Epic Taycan Tire Tale

[Jonathan S.]

Starts on June 6 at treeline on Mt Washington NH.
Ends on … hmm, the odyssey is not quite complete, although the tire has been replaced.
Will start posting it tomorrow if my wife does some of the driving as we return from this long complicated roadtrip.
Or the day after during my train ride home.
(See, definitely a complicated road trip!)
Note that this is not related to any particular drawback of the Taycan.
But it does have some unusual pics!

Sponsored

 

[cityhpper]

High expectations now, @Jonathan S.

 

[MrJones02]

Cliffhanger

 

[SergeyIndy]

Must be epic, we love your stories.

I recently lost Smart Lift menu and I was in a tailspin, printing Fuse #8 reset instructions, and then...it came back a day later. End of story.

 

[Jonathan S.]

Uh oh, pressure is on!
Or rather, was off -- I actually didn't intend that to be come a pun.

Anyway ...

Back on the morning of Friday June 6, I started driving my 4CT up the Mt Washington NH summit auto road for some turns on the NE Snowfield.

Admittedly, this was a somewhat silly outing: the skiable vertical was only ~350’ and I was flying out early on the morning of Monday June 9 for four days of backcountry skiing and ski mountaineering in the Pacific Northwest (specifically, the famed SW Chutes on Mt Adams and the Palmer and Zigzag snowfields on Mt Hood). Plus I had enjoyed some truly first-rate late-season skiing back on May 27: https://www.strava.com/activities/14615182068

But despite driving up to my place the evening before, I was still able to play tennis with our daughter after her team practice, and I would return in time on Friday to play tennis with her that evening too. In between I could get in some convenient ski turns, since the top of the NE Snowfield is right next to a parking pullout (closer than a ski resort parking lot is to the lodge, and even closer than some lodges are to the lifts), and also do a few things at my place in Twin Mountain. Plus I have an auto road season pass, so no incremental cost (aside from the kWh).

I was close to treeline, almost halfway up the nearly eight-mile road, when a slow car in front of me pulled off to a parking lot. I accelerated suddenly, but nothing too dramatic, especially given the incline, plus I have only a 4CT. This is one of many sections that was repaved this spring, so totally smooth. I doubt that I was driving much faster than 30mph.

Yet …

BOOM!

 

[Jonathan S.]

I sure felt it, but I never saw it, whatever it was, either before or after – and eventually both I and another person would look carefully in that area, yet never saw any debris, pavement imperfection, or anything that could have caused such a sidewall blowout. Total mystery. (Michelin CC2, 245/40R20, something like 8/32” remaining tread, even wear, purchased fall 2023.)

I happened to have the left tube set to tire pressure and watched with dismay as the right rear went down to nothing almost immediately.

Hmm, what to do? Just pulling off to the side is not an option: the road does not have a side, and is instead just barely widely enough for two-way traffic. Plus too steep to jack up a car. (The joking motto for the running race I’ve done several times up the summit road is that the course is easy: “Only one hill!” A few sections feel flat, but they’re not, just less steep.) I could have tried turning around back to the parking pullout I had just passed.

But I knew that the old Signal Corps site just around a corner is a large flat parking lot. I slowed to ~3mph hoping that would not damage the wheel over a few hundred feet.

I set the parking brake and put the car into Lift mode, then removed everything I needed from the cargo bay. Although I certainly didn’t want to have to do all this, whenever I do change out a wheel, I think back fondly to my father, who despite being a stereotypical absent-minded history professor with few practical skills, took great pride in teaching me how to change out a flat.

Fortunately the rain forecast for midday seemed to be holding off until then, despite how we were in the clouds, and the black flies despite swarming were not biting. (For anyone not familiar with this scourge, first, consider yourself lucky! They are more like the size of gnats yet cause vicious welts. Their season up north is often defined as Mother’s Day to Father’s Day, although they usually aren’t as bad at higher elevations, but we were kind of on the edge of their territory.)

I hooked up the air compressor to my Vredestein collapsible spare and started jacking up my Taycan with my Modern Spare scissor jack (which works so well that I used only one arm).

A van tour driver came by and asked if assistance was necessary – I said that this should be fixed soon, but she radioed for a crew to come up just in case.

 

[Jonathan S.]

Jacked up the car enough to see light under the tire, removed the bolts, and … stuck.

Hmm.

Reattached the bolts loosely, lowered the car, removed the jack, drove at one-quarter impulse power about one car length, moving the steering wheel back and forth slowly.

Jacked the car back up, removed the bolts, and the wheel was free! (Although the problem actually might have been that the inner shoulder of the tire was still in contact with the pavement, even though the outer shoulder was clear, so made a note to ensure next time that I can see daylight all the way underneath the tire.)

Picked up my inflated Vredestein collapsible spare in triumph.

Hmm, having trouble aligning it with the hub. Went back to my kit and screwed in some hanger pins.

Uh oh!

I wasn’t sure what was worse: the ramifications of messing this up, or that I had been so cavalier about this. Sure I had been prepared with a Vredestein collapsible spare, but I’d never bothered with a test fit, or even careful measurements, relying instead upon a successful test fit posted to this forum.

Later that today, upon searching both this forum and my eBay history, I would realize that I had not bought that Cayenne spare discussed at this forum. Instead, I had noticed that the Vredestein collapsible spare for the Macan was 19”, instead of 18” for the Cayenne, so even better, right? And the Macan shares the same 5x130 bolt pattern.

The current Macan, that is. Not that Macan from the year of my eBay wreck, which was 5x112 back in the day.

Ugh.

 

[Jonathan S.]

So close to pulling off a flat change-out at treeline on the northeast’s highest peak. Probably also the highest public (even if paid) paved road in the northeast, despite being far away from the summit. If only I’d done a test fit. Or just stayed with the tired & true Cayenne collapsible Vredestein spare. (BTW, in case anyone is wondering, the spare puffs out while you’re jacking up the car, and the valve stem is removable, like on a Presta bike, so deflates almost instantly and then collapses completely.)

Taking stock, worse things can certainly happen while driving. And ditto for Mt Washington. (Although the road itself has a nearly perfect safety record.)

I thought back to Ian Forgays, with whom I had skied toured a couple times, and with whom I shared a common friend, and who died on Mt Washington in an avalanche in Ammonusuc Ravine four seasons earlier.

And Nick Benedix, whom I met on a wonderful April day in Mt Washington’s Huntington Ravine two seasons before that, and with whom I had such a lively time chatting, including my relatively brief point that I thought he should not proceed with his plan of skiing Raymond Cataract, where he then triggered his fatal avalanche.

And two months before that, Jeremy Ullmann, whose parents knew my parents well enough that when I attended his shiva (which, given our similar characteristics, was about as close as you can get to attending your own funeral), just about a block or so off the route I had walked to my elementary school, following his fatal fall in Mt Washington’s Huntington Ravine, I just introduced myself as the son of my parents, and his father immediately recalled so many amusing elements of my later father.

So if that’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever done on Mt Washington … well, I did trigger that avalanche the prior year, but I was a small avalanche, and it made for a highly educational presentation at the Eastern Snow and Avalanche Workshop, so let’s hope the couple hundred attendees learned something from that mistake of mine!

 

[Jonathan S.]

The auto road crew arrived, and quite enthusiastically greeted me with: “We get to work on a Porsche!”

Sorry guys, I spec’ed the wrong aftermarket spare – need a flat-bed tow.

Meanwhile, I called some local tire shops to see if anyone might have a 285/40R20, or anything close, to mount as a temp spare of sorts to drive back home to Western Mass.

Usually, this would not be a big rush. I could have the car towed to VIP tires in Gorham NH, order a replacement tire, in a couple days be back on the road. Missing out on the skiing would not be a big deal, since the skiing was more for novelty value than anything else at this time of year.

However, the problem was that our daughter’s dance studio annual performance was on Sunday early afternoon. Last year, when I picked her up from a practice session, she told me how excited she was that my wife and I would be watching her at Northampton’s Academy of Music, which is quite a venue.

Umm, actually, I already booked a flight for a PNW ski trip that day. Massive disappointment. So I delayed my trip by a day, and I have to admit, that was worth it, what a performance!

This year I was once again flying out the next day, on Monday, but I had to get back to Western Mass in time for the Sunday dance performance. I looked into public transportation, and the only option for accomplishing the ~2:50 drive from Twin Mtn NH to Amherst MA would take something like sixteen hours via bus. Fortunately my wife was available to retrieve me on Saturday, whew!

Meanwhile though, I had to get down the mountain. The auto road crew had a two-seat pickup truck, so no room for me. The tow truck also had only two seats, with two people, so no room for me. But the auto road would call for a tour van just for me, driven by the manager of their van tours. Tim and I had so much fun talking about hiking that he offered to drive me into Gorham since he lived there and was finishing up work then anyway.

And on the drive to Gorham we had so much fun talking about hiking that he upgraded that to included the hour-long roundtrip drive to Twin Mtn if I would throw him a few bucks for gas. (I offered to pay for an entire tank at the nearby gas station there, but he refused that.)

In case you’re wondering, why not just Uber it?, no Uber drivers up there. The funny part is that if you request a ride in the app, Uber will give you rates, but … no ride will ever occur. (Instead, a few services are available who cater to hikers who want a morning drop-off at one trailhead while finishing up somewhere else.)

 

[Jonathan S.]

My Taycan was securely (sort of) stored at a diesel yard, I was back in Western Mass on Saturday afternoon, and half-a-dozen purchases were en route from eBay and UTire for replacement right rear tire, the correct Vredestein collapsible spare, plus tires and wheels to set up full-size front and rear spares to keep in Twin Mountain.

Fortunately the diesel yard was fine with keeping the car there for awhile, sans storage fee (although that tow fee certainly provided them with sufficient compensation, but hard to disentangle the usual Porsche Tax from the rather unusual Near-Alpine Tow Tax).

Sunday afternoon was the dance performance, then up at 3:30 Monday morning for my flight, ski Monday afternoon into Thursday, fly home Friday, mount full-size spares at Firestone back home Sunday morning, drive to Twin Mountain Sunday afternoon, retrieve Taycan Monday.

What could possibly go wrong with that timing?

Client informed me that the case I thought for sure would settle would instead start trial on Tuesday. But I would definitely testify Friday. Then fly home Saturday. So my Taycan Tire Timeline was still On Track!

Then the judge fell ill. He didn’t want to delay the trial, since it had already been delayed by years, in part because was the judge for the Theranos trials, which set back his docket by many months at least.

But each trial day was short, then shorter, then sometimes cancelled entirely.

The plus side was then I got in two more ski days, in between on-line prep with my client.

The negative side was that I would be testifying Wednesday June 18 (instead of the previously promised Friday June 13), fly home Thursday June 19, Taycan Tire work on Friday June 20 and Saturday June 21, leaving me zero margin before our Sunday June 22 departure on a two-week family roadtrip of Amherst MA > Washington DC > Charleston SC > Savannah GA > Williamsburg VA > Milton DE > Amherst MA.

What could possibly go wrong with that timing?

 

[Jonathan S.]

Client told me to arrive at the San Jose CA courthouse by 11 Wednesday morning. But the witness before me didn’t finish until the lunch break.
And court didn’t start up afterwards until 1:30. Court sometimes doesn’t go past 4.
Oh please oh please let me finish up my testimony today so that I can fly home tomorrow morning!

The other side had quickly established a reputation for cross-examinations that were anything but quick.
Then my testimony was interrupted by a hearing of some woman who had violated parole or probations terms with a positive cocaine result along with something else.
She didn’t speak any English, and we were wondering whether ICE might suddenly appear in the hallway to drag her away.

But soon everything got back on schedule: my testimony finished up at 3:30.
Then a couple hours later (after apologies to my clients who were getting started on drinks and dinner), I had to excuse myself for an appointment with the driver of a certain red 911 convertible:
@daveo4EV !

You might think from his posts here that he is knowledgeable, interesting, generous, etc.

But in person, actually he is … even more so!

(Plus great taste in restaurants. Dio Deko staff were professional, efficient, and exceedingly polite yet stopping short of obsequiousness. Fish was merely excellent, whereas the spinach and potatoes were impossibly good – those two items will never be the same again anywhere else. And the focaccia bread appetizer, whoah! The spread that came with it was kind of wasted, like bouncing the rubble. Although that spread would turn even stale bread into a delicacy. The dessert lacked chocolate but despite that inherent disadvantage was still excellent.)

Looking forward to meeting up with @daveo4EV in September when he’s out east, since talking with him for three hours straight was nowhere near long enough!

 

[Jonathan S.]

Thursday morning, awoke at 4:31 in my downtown San Jose hotel room and was at the SJC gate at 4:57. Yes, that’s right, a total of 26 minutes for leaving my hotel room, catching my Uber to the airport, clearing security, etc. After so many delays for this trial, everything was now moving smoothly!

After a long layover in DFW, arrived into BDL then drove home to Amherst MA in time for almost an hour of tennis with our daughter.

Then stayed up until midnight unboxing and repacking all tire and wheel purchases. Plus my wife’s plug-in fridge for our upcoming roadtrip. And opened a wonderfully appropriate card for Father’s Day (which I’d missed b/c of the trial).

 

[Jonathan S.]

Friday morning, awoke around 7 to arrive at the Hadley MA Firestone at 7:30 to mount the two full-size spares.
My A6ar was also loaded up with its own OEM Vredestein collapsible spare and my full-spare – not taking any chances on this trip!

All loaded up and somewhere to go -- specifically, two hours and fifty minutes to Twin Mtn NH:

 

[slothinker]

Epic!

 

[Jonathan S.]

Stopped at my place in Twin Mtn NH to unload a few times, then drove half-an-hour to Gorham NH to find my Taycan in the diesel yard. Rain showers on the way there, ugh. But as I arrived, the sun came out and … oh dear, sure is hot now, be careful what you wish for!

Set the parking brake, entered Lift mode, loosed the bolts, jacked up the car, removed the bolts, and …

Stuck.
(Ugh.)

Despite how that wheel had been on the hub for only fourteen days, which seems like too short a time for it to seize up?

Perhaps the tire wasn’t completely off the pavement?

Checked again – definitely in the air completely.

Reattached the bolts loosely, lowered the car, removed the jack, drove at one-quarter impulse power about one car length, moving the steering wheel back and forth slowly.

Once again set the parking brake, entered Lift mode, jacked the car back up, removed the bolts, and the wheel was …

FREE!

Test fit with Vredestein collapsible spare from Cayenne wreck: success!

Test fit with full-size front spare from Audi Q7 wreck: success!

Test fit with full-size rear spare from one-off stylin’ new aftermarket wheel: success!

Secured the final test fit then drove down the road to VIP Tires to mount yet another replacement tire on the OEM wheel and replace the full-size spare.
Offered to show them the picture sequence for entering Lift mode but they wanted to come out to the car to see it in person – what, pressing those three dots on the bottom right isn’t intuitively obvious?

Sponsored