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That ******* spare wheel

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Main Forum' started by heero99, Jul 29, 2008.

  1. heero99

    heero99 Junior Member

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    Hate those donut spare wheels, so it was almost a relief to find that the repo'd 07 I bought didn't have one(Presumably lifted by the folks at the repo depot) So after checking with the local Toyota dealer that a regular size rim would fit in the well("How would you be able to transport the flat to the tire store if it didn't ?" the SM reasonably asked me. )Yet another humbling newbie moment . So I went out and bought a gently used rim and tire, and went to insert it.... So my question is, "How DO you transport the flat to the tire store, if say you are on the road with a fully loaded car and you have a flat?" (the well is too small back to front by about 2 inches, but big enuf side to side ! WHAT WERE THEY THINKING ?) Another warning if you're thinking of buying a repo. The car only had 10k on it so I didnt think of checking the tires for wear. All four had been swapped from another vehicle and two of them were seriously out of round. It's not just hidden damage or (salvage)document fraud you have to watch out for.:eek:
     
  2. richard schumacher

    richard schumacher shortbus driver

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    Probably they were thinking that a *flat* full sized tire would fit.
     
  3. sdtundra

    sdtundra Senior Member

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    Mine came with some black straps that are meant to hold the flat tire in the rear cargo area.
     
  4. KandyRedCoi

    KandyRedCoi S is for Super!

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    use the black straps it came with, i only know this cus my GFs old Scion tC was the same thing
     
  5. heero99

    heero99 Junior Member

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    Yes , I wondered if carrying around a deflated full sizer in the well, and trusting that any mishap would happen within earshot of Triple A would be a better option than the dreaded donut....I'm cogitating. Neither option appeals. I've never not been able to substitute a fullsize wheel for the pigmy spare before.
     
  6. Godiva

    Godiva AmeriKan Citizen

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    Well, you'd have to move everything out of the rear cargo area to get to the spare in the first place. You just put the regular tire in the cargo area because you're probably going to go straight to someplace to get it repaired and back on the car. You don't drive around very long on a spare. They're not made for it. They stopped putting full size spares in cars a long time ago.
     
  7. Patrick Wong

    Patrick Wong DIY Enthusiast

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    Would you be able to replace the black plastic box and the folding hatch cover, if you have a full-size tire sitting in the tire well?

    Did your car come with the scissors jack that normally lives on top of the spare tire, and the tools that fit into the black plastic box?

    BTW, I had to replace one of the tires with the compact spare after my wife hit some debris on the highway and the right front tire suffered an immediate deflation. The provided tire wrench is pretty short; therefore it is difficult to use. I was able to loosen the lugnuts by standing on the end of the tire wrench to apply the needed torque. The lugnuts had previously been tightened by me to 76 ft.-lb. If they had been significantly tighter, this approach may not have worked.

    I found that the handling of the car was OK with the compact spare installed in the RF position. However, this is for temp use only and I recall that tire is not rated for use above 60 mph or so.
     
  8. mborkow

    mborkow New Member

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    deflate the spare and bring a small air compressor to fill it up when you have to
     
  9. TonyPSchaefer

    TonyPSchaefer Your Friendly Moderator
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    Happens to me every day. There's not a single day when I don't have a fully loaded car so packed with stuff that I can't even finagle a tire in the cargo hold.

    On a scale of probability, I think the odds of that are pretty, pretty low. I'm not saying it can never happen; in fact, shortly after I win the lottery someone's blowing a tire with a completely fully loaded Prius.

    Outlier - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
     
  10. qbee42

    qbee42 My other car is a boat

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    True, Tony, although the odds of selective probability say that the chances of having a flat increase dramatically if you have no room to carry a flat. Likewise the odds go up pretty fast during heavy rain or slushy days, especially if you are wearing dress clothes. :D

    Tom
     
  11. patsparks

    patsparks An Aussie perspective

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    Use the "space saver" spare, how often do you get a flat tyre?
    If you are fully loaded put some of the load on a passenger's lap while you drive to a repairer on the space saver. Good chance you will never need to.

    By the way, here is Australia donuts are a food item. They are a round deep fried cake with a hole in the middle. Never use one as a spare tyre.
     
  12. David Beale

    David Beale Senior Member

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    It is actually more likely to get a flat in rain. The reason is the water acts as a lubricant to the tire cutting item/nail/screw. It's actually very difficult to puncture a modern tire in the dry, which is why it happens so infrequently.

    Case in point, over the years I have seen people drive over glass beverage bottles. So far, in the dry, I've never seen it cause a flat, but in the wet, it's 50/50 (the bottles almost always shatter wet or dry).

    At any rate, if you want to use a full size spare, you have to carry it deflated (as posted above). Which also means you have to carry a pump. Or you could just carry a can of "fix a flat" (the Mazda RX-8 comes this way).

    You still have the original wheels with the tire pressure monitor sensors? Don't fret if they stole the OEM tires, they aren't worth much.
     
  13. darelldd

    darelldd Prius is our Gas Guzzler

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    It wasn't you experiencing a newbie moment. It was the dealer guy experiencing whatever it is that they experience. No spare well is sized to fit a full size wheel if the car comes with a donut. What would be the point in wasting all that space?
     
  14. richard schumacher

    richard schumacher shortbus driver

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    Not to mention the ding on fuel economy that would come from carrying a full-sized spare around for a hundred thousand miles, or the added bother of wrestling with two full-sized wheels if the driver ever needs to do a swap on the road.
     
  15. lfwintx

    lfwintx New Member

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    How true! The one time I had a flat on the interstate (knock on wood!), I was wearing a dress, it was raining, and I had my elderly mother and her friend in the car with me. Thankfully, we could see an auto shop nearby on the access road, so I carefully drove through the ditch to get there, and the guys changed the tire for me. :)

    My last flat happened just before I got into town on a back road, and I was able to drive slowly to a nearby tire dealer without any damage to the tire.

    Linda
     
  16. jayman

    jayman Senior Member

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    Oh great, just brilliant. Now my tummy is rumbling
     
  17. Tech_Guy

    Tech_Guy Class Clown

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    This situation is a well understood and vaguely documented law of nature: If you carry a well maintained spare tire, odds are that you will never need it. However, the day you remove your spare tire (and/or tire jack), the probability of tire failure increases radically.

    Keith
     
  18. MagneticGrayIndy

    MagneticGrayIndy 06Prius;94M Miata;65Rambler770

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    lol.... it's only funny 'cause it's true.... The last time I had to change a tire was on the side of a VERY BUSY freeway in the pouring rain wearing nice clothes... Now of course I have roadside assistance on my ins. Won't be doing that EVER again.
     
  19. galaxee

    galaxee mostly benevolent

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    i transported a flat today by removing the top of the luggage box cover (the hatch floor) and dumping the wheel in there.

    normally i have a blanket i keep in the back for messy things, but it's currently in use elsewhere.
     
  20. lenjack

    lenjack Active Member

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    This is actually one of the infinite variations on Murphy's Law!