Weight of the temporary Spare and jack - Prius trivia

I had a life insurance for a decade: didn't collect on it, doesn't bother me one iota, LOL.

FWIW: I was swapping our OEM 17" rim with 215/45R17 tire combo for the 15" steel Corolla rims with 195/65R15 snows. The steel/snow combo was 37 lb, and the 17" OEM was 44 lb (all rough measurement with a household scale for taking your weight).

 

Must be nice!

I've used my plug kit and compressor more times than I can count. Gone through several packs of refills, but that includes a number of tires I've repaired for friends, coworkers, and strangers at roadside and in parking lots. On my last personal vehicle (an '03 Matrix), I dealt with at least 8 punctures, 3 of which weren't pluggable and required driving on the donut to get the main tire replaced.

On the down side, the Matrix XRS tires were about $120 per corner. (A far cry from the $25 cheapies my first car took!) On the up side, the Belle Tire warranty is like ten bucks per tire, so it paid for itself many times over. I never paid more than $40 (they pro-rate the tire's lifespan) to replace a torn-to-shreds tire.

So, spare tire? Yes, please! With as small as the Prius tires are, I'd be tempted to carry a full-size. Plus a little can of WD-40 or Kroil, trust me on this. I'm optimistic that with the Prius's light use of friction brakes, hub heat will be minimized and lug corrosion likewise, but time will tell.

Question: Do you know how to change a tire? If you're reading this, probably yes.

Second question: Do you share the car with someone else? Does he/she know how to change a tire? Might be worth practicing now while the weather is nice!

 

December 6, 2011, 25 miles out of Las Vegas, many miles from home in Michigan. OEM tire blew out, dropped the spare on, back on the road in 15 minutes, bought a new tire in LV and got into LA an hour later than planned. I like spare tires but realize the day will probably come that I own a car without one.

 

I love the "I've never had a flat in X years" argument. You know what? I haven't died in 62 years, but I'd be willing to bet it's going to happen, and when it does it will most likely be at a very inconvenient time.

 

ound:
:tea:
eace:

 

wow equating getting a flat to suddenly losing your life...makes alot of sense there.

 

No, I'm equating something you don't think will happen just because it has not happened before. It doesn't matter what is used in the analogy. It makes no sense to think something will not happen when the odds of it actually happening are pretty much a certainty.

 

Im a city slicker so i don't carry that 30lbs around with me but definitely would on long trips. Even the compressor could fail if you have a plug kit with you, all that extreme temperature would create malfunction with the pump...and a side wall puncture...although extreme rare unless you over load all the time, that's not repairable...

 

Dude,

Out of the dozen or so flats I've had over the past 41 years, several weren't repairable. In no case was the car overloaded; in the last two non-repairable cases, one car had some groceries in it (essentially empty besides the driver) and the other had some gear on its way to college in a minivan, said minivan not being anywhere near full.

Take a look where the rubber meets the road. All radial tires squarsh down some, bringing the shoulders and/or sidewalls closer to whatever road hazards there might be. And, should said tire take a whack on the shoulder or sidewall, said tire is a goner.

In fact, I'll make an argument: As a percentage of all flats, shoulder/sidewall flats are a larger proportion than one would think based upon the shoulder area near the ground vs. the main tire area. If one hits a hazard on the main tire, there's lots of rubber and a steel belt or two between the hazard and the interior of the tire; not so much on the shoulders or sidewalls.

Just for fun, the below is what did for my right front two weeks ago; luckily, it got me in the middle of the tread, so it was repairable.



Now, how the heck did that end up in the middle of an intersection? Pointy end up, I might add.

KBeck

 

Also if you have low profile tires there is even a greater chance of sidewall damage.

 

55 years old and had my first flat in my 2011 prius few days ago. Glad i had a extra tire.

 

I had the "opportunity" to test the tire pressure monitoring system, the jack and the spare last week when I ran over a nail. It's a hassle getting it out of the trunk, but it worked fine with no problems. I decided to remove all of the wheel covers since they are a nuisance to take off and get in the way of accessing the valve stems. It looks much better without them IMO. I ordered some Toyota center caps from parts.com to cover the holes.