[JoshMachine]

Originally Posted by Dr.AD

Monsoon Drive to Konkan Coast
--
This weekend, along with a few BHPian friends, we did a monsoon drive to the Konkan Coast.

Nice pictures, thanks for the trailer. Looking forward to the travelogue inspiration so that I could also plan a trip there

Slightly OT, guess the km reading in the thread title needs an edit?

[Dr.AD]

Originally Posted by BeMyWings

Excellent photography Doc and Graaja, thank you for sharing!

Thank you for your kind words!

Originally Posted by JoshMachine

Nice pictures, thanks for the trailer. Looking forward to the travelogue inspiration so that I could also plan a trip there

Thank you very much!

Slightly OT, guess the km reading in the thread title needs an edit?

Thanks for reminding me of this. I requested the mods to edit the title to say 70,000km completed, and they have already done that. Thanks again for pointing this out!

Originally Posted by Dr.AD

Monsoon Drive to Konkan Coast

Forgot to add the customary picture of the car next to "Suvarna Vidhana Soudha" at Belgaum, while on our way back from this monsoon drive:


After this drive, as totally expected from a drive named as "Monsoon Drive 2022", the car was super dirty. I had a thick layer of dirt and mud all over the car.

The boot and the tail lamp section had a thick layer of mud, which I call natural PPF :



I had to get the car thoroughly washed with high pressure water and cleaned. So I headed to a detailing studio.

Three red cars at the detailing place. Nice coincidence:



The "Before" picture:



Car getting washed with high pressure water and shampoo, and again some high pressure water, all behind this curtain:



And the cleaned car:



The "After" picture:



And finally, a random shot of the cleaned car:


Now the car is cleaned, but given that it is a season for more "monsoon drives", getting the car dirty and getting it cleaned again is going to be a cycle that will be repeated a few times in the coming months!

[carthick1000]

Originally Posted by Dr.AD

Basically this was a plastic piece attached to the roof of the boot with no apparent purpose in my car.

Attachment 2312728
This is that bracket, removed from that roof spot.

Looks like it should be used to hold in place the floor cover of the trunk (see 6 - link) and so strange that they mounted it on the roof of the trunk.

[Dr.AD]

An Eventful Weekend Drive to Karwar (RFT Proves its Worth!)

This weekend, along with a close friend BHPian @praveenbalan (driving his Octavia 1.8 TSi), I did a weekend drive to Karwar. The destination was not important - we just randomly chose something where we got accommodation at a short notice on a major long weekend. The idea was to just enjoy the drive and the monsoon in the coastal area.

It was indeed a beautiful drive that we enjoyed a lot. We got plenty of rains on the way and also in Karwar, and we enjoyed the coastal monsoon. The section of the route between Hubli and Karwar was very scenic (this is one of my favorite roads to drive on). This time, thanks to the heavy rains, this section was even more beautiful with lush green views all around. We absolutely enjoyed driving there!

However, unfortunately, this drive turned out to be an eventful one for me. In short, I had a tyre cut after hitting a nasty surprise pothole, and I lost the entire air pressure instantly. Thankfully, I was running Run Flat Tyres (RFTs), and that saved the day for me. The BMW owners groups (and even many threads on this forum) are full of discussions about whether RFTs are good or bad. I always believed that RFTs were a great safety tool, and thankfully, always chose RFTs over regular tubeless tyres. This weekend my trust in RFTs was proven right! Now after this experience, I am an even stronger believer in the RFTs!

Anyways, more on that a bit later.

We met at a breakfast place in the outskirts of Bangalore to start our weekend drive:



Refueling just before Hubli:



On the beautiful Hubli-Karwar road (this road was indeed very scenic and we enjoyed our drive there):



Lovely roads, nice rain, and lush green views all around:



However, just after this, this routine weekend drive turned eventful. This road between Hubli and Karwar is very scenic for sure, but at the same time, infested with countless "surprise potholes". At most places, the tarmac is smooth and road is wide, encouraging one to drive at decent speeds. However, this is all very deceptive. At numerous locations there are sudden sections with totally broken roads and some massive potholes. One has to constantly be prepared to face such sudden bad patches. It is quite a scary drive due to this.

I managed to avoid most of the potholes and was quite careful in navigating around the potholes and keeping my speeds in check. However, eventually, at one point, there was a massive pothole which was almost invisible due to the location of it with respect to the angle of the road. And almost inevitably, I hit this pothole. I just did not see it at all. I hit this pothole without seeing it or braking at all, and was surprised by a loud thud as soon as I hit it. That impact was scary! The moment I hit it and heard the loud thud, I knew this was going to be a trouble. Even before I could gather my thoughts, just in about 2 seconds, there was a loud chime from the TPMS system, with a message flashing on my iDrive. I pulled over immediately (and safely) to the side of the road, and saw that TPMS was telling me that I had instantly lost all pressure in my front right tyre. All other wheels had normal running pressure, but the front right tyre pressure was 0.0! All in a matter of two seconds!

I got out of the car to check the tyre, and my worst fears turned out to be true. The tyre had a major cut on the sidewall, and there was no hope of fixing it. The tyre was dead on the spot, and I had lost all air inside.

In all my ownership years of the car, I have been reading about similar tyre blowouts in other BMWs, and was part of many discussions about pros and cons of RFTs in such situation. Luckily, until now I never had this experience, and was merely a theoretical participant in such discussions. Finally, this time, it was my turn to have the tyre blowout that I have discussed numerous times in many groups.

In a way, it felt almost inevitable. I have been driving on plenty of bad roads (good roads are anyways rare to find), and plenty of times I have had to hit the potholes on the roads. It is just impossible to keep driving on such roads weekend after weekend and not hit the potholes. Therefore, I had this feeling of inevitability about this incidence. I felt it was just a matter of time. And unfortunately, today was that time.

After accepting the inevitability of this event in a philosophical way, my instant next thought was that I had two things in my favor: One, I was running on RFTs, and two, I had a spare tyre (although not a full size, but instead a space saver or "donut") in my trunk.

Even the iDrive message (it was a nice and elaborate message telling me what to do - unfortunately I forgot to take a photo of that message) said that for vehicles equipped with Run Flat Tyres, "you may continue your journey with speeds less than 80km/h". It was a bit funny to see exactly 0.0 psi as the pressure value for front right tyre in the TPMS, but this message about continuing the journey was encouraging. This is where I realized how valuable RFTs are in real life!

It was raining on and off all the time there, and it was drizzling already again. Therefore, instead of trying my DIY skills to change to the space saver under that rain in that forest road, I decided to drive on till I found a tyre shop. After all, that is the whole point of RFTs. Even the iDrive message said the same thing. So why not use the RFTs to their full potential? With that thought, we decided to slowly drive on (never crossing even 60 km/h, forget about 80km/h that the iDrive message said) till we found a tyre shop.

At that point, we were 72km away from Karwar. I did not think we could reach that far. The next big town on our way, about 35km or so further ahead, was Ankola. I thought we would find some proper tyre shop at Ankola. Unfortunately, as it turned out, we did not see any tyre shop at all on the road all the way till we reached Karwar.

It took what felt like forever to reach Karwar at that speed of about 40km/h. The roads were lovely. But there were still too many surprise potholes. I knew the RFT would hold till Karwar if I drive slow and very carefully. RFTs are supposed to be capable of being driven about 100km or so on zero pressure. Today I was testing that theory to the limit, in real-world conditions!

While I was slow and confident, it was funny to see the reactions of other cars passing me. They were looking strangely at this BMW going at such a slow speed and asking everyone else to overtake it on this lovely scenic road. They must have thought I was some new driver. Some of them noticed the flat tyre while passing me, and their reaction was of shock and horror. Most people tried to signal to me that my tyre was flat. I just waved at them and gave them a thank you gesture. I continued on looking for a tyre shop.

While I was driving at this slow speed, carefully avoiding all further potholes and maneuvering the car as carefully and as slowly as possible, my buddy @praveenbalan drove behind me patiently. It was a great moral support to have him behind me in all this drama. It must have been a horribly boring experience for him to drive his lovely Octavia 1.8TSi so slowly on the sections of good roads, but he stayed with me throughout. Thanks a lot to @praveenbalan for being with me through that ordeal!

Finally, we reached Karwar. We asked the locals about a tyre shop (we still did not see any tyre shop on the highway even in Karwar), and they told us a of a local shop which also was a Wheel Alignment center in Karwar. I promptly drove there.

I forgot to click the photos of the tyre immediately when the incidence happened. That time, there was a big sidewall cut. However, after driving on for 72km after that, the sidewall cut increased a lot, and the tyre looked like it was about to disintegrate dramatically.

This is how the tyre looked after 72km of driving on zero pressure, with a sidewall cut to begin with:



A closer look. This also shows (as is theoretically known) that the RFTs can hold for about 100km or so on zero pressure, but not longer than that. This would have totally disintegrated soon for sure:



This is the wheel alignment center that I went to. This turned out to be a nice shop. They were well equipped, and the gentleman there was quite knowledgeable:


I asked him to inspect the space saver tyre. Luckily for me, the space saver was in perfect condition (it was never used).

Space saver tyre. This was 135/80/R17 size:



My car with the space saver in front right position:


I discussed with him about the possibility of finding a new tyre in that area. He told me it will be almost impossible to find a tyre in 225/50/R17 size (my stock size) in that area, and my best chances would be to drive to Goa or Hubli and search there. At the same time, he gave me the confidence that if I drive slowly, without crossing 80km/h, I could drive back to Bangalore on the space saver!

The other relevant fact was that all four of my current tyres were very close to the end of life anyways. I had already driven about 38,000 km on this set of four RFTs, and I was going to replace them very soon anyways. That meant that I did not need just one new tyre, but wanted to buy a set of four tyres together.

Given that this was a long weekend, and most tyre shops might be closed anyways, it looked even less probable to be able to find four new RFTs in my stock size (availability of which even in cities like Bangalore is often a problem) that weekend in that area.

Considering all this, and after a discussion with the expert in that tyre shop, I decided to slowly and carefully drive back towards Bangalore on the space saver; to at least reach Hubli and then maybe review the situation. That would be a drive back the next day. For the rest of the day that day, I just decided to stay calm and enjoyed my time there.

A calming and peaceful sunset at Karwar, overlooking Kali river meeting the sea, amidst all the tyre drama:


Next morning, we started back and I continued driving very slowly and carefully to Hubli. My plan was to reach Hubli first, and then review the situation. If required, I could search for new tyres in Hubli, or even stay there for one more night if required.

Drive from Karwar to Hubli on that space saver was probably the most nervous drive for me in a long time. That is a proper ghat road, and again infested with potholes. The one area where space saver would be very weak would be the cornering abilities. I decided to not even cross 40 km/h in those corners. I continued driving very carefully, staying under 40 km/h through the turns, and staying at about 70km/h in the straights. Theoretically, the space saver tyre has a limit of 80km/h.

Thankfully, that long, slow and careful drive from Karwar to Hubli was uneventful, and we reached Hubli safe and fine.

The space saver holding the fort as we reached Hubli:


After reviewing the situation at Hubli, I felt confident that I can continue driving to Bangalore. I requested @praveenbalan to go ahead at his own speed (no point in holding him back with me on the six-lane highway). After that, I had a long and slow drive on that six-lane highway from Hubli to Bangalore.

This was the first time where the Speed Limiter feature in my car came useful. I set the speed limiter to 80km/h (so that even by mistake I do not exceed this speed), stayed in the leftmost (slow) lane, and continued driving towards Bangalore at speeds just under 80 km/h.

Speed Limiter set to 80 km/h in the return journey:


It was a bit of a funny experience to drive so slowly on this beautiful, straight six-lane highway. The road looked totally different, and it was a totally different experience to drive here without crossing 80 km/h. I understand that even the official speed limit is 100km/h on the six-lane highways. I was well below that.

Actually I enjoyed this experience too. The car felt absolutely stable and almost standstill at 80km/h, even on the space saver! It was a supremely comfortable ride. I could get time to see around. I started enjoying the greenery around, the clouds in the sky, the beautiful road that I could see for kilometers ahead in front of me, and the lovely weather in general. I even started enjoying the music playing in the car. I had plenty of time to appreciate all these other things and enjoy the slow but peaceful journey. It was a memorable drive for sure.

A side-benefit of such a slow drive on the straight highway was that I got phenomenal fuel economy! The numbers I was seeing on the MID were unheard of.

After the first 3 hours of driving from Hubli, I got such crazy FE numbers of more than 28 km/l (and my average speed was still not too bad while not crossing 80km/h at all):



And when I refueled on the way, I got this astounding range of 1300km thanks to the super efficient slow drive (notice the TPMS error flashing - this was because the fourth wheel sensor still was recording 0 pressure; I had to drive back with this error flashing throughout the return drive):



Slowly and steadily, eventually I reached Bangalore fine and safe. The stats for the journey from Hubli to Bangalore showed some unbelievable numbers:


Even before I drove back to Bangalore, I had called my usual tyre shop, Madhus Tyre Center in Wilson Garden Bangalore, and had taken appointment for buying and installing new tyres. Luckily for me, they had my choice of tyres in stock and available for installing next day itself.

So the very next day, I visited Madhus Tyre Center, and got four brand new tyres installed.

I decided to go with the same Michelin Primacy 3 ZP (ZP = Zero Pressure = Run Flat in Michelin speak), which I had a good experience with over the last 38,000km of driving.

If I had any remote thought of switching to non-RFTs (normal tubeless tyres), that was totally vanished when I had a first-hand experience of the uselessness of RFTs this weekend. Now there was not even a smallest doubt in my mind that RFTs are worth it, and are indeed a safety tool.

A set of four new tyres that I got at Madhus:



Decided to go with the same Michelin Primacy 3 ZP in my stock size of 225/50/R17:



The car getting new tyres installed at Madhus:



Alignment in progress after the new tyres:


As always, the experience at Madhus was fantastic. It is my go to place for any and all tyre and wheel related matters, and this time too, I was impressed by their professional and courteous service. Overall a great experience at Madhus, as always.

So this is how this weekend turned out to be. Overall a great learning experience for me.

My apologies or this long post on a relatively simple matter of a tyre failure. But since RFTs are so often discussed in various threads, I thought it may be useful to give a detailed account of what happened.

Let me summarize the key lessons I learnt below:

1. RFTs are a a great safety tool. I was already a believer in RFTs, and this experience makes my beliefs even stronger!
2. With RFTs, you can indeed drive for about 80km or so (or maybe 100km at max), even on zero pressure. No need to immediately change the tyres in the middle of the road, under challenging conditions such as rain or in difficult spots. This can be a huge benefit in some situations (and not so much of a big deal in some other situations).
3. However, even with RFTs, a spare tyre (even just a space saver) is a must! What saved the day for me in reality was the space saver. Else even if you drive to the next town on RFTs with zero pressure, you would still be stuck in that town because chances of availability of typical BMW stock sized tyres in smaller towns are almost zero! A spare tyre (even a space saver) is a must.
4. I will not do any future drives without the space saver tyre in my trunk now.
5. The space saver or the "donut" as we jokingly call it, in spite of all the jokes, is still quite a capable and useful thing. You can actually drive on that, provided you are slow and careful. It does not look so ridiculous when fitted on the car. It can safely and comfortably take you to the nearest big city (or even back to your home city) where you can buy proper new tyres.

Well, that is all from the events of this weekend. Thank you for reading!

[Mnjdnght]

Originally Posted by Dr.AD

RFTs are supposed to be capable of being driven about 100km or so on zero pressure. Today I was testing that theory to the limit, in real-world conditions!

This is one of my pet perennial fears and a real-world first hand account experience such as this is quite confidence inspiring. Thank you.

Originally Posted by Dr.AD

The one area where space saver would be very weak would be the cornering abilities. I decided to not even cross 40 km/h in those corners. I continued driving very carefully, staying under 40 km/h through the turns, and staying at about 70km/h in the straights. Theoretically, the space saver tyre has a limit of 80km/h.

What PSI do you use for the space saver? 50?

Originally Posted by Dr.AD

This was the first time where the Speed Limiter feature in my car came useful. I set the speed limiter to 80km/h (so that even by mistake I do not exceed this speed), stayed in the leftmost (slow) lane, and continued driving towards Bangalore at speeds just under 80 km/h.

Speed limiter feature has now become a default option for me as soon as I cross Kerala borders due to their allergy to speed :-) Good to know another use case for the same.

[Dr.AD]

Originally Posted by Mnjdnght

What PSI do you use for the space saver? 50?

The space saver tyre has several warnings/cautions printed on it, including this one: "Inflate to 60psi".

However, it was not clear to me whether 60psi is only for storing the tyre in the trunk (which is what I first thought and this makes sense to me), or while it is is actually when in use. The tyre expert at that shop confirmed that 60psi is only for storing, and while driving on it, it has to be somewhat normal pressure of about 32psi. I asked him to fill it to 36psi just to be a bit safer on the pressure value.

Later when I installed new tyres and I stored the space saver back in my trunk, I filled it back to 60psi for storing it.

I am still not 100% sure what psi value the space saver should have when it is actually being used.

[ajayc123]

Now that one is a bit strange that you store (I assume in the boot) at 60 psi. Are you expected to deflate it to 32 psi before installing in an emergency situation, if that is the recommended driving psi, when needed ? What would happen if it is driven at 60 psi? Don't know why I am unable to digest this idea.

[indrangiri]

Hi Dr. AD -Excellent write up on the usefullness of the RFT technology especially when stuck in remote locations and unsuitable terrain and weather to change the wheels ourselves.. I am also convinced to continue using RFTs for my 320D.

I had replaced the tyres when I bought the car 2015 model 320D with Bridgestone Potenza RFTs

Good to know that the space saver wheen also played the role in helping you get back to Blore safely although at a lower speed :-)

Safe Driving and keep posting your beautiful write up !!

[Dr.AD]

Originally Posted by ajayc123

Now that one is a bit strange that you store (I assume in the boot) at 60 psi. Are you expected to deflate it to 32 psi before installing in an emergency situation, if that is the recommended driving psi, when needed ? What would happen if it is driven at 60 psi? Don't know why I am unable to digest this idea.

Well, your question is right. But that is precisely a bit of an grey area.

It is clear that the space saver tyre must be "stored" at 60psi. The printed message on the space saver clearly says this. When I googled to find more, I saw the same (60 psi pressure) mentioned in all websites about space saver tyres.

The typical logic is this: "A spare tire is used only in case of emergencies. Therefore, the tire pressure for a spare is 60 PSI. The reason behind such a high PSI is that tires lose air pressure over time. Since acar spare tire remain unused over long periods, it is better to have more air pressure in them. Otherwise, you might come across a situation where the spare tire cannot be used as the air pressure in it is too low." Source: https://www.pitstoparabia.com/en/new...ut-spare-tires . And note that this applies to any spare tyre (even full size spare) and not just the space saver.

However, this does not clearly say (and neither does the BMW manual) about what is the running pressure for a space saver. They all assume that the 60psi will naturally reduce to a lower value when you store that tyre for a long time (maybe years - in my case it was used after 5 years!).

At the same time, maybe just running it at 60psi is fine too. The width of the space saver is quite narrow, and maybe the higher pressure will help it take the load of the car. Maybe I did a mistake in reducing the pressure to 36psi and maybe I should have driven it with whatever pressure was there. However, I was a bit scared of running that tyre at 60psi, because the absolute last thing I wanted was the space saver tyre also blowing out due to excessive pressure. Therefore, I decided to play it safe with 36psi.

But to be honest, I did not check the pressure value after taking it out of the storage. Who knows it might have already dropped to even a lower value in the 5 years of inactivity. I simply asked the guy to set it to 36psi.

So in short, storing the space saver at 60 psi is clear and unambiguous message, as clearly written on the tyre itself. But the running pressure of the space saver seems to be a bit of a grey area.

[Dr.AD]

Originally Posted by indrangiri

I had replaced the tyres when I bought the car 2015 model 320D with Bridgestone Potenza RFTs

Great! I also used Bridgestone Potenza RFTs as my first set of tyres, as they came as OEM tyres with the car. However, I found them to be very noisy. The road noise was a bit too much.

When I switched to Michelin Primacy 3 ZPs, I loved them because they offer all the benefits of RFTs but with much lower road noise and a much nicer ride that the Bridgestone Potenzas.

Safe Driving and keep posting your beautiful write up !!

Thank you very much for your kind words!

By the way, regarding the question of what pressure to set in the space saver, I thought of posting this picture of the specified air pressure as printed on the space saver.

The specified pressure is indeed 420 kPa or 60 psi (sorry for the bad quality of the image - it is a heavy crop from my mobile phone image):

[kiran_aithal]

Thanks again for the wonderful and informative writeup on such an important topic (at least to me!) on RFT.

2 things are clear now (when driven at low speeds)
1. '80 kmph for 100 kms' on a flat RFT is true in the real world
2. 'Donut' or space savers work over long distances too.

During the initial few months into my X4 ownership, I faced a puncture issue on one of the tyres and thought of driving back to Bangalore with the space saver (some 350 odd kms). Since it was a regular nail puncture, the local tyre shop guy fixed it and I faced no problems after that.

Need to change the tyres in next few months and now, I lean towards the RFTs.

[Dr.AD]

Originally Posted by kiran_aithal

Thanks again for the wonderful and informative writeup on such an important topic (at least to me!) on RFT.

Thank you very much for your kind words.

2 things are clear now (when driven at low speeds)
1. '80 kmph for 100 kms' on a flat RFT is true in the real world
2. 'Donut' or space savers work over long distances too.

True. These are the two practical lessons that I learnt this weekend.

During the initial few months into my X4 ownership, I faced a puncture issue on one of the tyres and thought of driving back to Bangalore with the space saver (some 350 odd kms). Since it was a regular nail puncture, the local tyre shop guy fixed it and I faced no problems after that.

True. For "normal" punctures, the RFTs are no different from the regular tubeless tyres. Although this particular incidence was the first for me where the tyre failure was catastrophic, I have had several "normal" punctures on my RFTs in last few years. In most cases, it was enough to just fill air using a portable compressor and drive on. Once while driving from Bangalore to Chennai, I got a TPMS warning for low pressure. I knew it was a puncture. But I just used my portable compressor and filled up the air to 36psi and reached Chennai before the pressure dropped down to 32psi. Sometimes on a very weak leak, you can drive on for days by just filling the air.

At other times, I have stopped at some puncture repair shops on the roadside and got usual plug type repair (when there was no mushroom patch available), or ideally mushroom patch repair done on my tyres. In all cases, it worked perfectly fine and there was no further cause of concern. So yes, punctures on RFTs can be easily fixed just as they can be in normal tubeless tyres.

However, in the worst case (and hopefully a very rare case) when the tyre gets completely damaged beyond repair, like it happened to me, RFTs can still save the day by allowing the car to be driven to the nearby town. A normal tubeless tyre would be totally useless at that point and your only option would be to get down and change to spare wheel right then and there, no matter what the location or the time of the day. This is where RFTs are really useful.

Need to change the tyres in next few months and now, I lean towards the RFTs.

Good call. Given my experiences with RFTs, and given that at least on my F30 I do not find them any harsh to begin with, I see no reason not to choose RFTs. I firmly believe modern RFTs offer the best of both worlds, and I will continue using RFTs in the foreseeable future.

[JoshMachine]

Quite an interesting update, thanks Dr. for sharing

On the A4, it is a tubeless world. In fact, Audi advises not to use run flat tyres!

But as far as the space saver tyre pressure goes, here's the recommended spec for the T125/70 R19:-



Its 60 psi here as well. And from what I recall, the SA mentioned that 60 psi is the running pressure.

[jkrishnakj]

Good first hand experience for you AD with the RFT’s.

That road is notorious. It ate away my 1 week old Innova’s tyres once, a few years back.

Aside, I’m wondering the amount of efforts and self talk that Balan sir would have done to follow you at those speeds.

[Dr.AD]

Originally Posted by JoshMachine

Quite an interesting update, thanks Dr. for sharing

Thank you!

On the A4, it is a tubeless world. In fact, Audi advises not to use run flat tyres!

True. Audis somehow do not use RFTs. The suspensions on the A4 are designed with normal tubeless tyres in consideration. I read in many discussions that for cars designed to run with RFTs, it is possible to run without RFTs and on normal tubeless tyres. But not the other way round. Continue enjoying your A4 without this confusion about run flat tyres :-) You can enjoy the smoother ride with normal tubeless tyres, and also there is a much wider choice in tyres for you than with RFTs.

But as far as the space saver tyre pressure goes, here's the recommended spec for the T125/70 R19:-

Its 60 psi here as well. And from what I recall, the SA mentioned that 60 psi is the running pressure.

OK, great! Thanks a lot for sharing this. This eliminates all confusion. In fact, so stupid of me that it did not occur to me to check the tyre pressure label. But after you shared this picture, I checked the labels for F30 and it does indeed mention 60 psi as the pressure for the space saver.

So yes, 60 psi is indeed the running pressure too for the space saver. I wrongly drove on that at 36 psi then. Next time I would for sure remember to run the donut (hope there is no next time though ) at 60 psi if required.

Thanks again for sharing this and clearing my confusion.

Originally Posted by jkrishnakj

Good first hand experience for you AD with the RFT’s.

Thanks, and yes, a good first hand learning for sure :-)

That road is notorious. It ate away my 1 week old Innova’s tyres once, a few years back.

Oh, ok. Actually in my previous trips I did not find this road to be so bad. Just this time I saw it was deteriorated (only in some patches) quite badly. I think the recent heavy rains are the reason. Else this road was always a pleasure to drive on. Maybe you also drove in the monsoon season last time. All these ghat roads get terribly bad in the monsoon, and then each year they again repair them and they are usually in good shape till April or May. And then the cycle repeats!

Aside, I’m wondering the amount of efforts and self talk that Balan sir would have done to follow you at those speeds.

Haha. True. It must have been a real test of patience for Balan. But very nice of him to stick with me and support me, and I truly appreciate that!