On my last day of our trip I got a flat tire. I was thinking so what! I have my new 12 volt air pump and a patch kit! I was set to get this fixed and back on the trail in no time. So I exit the vehicle to check out the damage. My first issue was the bead was broken and had to be re-seated. The RZR was on the ground makeing this impossible to do. I just happened to be next to a large rock in the shape of ramp! Woot:clap: So I wheeled the UTV onto the rock with the wheel hanging off the side so I can attempt to push the bead back to get air into the tire. Well this failed because every time I spread the bead to the edge on one side, the other side would slip back into the rim. I really needed a ratchet strap to wrap around the wheel to seat the bead. Of coarse I did not have a ratchet strap, but one will be added to my RZR before my next ride! I was able to use my winch to wrap around the wheel and seat the bead:popcorn: I was so excited and ready to get this hole fixed. Unfortunately when I started to add air to find the hole, it was more like an L shaped tear on the side wall:cus: I tried multiple plugs, but they just pushed out when air was added.

So now I have my RZR about 40 miles from my car with a flat tire on a semi technical 50" trail. I’m to fat to try to walk 20 miles to the closest main road, so the wife and I decide to limp the RZR and drive with a flat tire:sad: This worked, but made for a long, slow, and dangerous ride. Many parts of these trails have some off camber sections and the side of the trail drops off the mountain. I was finally able to get off the 50" section of trail and make it to a Jeep road. This part is still semi technical, but I at least have more width to avoid the cliffs:clap: I then make it to a gravel road that will take me to town….in about 13 miles! I already drove 20 miles and did not feel like trying another 13 miles to town. Plus it was getting dark and almost everything would already be closed.

I found a cabin close where some other riders were staying. They were really helpful and offered to drive me to town. I was shocked to find it was a 3 hour drive (one way) to get to my car/trailer. We took a pass over the mountain, I never thought about taking the road before:) So asking for a ride 6 hours round trip was out of the question. On our way to town we stopped by a camp ground that rented Jeeps. This sounded like a good option! They let me rent a Jeep for a 1/2 day for about $135.00. I drove the Jeep back the cabin where my wife and RZR were waiting. The great people that were staying there were feeding while I was out getting the Jeep. The guy we rented the Jeep from told us to take a semi easy mountain pass to shave some time off the 3 hour drive. We did this, but wish we took the road! A Jeep mountain pass a night is bad news! Making turns on a switch back while going up hill is impossible to see with the stock Jeep lighting. When we got to the top of the Mountain I was so happy we made it! Going down the mountain was much easier. The lights seem to work much better going down hill:) So we make to my car/trailer, drive back to the hotel, and it’s just after 12:30AM. We need to get up in 5 hours to and make the 3 hour drive back to the RZR. Then have to drive back to St Louis……another 20 hours:sad:

So my lesson learned is to bring a spare tire:clap: If I had a spare tire I could have just finished my ride, gained about 2 years of life that I lost from all the stress, saved a wheel that’s now completely trashed, saved the price of a Jeep rental, and avoided the "stink eye" my wife gave me during all of this.

Here is a picture of rock I used to lift the tire

Picture of using the winch to wrap around the tire to spread the bead back out.

Picture of my wife on top of the mountain pass around 10:30 at night trying to get back to my car. Don’t let that smile fool you…she was not happy:sad: