Donuts and full spare tires

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Originally Posted By: andyd
all my cars have a fullsize spare and the tools to change it. I can change a flat in less than 10 minutes. As for not having a blowout, since the advent of low profile tires I see lots of "alligators" that came from cars not trucks.


I'm with you - I bought a wheel and tire from the junkyard for my car and have a torque wrench to go with it. I can be up and running again in minutes with no loss in vehicle performance.
 
Originally Posted By: eljefino
Lots of other ways to disable a car. Dud battery. Blown belt/hose. Clogged fuel filter.

The fancy BMWs came with rather complete tool kits. One could pack a safari kit with spare parts etc and completely fill the trunk. Anyone with a late 70s mopar kept a spare ballast resistor hidden safely away. How many breakdowns are we going to plan for? My motorcycle had a toolkit for making common repairs and, obviously, no spare tire.

IMO (now I'm conscious of saying "IMO"
crackmeup2.gif
) the spare tire is vestigial from the days of gravel roads and tree rubber when people got flats every few months.

thanks for your sensible viewpoint. I had a safari workvan for a while and the spare mounting bracket under the rear was broken (got it that way, all rusted up) so I carried the spare inside. waste of time since I used the van for local jobs never far from home.
had a '96 MPV; I think the spare was the only thing that never needed replacing! I took it down when I changed the rear shocks, I believe it was the original spare, never been removed. truck had over 150K on it.
I think the spare well in my Mazda5 would be a good place for a subwoofer :)
 
Originally Posted By: opus1
As far as GM goes, if you're lucky there's a donut. They're on an "inflator/can o'sealer" kick lately where they charge you extra just to get the donut and jack assembly.

I don't normally pan GM, but this is one instance where I'll say "stupid decision, GM; very stupid decision."


You get a FULL spare not a donut. But, yeah it bothered me too when I got my new CTS. 50k and I had to pay extra for the full size spare. The inflator kit is nice though - but no good for a blown tire.
 
I admit that I rarely get a flat, but when I take a trip I usually have a steel wheel and full size tire with me instead of a donut. I have a Mazda 3 right now and I am going to have to check to see if a full size tire will even fit in the wheel well.
 
Originally Posted By: GMBoy
Originally Posted By: opus1
As far as GM goes, if you're lucky there's a donut. They're on an "inflator/can o'sealer" kick lately where they charge you extra just to get the donut and jack assembly.

I don't normally pan GM, but this is one instance where I'll say "stupid decision, GM; very stupid decision."


You get a FULL spare not a donut. But, yeah it bothered me too when I got my new CTS. 50k and I had to pay extra for the full size spare. The inflator kit is nice though - but no good for a blown tire.
I dunno, this doesn't look "full" to me.
P5210474.jpg


Maybe in the Caddy you get a real spare but this is a donut to me.
 
Originally Posted By: mpvue
Originally Posted By: 440Magnum
Donut spares are next to useless if you have any kind of tire problem anywhere away from town, or at 2 AM Sunday morning.


I don't know what you mean by 'next to useless'; if it gets you home (and there isn't any reason it wouldn't) that seems pretty useful to me.
around here, I see people leave the donut on for weeks!


I said "next to useless" because it just might get you home if you have a flat in town somewhere. If you're more than 50 miles form home, its useless. No way I'd drive all the way home from West Texas on I10 on a stinkin' donut. That trip's hard enough on REAL tires.
 
Originally Posted By: opus1
Originally Posted By: GMBoy
Originally Posted By: opus1
As far as GM goes, if you're lucky there's a donut. They're on an "inflator/can o'sealer" kick lately where they charge you extra just to get the donut and jack assembly.

I don't normally pan GM, but this is one instance where I'll say "stupid decision, GM; very stupid decision."


You get a FULL spare not a donut. But, yeah it bothered me too when I got my new CTS. 50k and I had to pay extra for the full size spare. The inflator kit is nice though - but no good for a blown tire.
I dunno, this doesn't look "full" to me.
P5210474.jpg


Maybe in the Caddy you get a real spare but this is a donut to me.



Yeah, that sure is a donut. You paid extra for that?
 
I upgraded the Cavi to a full size spare. I think I still have the donut for it around here somewhere...

Sometime I will probably upgrade the Vic to a full size as well probably when I get a LSD. Just need to acquire a steel wheel and a tire. I will use 215/65R16 since its about as close as I can get to my 255/45R18s on a 16" rim..
 
Originally Posted By: GMBoy
....

Yeah, that sure is a donut. You paid extra for that?


Sadly, yes. I don't remember how it was listed on the sticker, but I think it was something along the lines of "spare/jack assembly" or something like that.
 
I'd never use that fix-a-flat stuff. When I worked in a service station, back in the '70s, we'd ocassionally get a tire with that stuff in it. It made fixing the tire a bit nastier, and in the end, the tire had to be fixed anyway.

Not too long ago I added a small 12V air pump to the stuff I keep in the car. The most frequent problem with spares is that they have way low air pressure because nobody checks them. At least if I have an air pump I can fix that on the side of the road in 5 or 10 minutes.
 
Originally Posted By: eljefino
Lots of other ways to disable a car. Dud battery. Blown belt/hose. Clogged fuel filter.

The fancy BMWs came with rather complete tool kits. One could pack a safari kit with spare parts etc and completely fill the trunk. Anyone with a late 70s mopar kept a spare ballast resistor hidden safely away. How many breakdowns are we going to plan for? My motorcycle had a toolkit for making common repairs and, obviously, no spare tire.

IMO (now I'm conscious of saying "IMO"
crackmeup2.gif
) the spare tire is vestigial from the days of gravel roads and tree rubber when people got flats every few months.


I agree - you can't plan for everything. Carrying the weight around of an unnecessary tire every day for years is a huge inefficiency, that is, until it becomes necessary, then its invaluable.

Both of our older cars had full-size spares (although the camry wasn't an alloy), but the Honda has a donut. I think I'm going to get the fullsize for the Pilot, but unless we go on a trip I'll probably leave it in the garage and leave the donut on the car.

The best reason I've found for having a full-size spare is that the tires I get for the BMW often are never in stock and have to be ordered.
 
You all remember the first mini-spares that came with an inflator can? I had a 1979 Trans Am with that set-up. Wonder how long the air can lasted?
 
I don't know where you live, in my city and the surrounding area the streets and highway surface are in very good conditions. I donlt carry the compact spare in my S2000 for more than 6 years and never had a flat, full size in my E430 is brand new never been used for more than 10 years, full size spare in my LS400 had been used only once in more than 16 years.
 
Expect more cars to come without any spare tire as standard equipment, as the manufacturers cut weight to meet CAFE standards. Hopefully they will leave a space for owners to stash a spare which the owner buys as an option.
 
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