Anybody using one of the small spare tires that are available now in cars? I thinking of getting rid of the full size tire and sticking one of those little tires back there... less weight, easier to handle if I do have a flat too... Just wondering..

 

Even though I still have mine if I get a flat I'll use my cell with a good road side plan..

 

I bought one at the junk yard with a dual bolt pattern wheel/ never used tire for $10. It didn't have enough clearance for the calipers though
At least my daughter's car now has a spare !!

I don't know what would fit....Maybe from a later model Camaro or Firebird???

 

Corvettes have a positraction differential---spring loaded clutches inside the diff to give two wheel traction (a live axle with clutches). If you run different diameter tires on the rear end, the axles will rotate at different RPMs and you will burn the clutch plates up. You can do it for a very short while, but........

You can carry a baby spare IF you put it on the front ONLY. And IF it has the correct backspacing to clear your brake calipers, which I doubt it would. And then, if you have a flat on the rear, you must put the spare on the front and then put that front wheel (same size as rear or all bets are off) on the rear.

Tire width makes no difference, but diameter is critical.

And then..(yuk yuk )..If you have sucked up the spare carrier assembly to hold the baby spare, where are you gonna carry that full size flat tire 'till you can get it fixed?? Dang, whatcha gonna do now? Tell your girl to ride on the back deck 'cause the tire has to sit in the passenger seat??

I gay-ron-tee several folks will pop up with "Fix-a-Flat" and/or "call AAA on the cell phone." That's all very well and good if you only travel in areas with 100% cell phone coverge and 24 hour AAA tow trucks, or only drive on sunny weekend afternoons to car meets when you might run over a thumbtack.

Well in my experience, the situation where you get a flat tire is more like midnite when it's 30 degrees out with a 35 MPH wind blowing, you are running a mountain pass or plains stretch where there is no cell phone coverage for 25 miles in either direction (and the tow truck wouldn't get there 'till sometime after 10 the next morning anyway), and you run over a chunk of rusted exhaust pipe laying in the middle of the road and it put 3" gash in your sidewall so your "Fix-a-f**king-Flat" won't do any good anyway.

Whatcha gonna do then?

Give me a full size spare tire any day...(And be sure you can undo the lug nuts that the bozo at 'Big-O Tire' put on with a 200psi air wrench with your piddly-a** little OEM lug wrench as well....!)

"Just My Opinion"

John

 

Keep the full size spare!

 

Just add a roadside service plan to your insurance for $12 bucks a year and keep your cell handy. LOL!
Drive Safe!
MK

 

I've had my '76 since new and have never had to change a tire. I had many other Vettes and the same is true there. In fact, I think I've had to change a tire once in my life. Why not just run w/o a spare and keep your cell phone available. Also, run with a good set of tires.

 

Thanks everybody!! I think I'll just rely on the cell phone and AAA.

 

Cell phone, AAA+ = 100 miles free towing, and it doesn't hurt to carry a can of fix-a-flat.

 

The full size pare tire is part of the collision protection design. It helps protect the gas tank in the event of a rear end collision. Keep it.

 

Good point!

 

I will carry a donut just to be able to change a flat tire to be able to pull the car up onto a wrecker. Pulling a Corvette up the ramp with a flat tire catches on too many things that break on the way up. I too carry a cell phone and AAA, but I still want to be able to roll the car rather than sliding one corner through the dirt.

Spike