Runflats
 

Has anyone here actually installed runflats on your 86 or BRZ and have experience with them on this platform?

Pros?

Cons?

How do the stiffer sidewalls handle rough roads and potholes?

Recommended brand and model?

I use my BRZ as a daily and long distance driver across the hurricane zone along the Gulf Coast. After every hurricane I end up with flats because of all the nails and screws littered in the road when people start hauling away demolition debris.

It's inconvenient to have to stop many miles from home to get a tire patched, but it's worse when they say, "Oh, that's too close to the sidewall, but I could get you a new tire here in three days." Looking for alternative solutions.

The only thing a runflat will fix is that you might be able to drive home without changing the tire. You will still have to get it patched and you still have the same "too close to the sidewall" issue. You will also typically pay more for a replacement.

The one advantage would be if you had multiple tires flat at the same time.

He drives long distances and wishes to avoid delays when a replacement would need to be shipped to some remote location.

OK, but that only matters if more than one tire is flat (assuming he has not removed the spare from the car).

Keep in mind thatRunflats are typically only rated for a limited distance at lower speeds and will still need to be replaced. However it is not uncommon at all for places not to have them in stock and you having to wait days for them to be able to get them. Heck I had to wait as long as a month for a winter runflat replacement!

Frankly you are better off with a plug kit, a can of fix-a-flat and a portable air compressor, which is exactly what I did when I got rid of the runflats on my previous car (BMW).

So you have specific experience with runflats on your 86? Please tell me more about that.

give me a break. runflats came on a ton of other cars, mostly GM vehicles. it doesn't matter which other vehicle the rubber rolled under, the conditions will be the same. a tire is a bladder of air, mounted to a round hunk of metal, that rolls. the tech of the tire might be more specific, but there are no tires in the entire world that would act in an entirely different way when installed on 2 different vehicles. the characteristics of runflats are well known at this point.

the only benefit to a run-flat over a normal tire is that they can be driven on to a safe-er location instead of just simply shredding in seconds on deflation.

runflat's never really caught on because the overall expense per tire is a lot more, availability is iffy at best on a normal day, and the theoretical 'convienience' isn't significantly improved over a 5-tire, or 4-tire/fix-a-flat setup.

runflat's have their origins in military applications, where teams needed to GTFO of a bad situation, and the vehicles were taking on tire damage. runflats allowed them to actually GTFO, where a standard tire would strand them within range of the opposition.

runflat's aren't going to help during cleanup after a hurricane, but will help during evacuating if you just need to get a few more miles to safety.

What you will experience is ride dynamics that are much stiffer, as the biggest difference in a runflat tire is a much stiffer sidewall. This is what lets you drive on a flat tire without immediately shredding the tire.

As for rough roads and potholes, you will absolutely experience a rougher ride and will probably be at a higher risk level of damaging your rims (although I really don't know how much of an increase).

Initially I kept the runflats on my last car, as my wife would drive it at times and I didn't want her possibly getting stuck in a car that did not have a spare (FYI, improving MPG by the weight reduction of eliminating the spare tire is the most common reason car makers use them). Once my wife decided she wasn't going to drive the car often I made the switch to regular tires. The difference in ride was quite apparent.

One of the first things many enthusiasts do when getting a sporty car with runflats is to get rid of them, as the driving dynamics are pretty much always much better with standard tires. On top of this there is a miniscule selection of runflats compared to normal tires making it much more difficult to get a tire that fits your particular driving style or needs.

If the safety aspects of a runflat outweigh the driving dynamics of a car, by all means go that route. Ultimately only you can decide what is right for you.

I don't know why I bothered.

WTF else were you looking for. I think I pretty much spelled it out.

The only pros are the ability to drive a distance that should get you to a safe place and that they probably handle a blowout slightly better.

The cons are a poorer ride, in almost all cases worse handling and generally being quite a bit more expensive.

As for a recommendation the best compromise is probably the Bridgestone DriveGuard. It is generally considered to be the runflat that affects the ride the least.

I have an alternative for you to consider. Invest in an EXTRA SET of matching rims and tires that you can store at home, keeping one in the trunk for emergency change outs.

Whenever you need to change a tire, bring the flat home and then throw one of your extras back in the trunk and take the flat in to get repaired or replaced as needed. Throw the newly repaired/replaced tire back into your inventory at home and occasionally rotate the spare sets into use keeping track of the mileage and age of each one in order to keep them all within an even amount of wear.

I don't have FRS experience with runflats, only BMW experience. Runflats are nice when you do go flat. The ride, at least back then, was rougher, but it wasn't night and day.

If you get 18" wheels, you can run 225 40 18 tires and get a whole bunch of choices of runflats, and they're always in stock. Bridgestone makes a low performance runflat in stock frs size. Doesn't look good to me.

If I were in your shoes, I'd do it and carry a spare.

Not that I need to justify my question, but for additional context:

I recently had a low tire on a very long bridge through the swamp, where it would have been extremely dangerous to pull over and change it. People have been killed out there. I drive numerous dangerous roads like this in AL, MS and LA. That's what got me seriously considering alternatives.

I also used to have 18x9.5 rims before cracking two of them on one of Louisiana's ubiquitous potholes. I'm back on stock rims at the moment, but I'm considering going back to larger ones. I don't particularly like the idea of replacing one of them with a donut, especially on the rear.

Additionally, my repeated experience with nails from demo debris is that they usually result in a slow leak if they're just left in place, not a blowout. I already carry a Ryobi inflator as part of my emergency kit. I could usually nurse a runflat longer than the 50 or 60 mile emergency range by reinflating. Yes, I have done this with a regular tire, but I would feel more comfortable doing it with stronger sidewalls in case the nail plugging the hole became dislodged.

I can get kevlar tires for my Jeep, but nobody makes a kevlar sport tire yet. So I'm looking at runflats.

I have done this in the past. It doesn't address having a flat away from home.

I travel extensively, which requires luggage. There's just enough room for my suit bag, laptop bag and emergency supplies. Attempting to reconfigure my bags to cram in a full sized spare would make all the time I didn't need a spare considerably more annoying and can't be considered a serious solution.

Thanks for the info. I had already read discussion of them on the BMW boards, and I have a family member who has experience with them on Corvettes. But those are very different cars that might absorb changes in handling differently from our less forgiving suspension and steering. Therefore I wasn't sure I could really trust those reviews for our cars.

Given this I would say that runflats may indeed be a good option for you.

But I would recommend staying with either the stock wheels or some other 17" wheel. The combination of less sidewall by going wtih 18's and stiffer sidewalls from the runflats will likely not be a good combination for your rims or the ride. Especially on a car (BRZ/86) that was not designed to be used with runflats :cheers:

I will add that one of my big reasons for recommending the Bridgestone DriveGuard is that this tire was in part designed with the intention of being used on cars that did not originally come with runflats and provides a little more forgiving ride than most other runflats when it comes to stiffness.