Do you keep a spare tire in your car?

[Kern Dog]

I've been surprised to learn that a lot of car guys I know do not keep a spare tire in their cars.
I can understand the decision for those with drag or road race cars. Those dude usually only drive to and from the track. Otherwise, to me it makes sense. Some have said that getting a flat is so unusual nowadays, they figure if they were to have a flat, they'd call a towing service.
Screw that...I'd rather not rely on someone else...



I used to have a 15x6" steel wheel but once I installed a bigger front brake kit, that wheel no longer fit. I needed something 17" diameter at a minimum.
There is nothing OEM that I know of that is a direct fit. The closest that I found is an 18" spare from a 2007 Charger.



The metric bolt pattern is less than a half mm smaller so this will work as a spare. These are commonly found as most of the 300s, Magnums, Chargers and Challengers use a similar spare if they have one. Some came with a can of fix a flat and a prayer. 

[Kern Dog]

The 15" spare I had was on a 7" wide rim, the tire height was picked to be the closest to the height of my rear tires. Those with Locker or SG differentials do need to use a spare with a height close to the tire it replaces to keep the differential from hunting or putting a bias toward the high side.
This space save wheel and tire weighed 21 lbs less than the 15" spare, 38 lbs vs 59.
Every pound of weight loss is beneficial, especially when it has no down side.

[Back N Black]

For my Dart I'm using a 17 inch spare from a chevy mini-van, got it from the scrap yard, perfect height and bolt pattern.

[Kern Dog]

For my Dart I'm using a 17 inch spare from a chevy mini-van, got it from the scrap yard, perfect height and bolt pattern.

Uhhh...What model of Chevrolet uses the same bolt pattern as a Mopar?

[HeavyFuel]

I have a spare in the trunk but it's for looks only.  It's the original to the car on the original heavy duty steel rim.  With about 5 lbs of air.  I probably should carry a fix a flat can.

[Nacho-RT74]

Latelly in Europe is becoming mandatory in case of emergency, take appart at a side of the road, keep inside, and call to the towing service... never leave the car.

The safety triangle mandate is being replaced by a flashing light with a GPS signal which you put on your roof without leave the car... the signal warns to authorities

It will become completely mandatory in 2026.




It seems latelly lot of deaths on roads comes from this stage, when fixing some issue on cars at a side of the roads, still having the emergency triangle in place and carrying the reflective vest (both mandatory to have on car of course).

So I guess the need for a tire replacement will be slowly forgotten. I think even some new cars nowdays doesn't carry anymore the replacement or the room for it.

[Kern Dog]

Yeah....GREAT. More nanny state crap.
I'll pass.

[b5blue]

I got a full size spare, 12V air pump and aftermarket jack/lug nut wrench along with one of those 12V jump doodads.

[tan top]

yes keep a spare  !

all 5 wheels are the same size  15x8 with 4 inch back space
all 5 tires are same size 255/60/15
a wheel & tire that size in the trunk will not fit in stock location , so i  fabricated a new spare hold down bracket & moved it to the right a few inches & rear ward a little just enough that it would fit & still kind of look factory 

[Kern Dog]

I like changes that look so good, they could have been a factory effort. That does look good.

[Nacho-RT74]

Since I'm also running 255/60-15s on all 4 corners but on 7" rally wheels, I searched for the smaller width tire as posible but meeting the diameter ( since I'm  also running on SG ) to fit on stock replacement 15" steel wheel and found a trailer tire as option, saving some room, weight and being easier to handle when trying to get it out from the trunk.

Unfortunately can't recall the size I got and I'm something like 7K miles from my car LOL.

[WMopar71]

Some kind of space saver spare would be the way to go. Full size spare is a through back to the days of bias ply tires when we rotated the spare in order to try and get 10000 miles from a set of tires.

[Polygon]

Ford fits Plymouth. So I got a spare tire out of a Lincoln town car and put it in the trunk of my charger. Only for short- distance and I've never used it. Because the Hub had to be ground out a little bit. Which I hear is a very bad idea but some people are doing.

[Kern Dog]

For a temporary spare, it is fine.
Grinding out the center to fit over a  Mopar hub then puts the wheel mounting studs as the load carrying members. Engineers will tell you that wheels need to be HUB centric but have you ever seen the millions of trucks and 4wds with LUG centric wheels? These are heavier vehicles than ours and I've seen no huge increase of failures with them.

[Nacho-RT74]

Same about unilug wheels... they don't support on center hub

[Kern Dog]

I've ran hub centric, lug centric and unilug wheels and none of them were a problem.
The only time I lost a wheel was when I was 19 and had '82 Z28 wheels on my 73 Camaro. I used the lug nuts that came from the '82. I didn't know they were metric....THAT was embarrassing.

[b5blue]

I bought a new Z/28 in 77. It was totaled before the 1st payment was due. 

[Kern Dog]

That is terrible!
The 70-81 Camaros were good street cars.

[lloyd3]

My spare is likely to be an original steelie from back in the day. When I shift over to 15-inch Magnum 500s on the back, will this spare still get me home? The Dana 60 under the car is tough but will the possible size difference between to different height tires be a problem, even for the short amount of time I'd likely need to use it?

[Kern Dog]

If you have a Sure Grip, my experience is that yes...the difference in tire diameters will result in some weird tension. the car may want to shift side to side a little. A 14 inch wheel and 15 inch wheel with identical overall tire diameters will act fine since it is the overall tire diameter that matters, not the rim size.
I've had to use spare tires on SG equipped cars and with the speeds low and no heavy throttle, it was okay. Yes, you'll accelerate wear in the differential but unless the diff was ready for the scrap pile, no permanent damage was done.

[Mike DC]

   
 

If you get a flat tire in the rear, do a 2-tire change and put one of your front tires on the rear.  Put the donut spare on the front.  Save the diff clutches. 

 

[Kern Dog]

I've thought the same thing.
Oddly, I've had the great fortune of never having a flat in either Charger.
How lucky is that?
This car has tires dating back when gas was under $2.00 a gallon HERE in California!

[69hemibeep]

I carry a spare and a screw jack. My bumper jack is for show only.

[Dino]

Thanks for the reminder. I need a bigger spare now that I have Mustang disc brakes.

[Kern Dog]

I got a space saver from a 2007 Charger. It had never been out of the car until I bought it.
Yeah, yeah...it has a metric bolt pattern but the difference is tiny. Considering that I'd drive slow and careful with a tire 1/4 the width of what is on the car, I don't expect anything bad to happen if I need to use it.

[Mike DC]

IIRC the LX cars use different lug bolts/nuts, but the actual bolt circle is still 4.5 inches.  That's why the offical size of the metric circle is such an oddball number (114.3 millimeters).

 

[Kern Dog]

Their lug nuts are still acorn style but a wider contact area. I have some Ford lug nuts with a similar wide contact pattern.

[lloyd3]

Another thing to consider, that spare in my car is at least 28-years old.  I shocks me to think of that but...that is likely the case. I'd bet that most spares in most of the cars here are darn old as well. 

Speaking of old tires, I have a buddy with a nicely restored '67 442 Olds. He finally looked closely at his tires the other day and discovered them to be 24-years old. Time flies, eh?

[Mike DC]

                     
Ancient tires are a rampant issue in the hobby.  Both spares and regulars. 

Modern tires seem to come apart from age more than old tires did decades ago.  I'm surprised it hasn't caused more wrecks in the classic car hobby already.  Tire stores don't even like dealing with 5yo tires and tons of classics are on 15yo tires. 


Paul Walker from 'Fast & Furious' got killed in that wreck in 2013.  It's been theorized that old tires may have been a factor.  They were a very hi-po sticky design which is not going to age well (especially in a dry sunny climate).  It was a 10yo car with the factory original tires.  It had spent most of its life parked in storage and then suddenly it was being run very hard.