# Universal spare tire.



## MPR (Aug 28, 2010)

This looks like it could be useful:

Universal spare tire works on nearly every car | Fox News


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## Basementgeek (Feb 7, 2005)

I don't think it is a good idea, "Rent a Spare". Would you have to return it where you rented it. How do you charge for mileage and tire wear? 

The idea of a wheel that fits most cars is far from a new idea. 

BG


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## MPR (Aug 28, 2010)

You pay a deposit on it and then get the deposit back when it is turned in at any authorized station, just like a U-Haul truck. If you don't turn the tire in you can keep it, but you don't get back your $312 deposit.

The idea is not new but the use of the tires by emergency road assistant crews is a good one.

Also, in rural areas something like this would be great in convenience stores. Once, every little town around here had a gas station where you could get a flat fixed. Now, most small towns only have a convenience store, if that.

Since the local Co-op closed, if I don't do it myself, I have to drive 30 miles to get a tire fixed. Someone passing through on the weekend would be hard pressed to find tire service within a hundred miles.

Local convenience stores can't afford to carry a large stock of spares nor do they have the equipment or personnel trained to repair flats. However, they could have a couple of universal spares for rent. These tires would be turned in at the service station where the people went to have the flat fixed and a replacement sent back out on a distribution truck.


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## Basementgeek (Feb 7, 2005)

While the idea is not bad if it is a standard tire and not temporary tire, I think the return shipping cost will be pricy. 

Got to say I rarely see any body changing a tire while on the road anymore, I have had to change one tire, wife's car, about a dozen years ago. Tires are so much better than they used to be.

BG


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## MPR (Aug 28, 2010)

Basementgeek said:


> Tires are so much better than they used to be.


Dad tells me stories of when Grandpa, during WWII, would plan on taking almost an entire day to travel the thirty miles into town because he would usually have to fix at least three flats on the round trip.

When I started driving to my first farming jobs in the late 60s to early 70s I'd be putting on the spare and then fixing the tire when I got to work about once a week. At the time the only paved road in the county was the state highway. 

I've had a few flats here and there as recently as the early 2000s. In the past five years though I've not had a single flat and I haul a trailer full of boards and limbs to the county "burn pile," which is full of nails, about once a week. I've got good truck tires though -- I still help a lot of people driving cars who have flats.


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## Basementgeek (Feb 7, 2005)

Yep, lots of flats years ago. I think things, with tires, got better when we went to tubeless tires. Much easier to fix now, no more tubes!

BG


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## wolfen1086 (Oct 4, 2007)

Rent a spare LMAO LAMO, LAMO
that's not exactly the best Idea I have ever seen for many reasons (1) my Jeep has 15" rims, not 17", (2) my wife's Liberty has 16" rims, not 17", my oldest sons Jeep has 15" rims. just an example, but the main thing is they DO NOT fit most cars, here's the best part too, unless your driving a go cart a full size spare tire DOES NOT decrease mileage any amount that you can tell, I even tested that theroy with y Jeep, I did the mpg with the spare dangling of the back, I get 16 mph, I take the spare off, do the mileage and I get 16 mpg, but without the spare if I run over something that slices my tire, my day is done while I await a tow home


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## SABL (Jul 4, 2008)

Any reason to not have a spare?? Rent one??


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## MPR (Aug 28, 2010)

I can't count how many times I've come across some car with a flat and popped the trunk only to find that there was no spare and had to drive the people to the nearest town, Once, in Arizona I had to drive someone 50 miles and back because the two towns that were closer didn't have tire stores (the guy couldn't believe that I would actually wait around and drive him back).

A convenience store in a rural area could stock a Kiosk with about 4 tires that would fit 90% of the cars and trucks out there and which people could just put a deposit on and then turn in at the tire store where they could get the tire fixed.

I don't think that people who live in cities or in the eastern US quite understand the distances out west. I once ran over a box of roofing nails on a road in southeastern Colorado and limped for almost a hundred miles, getting out every ten minutes and using my foot pump to air three tires back up, until I hit a tiny town with no tire shop but luckily a rancher who had some tire tools I could use. This was several decades ago and before I knew about plug-type repair kits. Now I carry a plug-type kit and haven't had my spare on the ground in years, and that was when I ran over a metal grill hidden in the grass at a campsite in California and tore a sidewall. I actually had to drive all the way to Grant's Pass, Oregon before I found a tire shop.


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## SABL (Jul 4, 2008)

I used to carry tire plugs......when working construction. I also carried an air compressor with a full tank of air.......drain it and fill it back up after the condensation was removed. Not enough to get the tire up to full pressure but enough to get to an electric source if one was not avavilable......I didn't carry a generator. 

I guess the spare tire rental would benefit those who are ill prepared.....but I find most people like that will also be financially ill prepared and more than likely couldn't afford the deposit. 

I just loaned a spare to a 'relative' who kept putting air in a leaking tire but had 0 clue on the amount of pressure she was putting in........she got about 50' away and the tire blew out. The tire had only been leaking for ~1 year....:nonono:. I need to ask my son if the spare has been returned.....no big deal as it's a donut type and I want to replace it with a full size tire. It's a 4WD Cherokee.

I remember travelling out west.....long stretches between towns. Best to be prepared and keep the gas tank filled.


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## Basementgeek (Feb 7, 2005)

Not all cars come with a spare. The little temporary should not be used over
50 miles and max speed of 50. They are maybe just a 1 time use only. They have less thread, less belt than regular times, higher air pressure.

Few cars have a full size spare. Using a wrong size tire on a 4 wheel drive/all wheel drive can be fatal to your drive train.

One option is the run flat tires all around, $$$$

BG


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