Range Anxiety vs Tire Anxiety

[NewGuy]

After 20,000 miles and two years into my Mach E ownership, I finally had my first bit of range anxiety, which quickly morphed into tire anxiety.

I was driving to a remote part of the Catskill mountains in upstate NY. I had done the round trip before, and mapped it 74 times before I left, so I knew I had enough juice to get there and back. Well, as we got to a few miles away from our destination, the road we had to take was closed due to downed trees and power lines. As we sat in a line of cars I started checking the map to see how far our detour would be. Depending on where the trees were down our detour would add 7 miles...or 40 miles. There aren't any DCFCs nearby. Range anxiety!

Luckily the 7 mile detour sufficed.

What google maps doesn't tell you is a few miles of that new route was on a seasonal dirt road. Oh...fun. ? Some areas were fairly well maintained, though even those spots were like a washboard. Other areas I had to navigate pretty large rocks. "What if one of those rocks takes out a sidewall on my tire?" Cell phone signal was a distant memory. Tire anxiety!

Luckily we made it through unscathed. A flat tire would've made for an interesting hike out of there.

Anyone ever lose a tire or break down in a remote area with no cell signal?

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[Jim D]

After 20,000 miles and two years into my Mach E ownership, I finally had my first bit of range anxiety, which quickly morphed into tire anxiety.

I was driving to a remote part of the Catskill mountains in upstate NY. I had done the round trip before, and mapped it 74 times before I left, so I knew I had enough juice to get there and back. Well, as we got to a few miles away from our destination, the road we had to take was closed due to downed trees and power lines. As we sat in a line of cars I started checking the map to see how far our detour would be. Depending on where the trees were down our detour would add 7 miles...or 40 miles. There aren't any DCFCs nearby. Range anxiety!

Luckily the 7 mile detour sufficed.

What google maps doesn't tell you is a few miles of that new route was on a seasonal dirt road. Oh...fun. ? Some areas were fairly well maintained, though even those spots were like a washboard. Other areas I had to navigate pretty large rocks. "What if one of those rocks takes out a sidewall on my tire?" Cell phone signal was a distant memory. Tire anxiety!

Luckily we made it through unscathed. A flat tire would've made for an interesting hike out of there.

Anyone ever lose a tire or break down in a remote area with no cell signal?

The car has a tire inflator, I bought a plug kit and leave it in the car. I did have to use it once and it got me home and I added almost 18000 miles on the plugged tire before I sold my car. Now it won't help for a sidewall blow out, but it took care of the hole put into the tire by running over a screw.

 

[ack154]

The biggest thing to not blowing a tire on a dirt road is not driving like a mad man. I grew up on dirt roads and definitely blew out a few sidewalls... but it hasn't happened to me since I was a teenager. This, despite driving for miles on dirt roads regularly to visit family and through a couple parks/forest roads.

It's even worse after the roads are freshly graded with new gravel... but it does happen.

But dirt roads do not automatically mean blown tire. People live and drive on dirt roads all the time. Just use average caution and you'll be fine. Probably more likely picking up a puncture or something in a parking lot in my experience.

 

[Jim D]

P.S. Sold the car (Select 4wd) because of range anxiety driving up to the catskills for skiing and upgraded to a GT.

 

[MME2000]

After 20,000 miles and two years into my Mach E ownership, I finally had my first bit of range anxiety, which quickly morphed into tire anxiety.

I was driving to a remote part of the Catskill mountains in upstate NY. I had done the round trip before, and mapped it 74 times before I left, so I knew I had enough juice to get there and back. Well, as we got to a few miles away from our destination, the road we had to take was closed due to downed trees and power lines. As we sat in a line of cars I started checking the map to see how far our detour would be. Depending on where the trees were down our detour would add 7 miles...or 40 miles. There aren't any DCFCs nearby. Range anxiety!

Luckily the 7 mile detour sufficed.

What google maps doesn't tell you is a few miles of that new route was on a seasonal dirt road. Oh...fun. ? Some areas were fairly well maintained, though even those spots were like a washboard. Other areas I had to navigate pretty large rocks. "What if one of those rocks takes out a sidewall on my tire?" Cell phone signal was a distant memory. Tire anxiety!

Luckily we made it through unscathed. A flat tire would've made for an interesting hike out of there.

Anyone ever lose a tire or break down in a remote area with no cell signal?

I am going one step further and throwing in a Aerosol Emergency Flat Tire Repair

 

[HuntingPudel]

I ran into a different tire anxiety when my car was just short of half a year in my possession: Cold. Since my car had Summer UHPs on it from the factory, I drove super-slow through a snow storm that lasted through southern Washington, all of Oregon, and into California. I made it just fine and my tires out-lasted my HVBJB. ??

 

[kindofblue]

After 20,000 miles and two years into my Mach E ownership, I finally had my first bit of range anxiety, which quickly morphed into tire anxiety.

I was driving to a remote part of the Catskill mountains in upstate NY. I had done the round trip before, and mapped it 74 times before I left, so I knew I had enough juice to get there and back. Well, as we got to a few miles away from our destination, the road we had to take was closed due to downed trees and power lines. As we sat in a line of cars I started checking the map to see how far our detour would be. Depending on where the trees were down our detour would add 7 miles...or 40 miles. There aren't any DCFCs nearby. Range anxiety!

Luckily the 7 mile detour sufficed.

What google maps doesn't tell you is a few miles of that new route was on a seasonal dirt road. Oh...fun. ? Some areas were fairly well maintained, though even those spots were like a washboard. Other areas I had to navigate pretty large rocks. "What if one of those rocks takes out a sidewall on my tire?" Cell phone signal was a distant memory. Tire anxiety!

Luckily we made it through unscathed. A flat tire would've made for an interesting hike out of there.

Anyone ever lose a tire or break down in a remote area with no cell signal?

Belt and suspenders here especially when you could be in areas without cell service. We have a complete spare tire w/jack, etc. from modernspare.com as well as a tire plug kit and of course the OEM inflator.

 

[MellowJohnny]

Belt and suspenders here especially when you could be in areas without cell service. We have a complete spare tire w/jack, etc. from modernspare.com as well as a tire plug kit and of course the OEM inflator.

Thanks for posting that link - I'm constantly amazed at the stuff I discover on this forum. I'd never even considered something like that - thanks Reid!

 

[RickMachE]

I am going one step further and throwing in a Aerosol Emergency Flat Tire Repair

Go look in the trunk...

 

[tuminatr]

I don't worry about it, if I did I would just buy a spare tire and put it in the trunk for a trip like that. The range rover Evoque uses the same bolt pattern and overall tire diamater so a spare from it would work. Go on www.car-part.com and locate one at a local junkyard for cheap. On a side note the RR uses a 18" spare and that would work on all except the GTPE

 

[CarsIMBwife]

In 2021 someone on the forum swapped out their wheel/tires and posted they had 4 for sale. My husband bought one of them. That arrived before our cars did. That goes into the back along with a jack and mounts for all road trips. I’ve had to use it locally a couple of times. The first time was just when I had 600 miles on the car. It took two weeks for Ford to get a replacement tire. Ah, 2021, those were the days ?

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