I thought I would share some information that may or may not be helpful. I think it started with a 4 wheel driving expedition with my wife and another couple. We went up past Lake Siskiyou heading in the direction of Gumboot Lake because there was a hard to find back road to Deadfall meadows that my friend had told me about. This was a very amazing drive on a dirt and rock road with 1000 to 2000 foot straight down into beautiful rivers and meadows along the way. However, likely you might not want to do this between about November and April or you could get stuck in snow there along the way and that might be problematic. I would say you are traveling at around 5000 to 7000 feet in altitude along this road that cuts off from the main road up to Gumboot lake not far after the Gumboot lake turnoff but I think it's either at or before the parking area for the trail down to 7 Lakes Basin which I did about 35 years ago when my older children were very young still (and not they are 46 to 49 years old and one with a son of his own and all married). So, when you turn right towards deadfall meadows it is a pretty spectacular ride in whatever vehicle you choose from 4 wheel drive full size truck like we took on down to mountain Bike or on foot. more later got to get food in the oven.
Anyway as we drove across the rocky road I likely was driving at times over this road a little fast for my tires. I usually run All weather tires on my Tundra that are Michelins. I think in the old days they called these mud snows but now they are either all weather or all season tires. I find I can take ALMOST any road with this and still drive 70 or 80 mph on the freeway getting places. The reason I run Michelins on all our vehicles because even though they are more expensive they are the safest most long lasting tires generally speaking. It's true you can buy cheap tires if you don't have much money. But, if it makes you and your family's lives safer why not pay more (if you can afford it) to keep them alive longer? Because Tires are one of the things that keep your family alive on the road.
Anyway, we get to dead fall meadows (the Back Way) from the little City of Mt. Shasta and I notice my right rear tire going flat. So, I get out the jack and it's not worth anything at all on my Tundra. So then, People who had just climbed Mt. Eddy up through Deadfall Meadows gave us their rubberized tire inflator which helped because it got the rear tire up to about 20 to 25 pounds pressure. Then I had everyone try to sit on the left side of car and drove up to where we might get cell phone reception on the top of a hill nearby. There my friend traveling with us met an off road motorcyclist who had I believe a Suziki 600 or 650 can't remember with knobby tires for off road on it and set up for both dirt and street riding with a license. He had a 12 volt tire pump at his campsite nearby and went and got it for us so we could get back to town safely. So, he got that so I could inflate the rear tire up to 30 plus pounds per square inch or more. So, we lumbered back towards Mt. Shasta then past Stewart Springs which is another way to reach Deadfall meadows when it isn't snow covered by truck, car or motorcycle. IN the winter when there is snow there likely only a snowmobile or skis or snowshoes will get you there if there is much snow.
But, the Freeway was jammed up for some reason all the way back up to Oregon so we took Old Stage Road (because the people traveling with us and since I used to live up there i also knew about this alternate route to the freeway to get back to Mt. Shasta from Deadfall Meadows via Stewart Springs via Old Stage Road.
Then I had to keep blowing up my tire so it didn't get flat and destroy it completely. Then the Tire place didn't have these kinds of Michelins so I had to order some because I had to replace the whole set anyway because they were old and I hadn't realized that because it looked fine for a cars tread but I realized a truck's amount of tread is different than a car because it's a bigger tire. So, I had to order a set in Mt. Shasta and wait two days.
So, recently about the 26th of December my son in law and I went skiing up to Mt. Shasta and rented a friend's house for almost a week until new years eve and went home to my daughter and wife on the coast near SF. But, while we were there likely driving up a picked up something like a nail or a bolt that hit our right rear tire sideways through the side wall and ruined the tire for patching because you can ONLY patch a tire through the tread and not through the side way because all tires now are steel or fiberglass belted radial tires. And most tires don't have tubes inside either anymore because tubes can interfere with balancing tires properly. I didn't want to have to order a tire and wait several days because we couldn't get back to THE SF area and our wives for New Years Eve if we did that. So, I drove home on my spare tire which isn't the best for my rear end differential but it survived it.
So, hopefully there is something you learned helpful to you here.
Have a Great Day! (If you can).
PS When I got home I went to my Michelin Tire dealer that we usually buy all our tires from on all our cars and ordered a replacement tire so I had them put the replacement tire because the original tire was in the spare tire place up under the rear end of the truck. I had them put the spare tire back under the truck where it has been likely since I bought the truck and had them move the front right tire to the right rear and put the new tire on the front of the truck. Why did I do this? Because all the other tires on the car were bought the same time and have somewhat the same wear. Because my front wheels aren't drive wheels full time and only extra drive wheels when I'm in High or Low Range 4 wheel Drive it's safer to put the new tire on the front so this will save my rear end differential from being overworked from two tires with slightly different circumferences. Because the 3 original tires of that set that weren't damaged and replaced had a similar wear pattern because they all have been on the road spinning the same amount of time.
So, this just helps my rear end differential last longer more than anything else.
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