reason to complain.

I think run flats totally would make sense on 3/Y/S/X that is if there isn’t another reason why they don’t play well with EV’s and I’m sure there is. Run Flats on a off-road or like the CT seems like an obvious compatibility issue. Also I don’t know if they come in 35s.

Why do you say they suck as a general proposition? In what way?

UPDATE: this guy seems to cover a lot of it;



But, I wouldn’t have it any other way on my sports/luxury cars and if the penalty wasn’t what I suspect it will be on EV‘s I would definitely run run flats on my model s plaid.

I love pnumatic tires for their performance. Your tires are the only thing touching the road. Run flat tires have been engineered to protect the rim if you lose all air pressure. But you are still driving on a flat tire! You can only drive for about an hour on most runflats, which could be very inconvenient depending upon the situation. A plug can actually fix the tire.

In short, noise, harshness and efficiency are all negatively impacted. I don't want to compromise on my tires performance, and my vehicles range and efficiency, just to handle the slight possibility that I might get a flat. I've gone through at least seven to nine sets of tires (between me and my wife) without a single flat. Damn! I'm glad I wasn't running run flats for all those years! What a waste, I want to drive on tires that are not a compromise for silly things like people who are afraid of getting a flat. You will still be just as likely to get a flat, only now you have 50 miles (at 50 mph) to find someone capable of replacing it. When I put a plug in, I can deal with it on my own schedule.

 

[Aces-Truck]

Is Tesla's Roadside service a part of their insurance? I'll be using State Farm, w/o free towing. I've already ordered a patch kit.

When it comes to reflating a low tire (or after repairing a nail), I was planning on using a regular tire pump. I've used them for years with tires on smaller cars. Is there really a good use case to buy a compressor instead a floor pump?

 

[dalton108]

I love pnumatic tires for their performance. Your tires are the only thing touching the road. Run flat tires have been engineered to protect the rim if you lose all air pressure. But you are still driving on a flat tire! You can only drive for about an hour on most runflats, which could be very inconvenient depending upon the situation. A plug can actually fix the tire.

In short, noise, harshness and efficiency are all negatively impacted. I don't want to compromise on my tires performance, and my vehicles range and efficiency, just to handle the slight possibility that I might get a flat. I've gone through at least seven to nine sets of tires (between me and my wife) without a single flat. Damn! I'm glad I wasn't running run flats for all those years! What a waste, I want to drive on tires that are not a compromise for silly things like people who are afraid of getting a flat. You will still be just as likely to get a flat, only now you have 50 miles (at 50 mph) to find someone capable of replacing it. When I put a plug in, I can deal with it on my own schedule.

All true. I haven’t had a flat the required me to change a tire or something like that at the side of the road since I was in my 20s and I’m well into my 50s now.

My wife has though, a few times in our 20 years of marriage, and I would rather have her be on run flats any day of the week. The last time she had a flat in her model Y she had a giant bolt in the tire - HOW?!

It wasn’t pluggable and she was in a bad neighborhood. She had to call roadside first Tesla who couldn’t get anyone to show up timely and then AAA. First, Tesla roadside (who, we learned during this episode, generally brings out a wheel and tire so you can get going while they repair) had nothing! Then AAA couldn’t get a hold of any tires either. AAA had to flatbed her model Y to our house where it’s at for a full four days until we could get a tire!

They had no tires - like literally - there were no tires for her car in Las Vegas! Can’t imagine how someone without our resources and multiple cars would have coped with this. I bought a spare wheel for her car that day and when the tires finally showed up I bought two. Never again.

50 miles of range will get you anywhere in this valley. She was about 10 miles from home. That would’ve been superior in every way to her sitting where she had to sit for what ended up being a four hour ordeal. Of course, I showed up within a few minutes of her calling me, but I still couldn’t do anything to get the car home.

 

[Mikec3399]

I got a flat at 8:00 AM today. I am STILL waiting for. tow truck (it is now 1:00 PM).
I have been very patient, and Tesla has been completely transparent in their multiple calls and texts with me. The only thing is, every text is to notify me that the tow is again delayed…4 times so far.
I have always been a strong supporter of Tesla, since my first one, back in 2014, an MS60.
Since then, I have purchased many others….
However, in spite of, or maybe because of, today’s events, I am canceling 4 additional Cybertrucks I had reserved on day one.
It really sucks to be stuck only 27 miles from the Wilmington service center for over 5 hours! Prior to today, most of my interactions have been great, with only a few a little less so.
I’m not feeling valued right now as a customer.

I have AAA and their service is horrible, 12-14 hours of wait time last year with my honda
does the cybertruck have a spare tire? i have not looked in mine yet

 

[Ray in montana]

I got a flat at 8:00 AM today. I am STILL waiting for. tow truck (it is now 1:00 PM).
I have been very patient, and Tesla has been completely transparent in their multiple calls and texts with me. The only thing is, every text is to notify me that the tow is again delayed…4 times so far.
I have always been a strong supporter of Tesla, since my first one, back in 2014, an MS60.
Since then, I have purchased many others….
However, in spite of, or maybe because of, today’s events, I am canceling 4 additional Cybertrucks I had reserved on day one.
It really sucks to be stuck only 27 miles from the Wilmington service center for over 5 hours! Prior to today, most of my interactions have been great, with only a few a little less so.
I’m not feeling valued right now as a customer.

I carry a spare tire, a plug repair kit, a jack, and a small compressor. Always be prepared and dont rely on anyone.

 

[Bill W.]

Not sure if the OP knows this, but the service center in Wilmington occupies a building that used to be a tire dealership. Nice bit of irony!

 

[Foundation Series Dude]

Hang in there Vito! Might want to Uber Eats in some grub...

 

[Mark Shaw]

Yea blame Tesla for not having as many tow trucks as they do supercharging stalls, makes sense, I’d cancel my 9 extra cybertruck orders too. Dammit Elon, why do you only have zero tow trucks.

pretty sure towing is done via 3rd party and Tesla is only handing off your info to who ever is local to your BFE location. Perhaps blame “idgaf towing” company.

Perhaps you all should join AAA.

 

[Incense]

Good job to the OP for getting it sorted. Sitting by the side of the road for a couple hours is stressful.
Related question: I have the compressor below, and am very happy with it. But it has positive and negative alligator clips for power. Would use of this compressor with the CT require me to access posts in the frunk?

 

[Aces-Truck]

Good job to the OP for getting it sorted. Sitting by the side of the road for a couple hours is stressful.
Related question: I have the compressor below, and am very happy with it. But it has positive and negative alligator clips for power. Would use of this compressor with the CT require me to access posts in the frunk?

Looks to be 12V. CT is native 48V. You'd be better with a 120V AC model.

 

[Incense]

Looks to be 12V. CT is native 48V. You'd be better with a 120V AC model.

Yup. I will research. I already paid the money/own the one above. Worst case I guess I could practice with the 12v access, which is in the frunk.

 

[Woodrick]

https://letmegooglethat.com/?q=What+is+a+service?

1. assistance or advice given to customers during and after the sale of goods:
   "they aim to provide better quality of service"
2. a piece of work done for a client or customer that does not involve manufacturing goods:
   "highly customized goods and services" · "the provision of banking services to small and medium-sized businesses" · "the growth of employment in the services sector"

Maybe the fact that it is "100% outsourced to contractors" is a reason people complain. I know people like Tesla vehicles largely because the company does so much of the work themselves, vs companies like Ford that have so many subcontractors building parts.

Wow, how obstinate can you be?

Most of the responses that I've heard about Tesla road service is that it was pretty great. Amazingly I've heard more good reports than "it took them too long reports"

The biggest gripe that I've heard is how they handle flats, they don't patch them, they just change with another tire/wheel combination and charge you. People don't understand that it will be refunded when you turn it back in.

 

[HaulingAss]

Spot on. Tires built today are a different animal than they were in the past. Much higher quality. Although blowouts are possible (don't run on the highway with low tire pressure), they are infrequent. A nail or screw is easily remedied with a plug kit and a small air compressor. If you are close enough, you might get by with inflating with the portable compressor couple of times and limping back to a garage. The danger for me, is ripping out an entire sidewall on a rock while I'm 4wheeling and miles from help. However, that scenario is unlikely to happen on the highway.

It's also unlikely to rip out a sidewall if you haven't weakened the sidewall by running excessively low air pressures that many do as a crutch when four-wheeling. Low pressures cause over-flexing of the sidewalls as the tire rolls which can cause fatigue fractures in the sidewall reinforcement fibers. This damage is invisible and cumulative.

 

[HaulingAss]

Yup. I will research. I already paid the money/own the one above. Worst case I guess I could practice with the 12v access, which is in the frunk.

Since you already have a 12V inflator, you might be able to rig a trailer plug pigtail and run it off the trailer plug outlet by the hitch mount. Check the amperage ratings first, but I bet there's enough power there.

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