On Wed, 7 Dec 2016 21:35:19 -0000 (UTC), Leon Schneider
wrote:

wrote on Wed, 07 Dec 2016 14:56:28 -0500:

I use "bolt in" stems on all of my vehicles now since I lost 4 stems
in one trip on my PT Cruiser. That was Kitchener to PEI and back.

How do you *lose* stems?

I would think what gets most stems is curb damage, which is gonna happen no
matter what type of stem (I'm guessing).

The second thing that I would guess gets most stems is ozone damage, which,
again, is gonna happen to all rubber stems.

I guess they can use better rubber (something better than buna anyway), and
I guess they can use more steel and/or brass (but then it's heavier).

So it seems to be a tradeoff.
I had 4 stems crack and loose air on the trip. They were all nice
short stems less than a year old, installed with the new tires by the
tire shop. It ends up they were crappy chinese crap stems, but 4 for 4
is BAD. I have alloy rims for summer and winter wheels on the truck -
all with bolt-ins. I have bolt-ins on the summer alloys for the
Tautus. I bought a set of used snows on alloys for the Taurus this
fall. They stiull have the rubber cores, but I have a set of bolt-ins
sitting in the wings - ready to go in.