Tapers vary. IIIRC Honda’s lug nut tapers (for example) have a convex rounding, and the rim’s stud openings have a corresponding concave taper.
Thank you for the detailed response. For cost reasons, I'd like to find the correct match at a junk yard off a relatively new 23-25 vehicle. I know our 2012 Prius's spare was still quite usable at 12 years because I picked up a nail in 2024 and had to mount the spare! Now the question is to try to determine if any of the cars I listed in my original post matches the requirements for a hub size of 60mm/60.1mm, and an overall tire diameter of approx 26.4". Let's see if Google can be my friend....
After having several flats last year, I won't buy a car without having a spare. The roads are only going to get worse, at least here where I live. Taxes for road and bridge repair has been a flat rate that hasn't changed since the 80's. And in case you haven't noticed, there has been a bit of inflation since then, so the same 40 cents from every gallon doesn't buy as much asphalt and gravel as it used to.
Personally, I prefer my cellphone to carrying a spare. I can either call for help, or locate a tire shop I can limp to within range. At any rate, my days of changing tires is far behind me.
I live in the wrong place for that. We've called tow trucks that take several days to show up. We've taken flat tires to the tire shop to find out the waiting list is so long they won't be able to get to it in a week. And if it wasn't for having satellite phone capability there'd be plenty of places we wouldn't have any cellular service. And while cellular service keeps getting better, towing and mechanic services seem to keep getting worse. It used to be that you could get a tow truck or have a flat fixed on the same day, not days later. If I were to move where things are more convenient, I'd move to where cars aren't necessary. This whole "everybody needs a car" thing is overrated and just plain stupid.
I just got over a snowy pass with tire chain law in effect. If people can't change a spare tire or put on tire chains, should they really be driving?
No, but they aren't all the same size and the larger ones can present an obstacle with some aftermarket options. Lots of women drive daily with no ill effect. I knew a 93 year old fellow with a bad hip replacement and a walker who still liked driving. There's a pretty large difference between the population who can safely lack up a couple of tons of car, lift and handle a 40 pound wheel into and out of a trunk and loosen and tighten five huts to 80 or 90 foot pounds. Of course, there are no people whose options become more numerous when they decide to drive without a spare.
Whatever your skill and strength level, it doesn't hurt to push yourself some. A good exercise, IF you've got a spare and the tools, is to try going through the process of swapping out a flat, just with the scissor jack and lug nut wrench. It wouldn't hurt to add to that kit: pair of wheel chocks (place fore and aft of the wheel diagonally opposite to the flat) small square of 3/4" plywood (to act as a sub-base in case you need to use the scissor jack on soft earth or gravel) Some rags Grippy, insulated, mechanic's work gloves A tire-sized plastic bag
It is, and I'm not directing that harshness towards the elderly specifically, but to society in general. We've worked ourselves into a terrible situation with transportation. Feet once were the main way of getting around. And while people can lose their ability to walk certain distances, that's something that can be easily overcome nowadays with walkers, wheelchairs, and light-weight, slow scooters. But instead of basing our mobility on our own two feet, we made it much harder, with the need to drive everywhere in a personal vehicle. And there are a lot of people who can't physically take care of that personal vehicle the way it was designed to be taken care of. If you get a flat, you're supposed to stop driving and put on a spare. But there are people who aren't strong enough to put on a spare that can still drive. Ok. So we invented yet another dependency, the cellphone. It used to be if you wanted to communicate with someone, you'd go to their place or meet up somewhere else and talk. And sure, the telephone, and now the cellphone, are good things to have, especially in case of emergencies. But we're setting ourselves up for disaster if that fails. The cellular network can fail, and it doesn't even need a natural disaster in order to do it. Your phone can run out of battery or fall and stop working. Then what? We forced everyone to have to use personal transportation, the car, and if something fails the ones that can't deal with it personally have to call someone for help, but if that fails they're left on the side of the road to deal with it themselves. Meanwhile pedestrian deaths keep rising, the very God-given transportation we should all have the right to use, but we can't because everything is too far and you risk getting yourself killed if you try to walk. Which in turn adds to the lack of health in all off us who have never needed to walk in our entire lives because cars. Why can't we have a society where everyone can walk and/or enjoy public transportation. Imagine being able to get on a tram and shoot the breeze with your neighbors as you're able to look around at more stuff than just the bumpers in front of you. Leave car transportation for actual car enthusiasts, the kind of people who have the skills and abilities to change tires and engines and transmissions and the like. I know lots of women who can change spare tires and put on tire chains. But that does keep getting harder as everything keeps becoming a bigger vehicle with bigger tires. I do miss having little 12 or 13 inch wheels.
A proper tool kit helps a bunch. I've got a socket adapter on my scissor jack so I can use my impact wrench instead of the crappy jack handle. I've got a battery operated impact wrench for the jack and the lug nuts. I have a cheap torque wrench already set to the proper torque. I've got a short extension for the torque wrench because it's a little too close to the tire and bodywork otherwise. I have two 21mm sockets(one regular, one impact) so I don't have to switch the socket between the impact and torque wrenches. And I have a battery powered inflator that uses the same battery as the impact wrench just in case I need to top up a tire. On the safety side, I've got three reflective triangles and a flashlight with a magnetic base that doubles as a high-intensity flasher. (Plus the impact wrench has its own light.) I can't do much about muscling the tire around(but I can still do that easily), but I'm also thinking of adding some sort of collapsible stool. My lower back hates it when I bend over for long periods. And I'm a little susceptible to vagus nerve attacks. A stool might also help as an intermediary step for getting a tire back into the car for those that need it, now that I think about it. Work smarter, not harder.
Yeah I've got a collapsible traffic cone and a reflective vest on board. A small kneeling mat works well. I'm 74, about 145 lbs, and have a tricky spot in my back. My drill for installing wheels on our '10 is to have the car raised just enough that the wheels are clear but no more than an inch, position the wheel as it's going to be installed, sit (on aforementioned mat), with a head lamp on, hook my toes under the wheel around 4:30 and 6:30, lift the wheel with my toes, and steer it onto the lug nuts with my hands. You want to have the lug nuts near at hand.
