Always be prepared!

 Austin Walker @T4r_Canyoncrawler

"So we were leaving camp ahead of schedule and we just aired up leaving Moab. When the camper hauler in front of us was rushed so they had a few things fly off their vehicle and with the traffic coming in for EJS and leaving I didn’t have time to swerve so I ran over this little shiny thing. Seconds later my TPMS sensor turned on and I knew I messed up.

    I pulled over to look at the situation and saw my tire was cooked, tons of air was whistling out from where the metal piece had entered my tire and I remembered how I still hadn’t gotten a spare... I was panicked because of all places you’d think a shop would be open but nope not in Utah on a Sunday so I was stumped on getting a new tire. I started calling my buddies, who were still in camp that I needed help and my dad and brother stopped to see if they could help.

At this point I was on my way to pull out the metal piece with a set of dikes I had in my tool kit, once I removed the metal I started prepping for the plug. All while thinking, "after this no more adventures until I get this spare." It was stupid of me and I’d never make that mistake again because anyone should always be prepared for these situations to happen.

After I plugged the tire and held the lighter to it it seemed to be curing well, and my brother had his power tank he aired me up. After that we waited to see if the air would hold, around 5 minutes passed before we started our adventure back home.

A stupid mistake without those tools could have cost me to miss work or even could have caused something more major if I hadn't noticed it as quickly."

We believe everyone can learn from each other's mistakes and grow as a community. Having a spare tire is incredibly important when you are out on the trails, it could be such an issue if you lose a tire. If you don't have the necessary equipment things can go from bad to worse, quickly. 

Stay safe, have fun and adventure.