The Problem With No Spare Tire

The Challenger parked beside one of the many historic homes at Old Washington.

As I discussed in a previous post, "sometimes ya gotta drive". We still love to hop in the Challenger and drive around the state of Arkansas. State parks are always some of our favorite destinations. For nearly six years, we have had no issue with the SRT8 not having a spare tire. That all changed in March 2015 during our spring break vacation.

Old Washington State Park has many beautiful scenes.

We had taken a day trip to Old Washington State Park in Arkansas. It was great to travel south and visit the historic Victorian era town. We toured many of the wonderful old houses and buildings most of the day. No trip to Old Washington is complete without eating in their tavern! We took numerous photos while we walked all over the park.

After a long day, we headed home taking the state highways rather than Interstate 30 north. It takes about an hour and a half driving the highway routes (about 70 miles). Most of the trip was uneventful until we were nearly 30 minutes from home. As we were driving, we heard a sudden sound like air being released behind us. I knew it had to be the tire because the tone changed with the rotation of the wheel behind me. Immediately the warning indicator illuminated on the dash. The dash information indicator switched to display the tire pressures. The driver's side rear tire went from 30 psi to 20 psi in just mere seconds. I remember telling my wife, "It looks like we are about to be stranded!" I pulled off to the side of the country highway as the tire pressure indicator informed me that the tire was now at 0 psi. I have no idea what we hit, but I knew it had caused significant damage to the tire since it went flat so quickly.

As previously stated, this model Challenger was not equipped with a spare tire. My only hope was in the supplied air compressor that also came with the equivalent of a "Fix-A-Flat" type product to inject into a damaged tire. I tried using this provided "goop" by forcing the material into the tire using the air compressor as the directions showed on the device. This resulted in a mess of white sealant coming out of the damaged tire all over the car and around the tire.

The provided sealant came out of the tire and made a mess!

I knew at this point there was no hope of getting the car back on the road. Luckily, my wife and I have maintained our AAA membership for many years. I called for towing assistance immediately. It took about 2 1/2 hours for the truck to arrive at our location. I had the tow truck drop the car off at our house since we were so close to home, and the auto repair shop I use was closed at that time of evening.

The Challenger being loaded on the tow truck.

It was easy to pull the tire off and take it to the repair shop the next morning. Luckily, the tire was repairable! However, I knew that I was never going to have confidence in this car ever again with no spare tire in the trunk. Flats are bound to happen when you put a vehicle on the road. I started doing my research to find solutions. Either I was going to find a spare, or the car was going up for sale! In the next entry, I'll share the outcome of this problem.

Go here for my article about the K&N Air Filter I use in the car!

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