Yeah these are all valid concerns....however, with today's tires having reenforeced sidewalls the risk of a tire actually blowing out is VERY slim. Power steering is also a safety mechanism against losing control if your tire does blow out. If you do get a flat and do not care about your rim you can drive a long way(ya will put on a nice firewrok show after a bit though lol). The Touareg is an exceptionally capable vehicle. It would be hard to actually flip the vehicle. Its center of gravity is pretty low and the SUV handles much better than any other on the market.

If you still would really like to go with run flats you can.....you just have to get lower profile tires....which means bigger rims (like 20" rims) would look great but you can't go offroad in them.

My suggestion is not too worry too much about it. The tires on the vehicle are excellent and very safe. Make sure your tire pressure is always within the recommended specs and you should be fine.

 

Center of gravity (CG)

T-reg have low CG you say. Do you know what it happens to be? I would like to run it through the NHTSA roll-over equation and see how it does -- 4 stars hopefully.

From what you say, might be good to get rear tires as run-flats; apparently that is when most roll-overs occure from blow outs, i.e. rear tires.

 

I would imagine that the VW would have a 4 star rating without question. although i havn't looked into it. Check the numbers on the slalom. The Treg does very well

 

I would imagine that the VW would have a 4 star rating without question. although i havn't looked into it. Check the numbers on the slalom. The Treg does very well

There's crash test / drive test ratings available for the TReg?

I haven't found anything from a non-magazine, non-forum source.

 

if it's out there i will find it! give me a moment

 

Run Flat Systems

If your really worried about being able to run flat check out a "TYRON" safety Band system. Its cheap and is available around the world. Its a brilliant backup when your offroad in areas 1500km+ from help. I would recommend it.

Yes it is available fr VW Treg, Porsche, Lexus or RangeRover.

Check out the following websites for more info and prices:

http://runflat.ballistics.com.au/index.php

or

http://www.ballistics.com.au/technical/howbodyarmourworks.php

T

 

another good place to look at RUN FLAT systems with or without WHEELS, we used them overseas with great success!
Hutchinson Industries - Runflats

Hutchinson Industries - Wheels

Hutchinson Industries - Wheels

 

Our other car is BMW and from the day one it was equipped with run flats. I could not even begin to tell you how happy i am when i finally removed run-flats and put regular tires on it. I virtually took set of 4 perfectly good tires and threw them away and when i put regular DWS Connty, I felt i got beemer back, while when it was on run-flats it felt so rough and handled so poorly. I will never settle for another run flat tires. Just my 2 cents.

 

Yes, and run flat tire manufacturers are very cagey about repairing their tires after being run flat, particularly if you drove them near the recommended maximum speed (50mph) or distance (50 mi). Then you're in for a whole new set if you have AWD.
We replaced our X1's and our Cooper S's run flats at new with Nokian wrg2 tires (same as the treg's), legal in winter and a far less choppy ride, yet still excellent dry handling, and exceptional in the rain and slush!

 

Runflats have lots of issues ... heavy, expensive, harsh riding and they typically have a much shorter lifespan than conventional tires. Tire dealers tend to avoid stocking them, so replacing a damaged tire can take a day or two. While runflats might allow you to limp to safety when you get a puncture, they're also more likely to let you sit when you hit a pothole or similar obstruction. The rigid sidewall that allows the tire to stay up without air is susceptible to bulging when impacted. You usually can't drive on a bulged runflat, which of course defeats the purpose. And because the sidewall has limited give, it also puts the wheel itself at risk. Bending an expensive alloy wheel is far more common with runflats. Not only would I not attempt to retrofit them, but I've replaced them with conventional tires in the past when they came as standard equipment.

 

I second everything you said. Spot on.

 

Run Flats came a long way. I also had a Bimmer with gen-1 run flats and I totally hated them. However new gen-3 run flats are much improved and feel almost as good as a regular tire would. I had a winter set on my B8 A4 and loved them. I picked up a set of 19" winter run flat Good Years for my T-reg but haven't used them yet. I will gladly sacrifice some comfort for safety, especially when traveling trough Sierra mountains with no spare. All it takes is that one special time when you'll be really glad you have them, IMHO.

 

The sooner we get the run flats off the BMW the happier we will be especially in the winter.

 

we used kind of a foam/ spray overseas in the harsh environments on our SUV's also, instead of the run flats on "up armored vehicles", for the softer vehicles, light armored SUV's we used a foam filled into the tires, don't know brand or sort but that's what they would do to the tires on light armored vehicles, and we went with no problems through the roads and off road there for a long time without any problems at all, and i mean loooong time, duration of deployments and longer...12months and longer.

 

maintenance/ service referred to it as "tire solution" and it was all over the commercial workshops as well, contractors, UN and etc were all using the "tire solution" instead of the run flats.

 

If it adds less weight than a run flat and doesn't seriously interfere with the rolling resistance of any tire it would be a winner!