I always pay for a spare wheel as an extra and wouldn't buy a car without one. My last puncture left pieces of tyre all over the M4, by the time I got on to the hard shoulder I was driving on the rim.
I have a 2021 Tiguan and tow a caravan. I have never had a car without a full size spare (and never will given the choice) so paid for the "full size" spare option. It certainly isn't a space saver, but it is clearly marked as limited to 50mph. That's bearable for towing, but a little slow when not. I think the speed restriction may be due to it being 4WD and the diameter of the spare being slightly smaller than to other 4 wheels. Biggles
Thats not a puncture, thats a blow out!
Even with a spare wheel it's usually a space saver wheel. My car has factory fitted 17 inch wheels and the factory supplied space saver spare is 16 inch - with warnings about only for temporary use and to a maximum of 50mph.
Remember also that the spare probably isn't fitted with TPMS Sensors and you will likely get annoying nagging warnings coming up on your dash running with a spare without a sensor.
On cars without a spare wheel is there still a dedicated well to tuck the spare out of the way?
When buying a car, you have to be an automotive engineer, to figure out how bad a screwing you are getting.
Some vehicles are easily damaged while towing.
some vehicles are easily damaged while doing brake work.
Buying your own full-sized spare, is just icing on the poorly made cake.
Paul
Paul snipped-for-privacy@needed.invalid wrote
Bullshit, all you need is basic common sense and some knowledge about how cars work.
But those will spell that out in the manual.
And the workshop manual will spell that out.
But the poorly made cakes are well known.
It just doesn't work if the tyre is ripped or cut. Bill
When four of us plug luggage wanted to go to the airport we had to go in the Lexus because it had more boot space by far than the BMW hybrid!
When buying a new car for Senior Management a year or so back, having a spare wheel was one of the key features. I not only checked the spec, asked the salesman, but looked in the boot just to be sure. One of the few I found, which met the other requirements ( low weight for towing etc) was the Aygo.
I don’t trust the gunge stuff at all.
When we bought our motorhome - originally plated at 3.65 T- it didn’t include a spare as standard. The rear tyres are inflated to 80psi. ( Yes
80). Imagine that with a hole and gunge. If you run at a lower pressure, you don’t get the tyre load rating. Needless to say, I bought a spare.
There's also c) On a Smart Motorway !
Probably more important to heed the 50 mph speed limit that they also have. I wouldn't lose too much sleep about exceeding the 50 mile range limit, just drive non aggressively.
And whats with these narrow wheels as well. I'd have thought by now we would have found a way to make un punctuable tyres. Brian
Your spare could be fitted to the frunk. Some EVs have two places for cargo, but one is very small.
"How to change Trunk and Frunk To Boot And Bonnet On Your Tesla Screen"
They were invented first, but pneumatic tyres were found to give a more comfortable ride.
The other big scam was outlawing plug repair kits for tubeless tyres. I used them throughout the sixties and seventies with no problems at all.
On 24/02/2023 10:08, Brian Gaff wrote:
I'm surprised that tyres still let thorns, nails, screws etc puncture right through to the inside of the tyre. I suppose it's a compromise between keeping the walls flexible and making the tread area as impenetrable as possible. How *do* nails manage to end up in the sidewalls of tyres?
I was once forced into a verge on a village road when a tractor pulled out onto the wrong side of the road as it overtook parked cars. My tyre skirted along the raised grassy bank without any problem. Sadly there was a sharp edge where the tarmac ended and the soft earth was an inch lower, and I gashed the inside side-wall of a brand new tyre which had about 50 miles usage. The tractor never stopped (*) and I didn't have a dashcam to get his number. Surprisingly the tyre didn't immediately deflate despite a 1 cm hole: it still looked OK when I parked shortly afterwards, and it was only an hour or so later than someone said "you've got a flat tyre".
Bicycle tyres (which use tubes) are even more prone to punctures. On my old (manual) bike I bought some thick plastic liner strips which you insert into the inside of the tread area. They are supposed to prevent thorns and nails (which may pierce the outer casing) from getting through to the inner tube. They don't seem to work: I still got as many punctures. I bought a new electrically-assisted bike and discovered when I got a puncture after a few days that the rear wheel needs special tools and a non-trivia removal process, whereas the front has simple quick-release levers. I managed to get the casing off the wheel, pull out the inner tube, insert it in a bowl of water to find the leak, repair the puncture, refit the tube and casing - all with the wheel still fixed to the frame ;-) I got the shop to change the normal tubes for gel-filled ones, but unfortunately they fitted ones with those stupid Presta valves rather then Schrader (car tyre) valves, so I now need to carry around an adaptor and go through the rigmarole of slackening off the Presta nut and screwing on the adaptor before inflating, and removing the adaptor and tightening the nut afterwards. Why do bikes still use Presta valves? They are the most user-unfriendly design ever invented. I believe Prestas were invented for bikes with very narrow wheels where there wasn't space for a Schrader-diameter hole in the wheel, but my bike has wider wheels which can easily take Schrader valves - and indeed came fitted with them on the non-gel tubes that were originally fitted by the manufacturer.
We bought a battery-powered electric pump which goes with us when we go out for rides. Then its a case of "where's the plastic bag with the Presta adaptor in it?" and "Damn. I've dropped the adaptor and it's rolled away somewhere" ;-)
(*) Not even when we met head-on. I stopped damn quickly and he just kept on coming, squeezing through the gap with a few inches clearance either side.
Never seen a frunk big enough for a spare wheel!
Tim
You can get ’C’ shaped inner tubes now that allow replacement without removing the wheel.
Eg.
I managed to get the casing off the wheel, pull
You can buy many pumps these days that will fit both types without an adapter.
In that case, take the bike back to the shop and ask them to fit the correct tubes. Slime filled schrader valved tubes exist in many sizes. They’ve fitted the wrong tube for your rims.
Tim
We've just bought a new VW ID.3 which came with no spare, no jack and no sealing kit. There is nowhere - other than loose in the rather meagre boot - to store a spare wheel anyway - even a so-called "space-saver".
Our car was factory fitted with tyres which claim to be "self-sealing" - that is with some viscous gunge inside which (allegedly) will flow into any smallish hole and seal it. What happens in reality, I have yet to find out!
So if you get a nail in your tyre you may never know. I have a theory that I won't live long enough to get to the situation where I have to buy an electric car.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.