Prius Plugin's lack of spare tire.

since i know nothing about how to read jack capacities…is it okay to use this jack even though the curb weight of the car is 3100+ lbs?

 

. Your probably not applying the correct amount of finess.

. What the dealers want is outright highway robbery, but, they may say that of thier suppliers. As I have said, I picked up a never used doughnut for $50.00. No jelly tho.".....................................Jellydoughnut. Boy you are slow.

 

slow and dim. unfortunately, we don't have any wrecking/junk yards around here. if i can find one, i'll either have to drive a long way or trust them to ship it.

 

Well, the 1.5ton capacity jack is not adequate for lifting the whole Prius off the ground- in most cases we're only lifting the front, or the rear, or just one corner- which is way less than the jack's rated capacity of 1.5 ton.
I have one of those Harbor Freight 1.5 ton Aluminum Racing Jacks- I use it when rotating the tires- so I do pick up the whole front end (then place it on jackstands) then I go and lift the whole rear end- that jack has no problem with those tasks.

 

Yeah, I researched and got plug repair kit, after discovering a finishing nail near the tread edge. And I'm in a regular Prius, LOL. My dealership, and assume other pro's would as well, deemed it to close to tread edge for patching. I plug repaired it and it's held fine, for 1000 kms or so. Knock on wood...

But, regarding "there just isn't room for a spare...":

They could make room. It would mean they'd have to actually do some engineering, adjust the battery size/location, and maybe shift the spare tire location. As long as sales numbers for the the Plug-In version as-is hold up, there's not that much incentive. They can trot out the statistics about the growing "trend" to not provide a spare tire, and early adopters are enthusiastic enough to go along with it.

Another example was the Honda Fit: manual transmission version got a temporary spare. But the automatic got only a compressor and tire sealant kit, purely to lower the car's weight a bit, get them into some more fuel efficient category. In that case there was no physical reason for omitting the spare, and it was actually available as an "accessory".

 

One can put the doughnut flat in the trunk, and then put a thin but sturdy board on top, customizing the shape of the board to the trunk. You then have a second story in the trunk which will also make room for two small suitcases. I also glued a rug to the board so stuff wouldn't shift.

 

What keeps this setup from flying around the car in an accident?

 

Use of straps connected to the hooks that are provided for holding down the flat tire all Prius models.

Mike

 

. I did do that.

 

I now put the Slime 12V Digital Tire Inflator in the rear left cubby, fits with plenty of extra room. If the tire isn't shredded, the Slime should fill it up enough to get to somewhere. Tested it and filled up an extra 1-2 lbs on Prius tires on 2 cars. Seems to work OK, and gives some peace of mind.

 

HumoUr? You must be one of them thar teenagers that spell "you" as "U" since you seem to have spares.

And where is young Prius Feline lately.

 

Wouldn't that take all the fun out of it?

 

I just finally accepted that it's possible I could get a flat and be stuck on some road millions of miles from nowhere. So I bought a doughnut off of Ebay. $65 with freight included .. came off a Corolla . I received it and tried it on the car yesterday. Seems to fit ... at least on the driver's side rear. (I'm assuming the others have the same bolt pattern. )

I'll leave it in the garage until we go on our next long trip four weeks from now.

 

^ I'm using Corolla steel rims for snow tires on ours. I believe they're for 2007+. Part number was 42611-02471.

 

Maybe he just has some connections to the other English speaking peoples of the world, such as those who invented English.

As close as you live to Canada, this ought to be a somewhat familiar spelling.

 

fuzzy1,
Thanks for coming to bisco's defence. It saved me the labour of going through a British/American dictionary to show how our spelling of words with the same meaning can differ from that of people in England, Canada, etc. While adding colour and flavour to the written word, it should not cause one to harbour a grudge against one's neighbour.

BTW, IIRC, priuskitty is a tomcat.

 

i spells it like colour.

 

We use English English spelling up here, but I'm on the fence. For example, to me "centre" looks kind of weird.

 

As in "We chose to sit in the centre of the theatre"?

 

exactly!