Do you drive with a spare, run flats, or neither?

O

OppositeLocK

Joined
Feb 27, 2019
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Wondering if anyone doesn't drive with a spare in order to increase space/reduce weight, and if as a result if you've opted for run flats. Or maybe your car doesn't come with a spare and has run flats instead and you've opted to replace them with non-run flats.
 
An important question for me in a new car is does it have a spare?

My BMW has an original BBS alloy wheel with the original 20 year old spare (never been on the car).

My Honda has a compact spare tire. It's a bit of a pain if you get a flat on the front. I change 2 wheels to get the compact spare tire onto the non driven real (but that's just me being my usual obsessive).
 
Full size spare :)

Even in cars with a stupid donut, I replace with a full-size spare because most spare tire wells have room for a real spare.
 
I have a donut. Full size spare is a good idea. I've put about 50 miles on my donut so far between two flats. Have to research that and see if it fits.
 
Mine didn't come with one. I have a donut that was given to me so I carry that on long trips. Hope I never need it as I if it happens on front then lots of jacking. I am going to buy a steel wheel so when I get tires replaced and put new tire on it so I can do 5 wheel rotation.
 
I use a spare luckily I have never had too though personally. One of my spares is 32 years old the other is around 20 years old because it was replaced by the previous owner so I have no idea if either one would work.
 
The Genesis has a donut, my tires are staggered and the rears are 275's so no other choice.
The Camry has a full size spare
The Jeep has a full size spare too. I don't let them get over 10 years old so it got a cheaper brand new tire as a spare a few years ago.
 
Ive been fooling with risk for some time. My Honda Accord Hybrid came with no spare. Just an inflator and some slime stuff. It doesnt really make me uneasy, though I do keep another air pump, and lug wrench in the car. I did have a blowout once, and had to park the car, and go back with a snow tire to limp home... that’s an issue, but it’s something that is exceedingly rare for me and my local and highway use.

My BMW came with runflats, but when I learned that running on them destroys them, I realized they offer very little value in most circumstances I would expect to encounter. I’m more uneasy with that car, because they’re very low profile, and I don’t have four snow tires sitting at home... but it’s a risk I take, and there too I have extra tools to help deal with it should something go wrong.

Most of the other cars have full size spares, and I do keep an extra toolkit and inflator in each...


Knocking on wood now.
 
Truck and Caprice have full size spares. Malibu has a Donut. Trans Am? No spare.
Trailer has two spares. I had a blow out once and it was so violent that the tire that blew, blew steel from the belts into the tire behind it.
20130823_120745.jpg
 
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Full size spare in 2 of the cars I have licensed and a donut in the other. In about 45 years and approximately 1M miles of driving I've probably had less than 10 flats on the road but, I don't want to be on the road without a spare. Before I got hurt and had to go on disability I worked construction. There's no way you can drive on construction sites day in and day out and never pick up a nail or screw in a tire.
 
I have a full size spare and 12volt compressor in each of my cars. I do 5-tire rotations in 'em myself every 6000 miles. I keep my cars for a long time, and have had flats in the 3 oldest cars where the spare had to be swapped in. I have also had flats that were discovered early enough, took air via the compressor, and driven to the vulcanizing shop for immediate repair.
 
OppositeLocK said:
Wondering if anyone doesn't drive with a spare in order to increase space/reduce weight, and if as a result if you've opted for run flats. Or maybe your car doesn't come with a spare and has run flats instead and you've opted to replace them with non-run flats.
Click to expand...
I used to take the risk when I was younger, to both increase gas mileage and make it easier to do burnouts (kind of ironic I guess).

Now I have the full size spare and jack, plus a spare ignition module, distributor cap and all my tools (at least on a long trip). I haven't had to use any of them knock on wood, but having them in the car gives me peace of mind that if something goes wrong I can likely deal with it.
 
To the guys that run a full size spare... that doesn't really work if you have tires which rotate only one direction, right?

Also, how come none of you rely on a tow truck? Depending on where you are, it may not be safe to do a swap.
 
Donut spare in both cars in my signature. Oddly, I once owned a German made 2013 VW GTI that came with a full size spare. It gets more odd that the spare had a V speed rating while the OEM Dunlop's were H rated. The spare was a 205/55/16 Bridgestone tire made in France.
 
put a nice Cooper under the Tahoe after running a tire calculator … had full sized fake … waste of space …
Once read units with G80 rear ends should have full sized …
Jeep JLU ? Duh 😷
 
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