Save Weight/ Remove Spare Tire/ Install Tire On The Go

[Ryland]

Google alloy compact spare and there are a lot of results for light weight spare tires from luxury vehicles.

[redpoint5]

I've had many flats in my relatively short driving history; perhaps a dozen. 2 of the flats have required a spare due to tearing the tire from the rim (rolled a VW bug sideways on a gravel road, and hit a curb sideways in a Subaru). All of the others were punctures that could be permanently fixed using a plug and inflating the tire back to full pressure.

Since I'm older and spend a lot less of my time driving my vehicles perpendicular to the direction of travel, chances are my flats will be a simple puncture. For this reason, I have removed the spare from the Acura and now carry a plug and inflator. The Prius plug-in came with this equipment and no spare. I assume manufacturers will increasingly adopt this strategy along with a roadside assistance warranty for new car buyers as a way to save cost and marginally improve performance.

[sendler]

Added weight only hurts efficiency whenever you touch the brakes. A spare is very handy to have. You are a hazard on the roadside if you are stuck there for any length of time. Leave the spare in the car and always make sure it has air in it.

[oil pan 4]

I read an article saying that 13% of new cars sold in 2008 did not have a spare.
That number has only been getting larger.

[jamesqf]

1) You aren't going to remove the old tire and mount the "spare" without the proper tools. Try it at home before you need to do it on the side of the road.

2) Re "Fix A Flat" and similar, all of the flats I've gotten in the past couple of decades - since steel belted radials became the norm - have been sidewall punctures from hitting road debris or rocks that rolled down the sides of mountains. Usually they're big enough to fit at least a couple of fingers through.

3) Cell phones aren't much use if you spend time in places where there's no cell service.

[sendler]

Originally Posted by oil pan 4

I read an article saying that 13% of new cars sold in 2008 did not have a spare.
That number has only been getting larger.

A travesty against an uneducated public. Car makers think it is ok to call for help just because you had a flat. Ridiculous. Run flat tires are such a waste of money and they don't get you any further than just to a safe place to pull off. You are still stranded and waiting for a tow truck. And they cost a fortune every 30,000 miles when they wear out. Buyers need to start a counter revolution and refuse to buy any new car that doesn't at least come with a donut.

[Ryland]

My only flat tires were from holes in the tred, I had two flats in a single road trip, put my spare on, bought a plug kit, got two more holes, plugged those them used fix a flat to seal it and drove 1,300 miles home.
I have changed motorcycle tires, and have tried to remove a car tire from a rim at home with no luck.
If I didn't have space for a spare then I could see hauling a tube, but I'd never want to mount a tire on as rim no matter where I was.

[oil pan 4]

Originally Posted by sendler

A travesty against an uneducated public. Car makers think it is ok to call for help just because you had a flat. Ridiculous. .

Yeah if you are in the middle of no where texas or new mexico that isn't an option. If you get a ruined tire on a Saturday evening you might have to wait till Monday for tire shop to open.

[Xist]

I have had a few tires shred on me. I used to carry all of my car tools in my trunk. I took them out to work on some project and then locked them in our shed. I am not sure when I did that, but my fuel economy is down compared to last year, but there are too many variables in play.

My roommate had a flat yesterday. His spare was flat. A neighbor had a compressor, but it only seemed to make noise, so we used my bike pump.

The spare was rated to 60 PSI!

That took a while to inflate with a bike pump. It was a good reminder to check my spare tire, though, which I still need to do, as well as try to get my jack working one last time, or put my floor jack back in.

What good is a spare without a jack?!

[freebeard]

That took a while to inflate with a bike pump.

It helps if you have two people to trade off once in a while.

When I was in college I had a sweet 1952 Ford two-door hardtop (cream over light blue). I was out at the coast and I had the right rear go flat while it was parked in basically a ditch. I happened to have two bumper jacks in the trunk, so I used one to jack it up and the other to jack it sideways so it didn't fall off the primary jack.