[P&DZ]

The back story:
Arrived in Monticello UT yesterday. Campground owner told us of this great back road leading up to FAA towers with magnificent views. So after setting up the TT off we went. This was a 12 mile dirt-gravel-rock service road to the towers with an elevation gain of approx 4,300 ft to an elevation of 11,368 ft. On the way up I briefly thought about our P rated tires but the road was not terribly bad did not require 4 wheel drive so we continued on to the top. As advertised the views were outstanding! You guessed it, a quarter of the way down the road the front passenger side tire went flat, from 40psi to 0 in less than a minute! Two hours later after struggling with a crappy OEM bottle jack on a 3+% grade of gravel, dirt and rocks I finally got the flat off and the spare on. Good Sam Road side assistance was completely useless (another story).

Lesions Learned:
- Operate your emergency equipment (spare tire release, jack, etc) BEFORE you need it
- Check your OEM jack, do you think it is adequate? Ours is not for the situation we were in.
- Check your spare tire inflation regularly, ours was ok but under inflated
- What size is you spare, ours is a Good Year Wrangler but smaller size (265/70/R17). This surprised me.
- Do not rely on Good Sam service if you are in a remote location
- P rated tires are the the best for rocky, gravel surfaces on steep grade

Now I had a decision to make. Can the existing tire be fixed? If so will it be reliable? I do not what to finish our trip with at least another 600 miles of travel with no spare and an undersized right front tire. There are no national tire chain stores in Monticello UT. The closest is a Big O in Cortez CO about 65 miles away. We went to Big O after we called them and as I expected they declared the tire as unrepairable with sidewall damage. The only LT tires they had in stock in the size I needed were the BF Goodrich. After some quick internet research I made the decision to purchase. Big O service was good, in and out on a Saturday afternoon in less than 2 hours. Hopefully it was the right decision.