It happened. Flat tire. No spare. In middle of Nowhere.

What size rim is that for buying a spare?

 

The Toyo OE tires are very light weight. This will help the gas mileage but increase the chance of a sharp object going through the casing and causing a leak. A more substantial casing has a chance of deflecting the sharp object before it goes all the way through.

I tried a sealant, Ride-On Car & SUV formula. It worked well, got the car & Mrs. home with a screw in the tire, but I was wary of the size of the hole in the casing after driving that distance with the screw in it. Instead I bought Bridgestone DriveGuard run-flat tires (good for 50 miles at 50 mph, then the tire is junk--or less and patch the tire). Buying a compact spare is another good option. A compact spare out of a junked Corolla works, but replace the tire and valve stem if it is old.

 

Buy this:
10 11 12 13 14 15 TOYOTA PRIUS SPARE TIRE WHEEL DONUT 16" 5X100 PLUG IN | eBay


Rob43

 

wow, great price!

 

Craigslist has similar deals.

$40 and it was local for the spare.

 

Yep, and it will get the job done. I've got one just like it that I use on any long trips.


Rob43

 

I've been hearing about a lot of the rears going bad for some reason on the Primes. I wonder what it is. I drive a lot and I've had nails and stuff in most of my tires, whether they are Kumo or Michelin. I've only had one blow out, that was on Goodyear runflats. I wonder if these Toyos are actually bad or unsafe tires. Always the rear.....

 

When rotating the tires I always roll them along and dig out the pebbles and whatever. Doubles as an inspection for nails/screws embedded. The rears always have a lot more stuff, likely because they just run straight, no turning when cornering.

 

Interesting. I have noticed this car seems to pickup a lot more pebbles than other cars in the tires. I'll hear them hit the pavement when I have the windows down.

However, if the rears have more stuff because they just run straight, wouldn't it be the same for all cars? Why would the rears on the Prime get more punctures? On other cars it's usually the fronts that pickup more punctures as the fronts are more likely to hit the road hazard first.

 

What data supports this assertion? Your personal experience or a larger study?

 

Rear right tyre is probably most prone to punctures on any car. The reason is simple, most debris are on the side of the road, and most debris are not pointed with sharp point up, so the front tyre drives over normally but it can lift sharp object up and you have a rear puncture.

The other problem is that at tight corners the rear tyre will drive even more on the edge of the road.

Tip of the day: Don't drive too much on the right edge of the road, the last time I had a flat tyre was 15 years ago.

 

You beat me by two minutes. Absolutely right. The nail, screw, whatever is laying flat, the front tire kicks it up and the rear often runs over it with the pointy end up. I've had several flats from punctures on cars and motorcycles. Alway in the rear.

 

+1 on the rear tire. Just happened to me last week.

As I said in that thread "99% of the punctures I've gotten over the years are screws and every one of them was on a rear tire. I believe the front tire disturbs the position of the screw so it easily goes into the rear tire."

 

Personally I no not think that the OEM tires are dangerous, and I'd probably hang onto them until you reach escape velocity from the SoCal....BUT(!!) speaking as one who is of more modest means than most people on this forum, life is too short to ride around on tires that you do not trust.
One of the really big advantages of having a car with itty-bitty wheels is that they're shod with itty-bitty tires....which are generally cheaper than their larger counterparts.

For driving around in the concrete deserts of California, a doughnut spare is probably 'good enough.'
Make sure that you have enough things in your car to ACTUALLY replace a flattened tire on the side of the road, including some items that might not be obvious (headlamp, nitrile gloves, plastic sheet, etc...)
You's be amazed how many people never think to actually check to see if they can really replace a tire with their spare...
A doughnut will probably also serve as pretty decent flat tire protection in someplace like Prescott, but if you're the type that likes to get out of the city, I'd consider clubbing up to a full size spare.
Also....you don't have to go full hard-core prepper, but I'd have a few things stashed in a JIC bag when I'm bombing around in the hills in middle Aridzona, or the not-so-concrete deserts down south.

 

Excellent point. In addition to my tire plug kit and air compressor, I carry a 250 lumen LED flashlight in all three vehicles and I have a monthly calendar reminder to check the flashlight battery heath in all three of our vehicles. I also carry two bath size towels to lay or kneel on. The prime is so low, it's almost guaranteed you're going to need to lay down to look under it at some point. That surface might be 120° asphalt, or gravel, or frozen stuff. None of this takes up much space and can be used for other things as well.

If none of that works, I still have the 100 mile free towing AAA membership to fall back on.

 

As far as I can recollect every car I've rotated tires on has had more stuff stuck in the rear wheel tread. Just speculating, but figure the driven wheels just tend to "scrub off" debris better (plus cornering), and for a screw/nail/bolt to penetrate it has to stay in the tread for a while.

 

Agreed. Many years ago I had a 6" yes, six inch long cabinet screw go perfectly straight into an newish "8 ply" BFG AT offroad tire. I was in downtown OKC. It went right through the 3/4" deep lug. It was the rear tire. Screws are the worst and if you have a big hail storm in an area, you'll get roofing nails for years after from all the roof debris being hauled off.

I was at a Toyota dealer in ~2000 talking to a service manager in the garage when I watched a lady drive in with a huge 8" railroad spike sticking out of her front tire. I asked the manager if he wanted to make some customer points and he RAN over to her after I showed it to him as she was driving in. He didn't notice it and looked right at it as she was driving in.

 

I would also acknowledge Prescott to be the pokiest place I have ever been. A huge percentage of the gravel you see in town is pink granite and quartz which are pretty sharp rocks. If OP plans to drive on unpaved forest roads around town it's best to get a more aggressive tire. There are a lot of awesome unpaved roads around town that are great for low clearance vehicles.

Also the nature of roads in that town is that there are lots of dips and concrete skirts that test the limits of low clearance vehicles. Most of it is for drainage for the monsoon rains. If I was to live in Prescott again and wanted to feel comfortable driving a prius I would likely do a 1.5" lift and put more aggressive tires on.

Just for reference though on driving unpaved roads, this is the sunset spot in Prescott and it's about 4 miles in on an unpaved but easily passable road.

 

Will this fit a 2017 Prius Prime?

 

Yes, it's a perfect fit.


Rob43