Princefan

Have a 66 with knock-offs, and no spare.
Wondering how many forum members are not bothering to carry a spare (finding a single at a reasonable price is tough) and just relying on AAA and a tow if necessary.

Any alternative thoughts out there?

65GGvert

Carry a regular spare. When you take the knockoff off, remove the lug nuts holding the adapter to the hub and put the spare on and use the lug nuts to hold the wheel on. The hub isn't modified, a normal chevy wheel, such as an S10 truck spare will work, as will any other proper sized wheel and tire. The only difference is removing the adapter before you put the wheel on.

Nowhere Man

If you want to risk changing a flat on the side of the road you can get a late 90’s GM S-10 spair they will fit the car and I have been told fit in the spair tire tub

Wolf74

I thought about going with no spare on my '65 and know some people do but I just couldn't bring myself to do it so I bought a steel rally wheel (couldn't find a decent older S10 compact spare and got tired of hunting one) from one of the corvette parts places for $55 and a new tire (narrowest one I could find and the same height as the ones I run) and tube from ebay for $55 and had it mounted (un-inflated - with a zip tie to hold the tubes valve stem in the rim) for $10. Even with the narrow tire it is a tight fit under the car. I carry a small electric compressor and a can of fix a flat.

1spacover

I have a 66 also with knock-off. I decided to not carry a spare because of posi- traction and the hardware required to get the wheels off. I would rather pay road service and a flatbed.

65GGvert

The hardware required is a scissor jack, lug wrench and a lead hammer. Positraction doesn't matter if you have a spare of similar height. I'd much prefer to take off the lug nuts and change the wheel than to sit along the road waiting for a flatbed, not to mention the possibility of the flatbed doing damage to my car.

DSR

How often do you get flats in your daily drivers? I don't have a spare tire. With 20 years & 180,000 miles in my Chevelle I only every got one flat, luckily it went low in my driveway. 60,000 + miles on the corvette and I got my first flat last spring. A nail in the tire. It went flat sitting in my garage.

65GGvert

I probably don't need to carry a fire extinguisher then because I've never had one catch fire

66RBS

My "new" 66 has a knock off spare. But be aware that AAA offers a premium road service package with 200 mile towing radius. No worries on long road trips regardless of the type of failure

DSR

The OP asked about a spare tire, I don't think the fire extinguisher is going to help when you get a flat.

LB66383

My '66 didn't even have a spare tire carrier when I got it, and I never put one in. That was 20 years ago, and it hasn't been a problem. I have AAA, and admit that I never venture more than 50 miles from home. I had to have the car towed once (for mechanical reasons, not a flat tire) and the flatbed driver was very cautious and caused no problems.

65GGvert

Not having a spare is not going to help him when he's stranded somewhere with a flat tire either. Flat beds are not instant. You feel free to do whatever you want to, but I'm not sitting somewhere trying to find a local flatbed and waiting for them and trust them to load it and then taking it somewhere when I can change the spare and be on my way.

RatDog

I carry this in my car:

https://shop.slime.com/collections/f...nt=45258849352

Steve

emccomas

I have bolt on knock offs on my 64, with 205/70R15 tires on them.

I am in the process of putting a full size spare (205/70R15) tire of a 15 x 6 steel wheel from a 1970-1975 Chevelle / Malibu. I do not want to hassle with different size tires, and having to move a tire from the rear to the front.

I have to add extended spare tire carrier bolts to accommodate the oversize spare tire. The factory oversize carrier bolts are 9 5/8 inches (stock are 9 1/4 inches), and even the 9 5/8 inch bolts are not long enough. I just made a set of 10 inch bolts.

Personally, I would be very concerned about using an S-10 spare with the original spare tire. The last year of production for S-10 was 2004, so an S-10 spare tire is at least 14 years old. I bought a brand new 205/70R15 tire to go on my 15 x 6 wheel. My jack and tire tools are in excellent shape.

I do need to get a fire extinguisher put in my car.

Frankie the Fink

The S-10 spare is what I carry and I think its fine.....I got it of a truck that was always garaged so it rarely saw wide temperature extremes and was never mounted to even get any UV exposure. Its a worst, worst case fallback.

They do fit in the midyear spare tire tub carrier and allow the lid to close all the way as original. I also ride with a spare back there as the car sits higher without it in the rear....and if you do that and only have a few gallons of gas in the car's tank it gets pretty noticeable. Prob hard to see in this picture but the spare tire, spare tire carrier are removed here and the gas tank only has 2-3 gallons in it. Definitely has a 'nose down' attitude, that might not bother many.

Vettrocious

If you run modern redials, rather than bias plys, the need for a spare is minimized, unless you drive in Michigan, where potholes have names.

Princefan

I am leaning in that direction too

Princefan

Slime is a great idea

jaybird92547

My 64 still has the org spare in it but is so dry rotted. Not sure I want try to use it

89vette