Hooniverse Asks- What’s the Best Odd-Ball Spare Tire Location?
Anybody can store their spare under the floor in the trunk. It doesn’t take much imagination to throw that extra rim and tire under the bed of a pickup or minivan either. But there are a few places that they turn up which elicit a Moe Sizlack-like Whaaaa?! What’s the best of those?
Subaru, Lancia, Citroën, all companies whose engineers high-five one another for their ability to squirrel the spare tire away under the hood with the engine. Heat-related aging and potential oily traction inhibitions due to engine breather fails apparently outweigh needing to empty the trunk of bags to access the spare traditionally.
Sure, some cars these days come with run-flats, and lack room anywhere aboard for that fifth rim, but what’s the fun in that? Fender-mounts, Rover’s odd trunk-mounted spare. or back door weighting spares on little SUVs, that’s where the fun is, what’s the best, and weirdest place to keep your spare?
Image source: [conceptcarz.com]
Related posts:
- Hooniverse Asks- Spare Tire or Run-Flats? Plus, What’s Your Worst Tire-Changing Experience?
- Hooniverse Asks- What’s Your Favorite Car-Related TV Show?
- Hooniverse Asks- What’s the Ugliest Car Sold today?
- Hooniverse Truck Thursday – A Spare Parts Special Pickup Truck, now for sale on eBay
- Hooniverse Asks- What’s Your Favorite Race Motor?
The Bristols are among the low-hanging fruit:
<img src="IMAGE URL" width="600">
<img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/64/Bristol_410_1968.JPG/800px-Bristol_410_1968.JPG">
Where is is on a Bristol? Is it in the fender too?
Yep, between the front tires and the door. The lower part of the panel flips up.
<img src="http://stevemckelvie.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/scan0014.jpg?w=640&h=436" width=500>
Sweet! The more ya know…
You kind of mentioned it but not….. Zastava Koral, better known as the Yugo GV. The spare is stuffed between the driver and the engine. Now, the best part, is that it also serves as the crumple zone in case of a crash. When the GV was originally being crash tested, they removed the spare as part of the test like they did for every car. Yugo America protested the move because it's presence apparently made that big of a difference in the final scores. It did pass without it, but the publication of those results was the start of their demise.
<img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/62/168854548_1784389817.jpg">
I know on the C3 and C4 Corvettes the spare was considered part of the crash protection. It said so in the manual.
Also, if you had a C4 ZR-1 you got a nice little plastic bag to put the rear tire you just took off in because you had to put it in the hatch. The steamroller sized rear wheels wouldn't fit in the space saver sized rear tire well. Regular sized rear tires would. I know at the time it seemed strange to have a 17" space saver spare.
The Super Beetle's MacPherson strut suspension allowed the spare tire to lay flat in the front where the std Beetle's torsion bar required the spare to stand up at an angle. I'd read the tire placement in the SB gave better crash test results. Where I read that… lord knows.
Right, but that's in the rear of the car. NHTSA had to gut about 600lbs worth of weight out of the car to account for the weight of the measurement instrumentation. Stuff like the fuel, radios, spare tires… no biggie if you're testing a Lincoln Town Car. But it did make a huge difference for the Yugo. Even with that change, it wasn't the worst car of the bunch – Yugo scored about 1400 damage points for the driver vs. Isuzu I-Mark which racked up over 2100, and on the passenger side it's score of 1318 for the passenger vs.2662 for the Hyundai Excel.
How reliable are these tests? Saab 900 scored 1358 for passenger side, but if I had to choose between that and a Yugo to be in a crash with, I'd take the Saab any day of the week.
I think after the first week of Saab crashes, I'd want to at least try crashing in a Yugo.
Edit: And I would think they'd build the instrumentation into the dummies.
I'm sure they do that now. These tests were done back in 1986, and you still have to offset their weight.
On the Austin Healey Silverstone it doubles as the rear bumper
<img src="http://wwwdelivery.superstock.com/WI/223/4093/PreviewComp/SuperStock_4093-6252.jpg">
Flip it upright and it can also support the license plate, as with the FMR Tg500.
<img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3585/3777538913_a9eaf71a70.jpg" width="350">
That is…surprisingly brilliant.
[img src="http://img593.imageshack.us/img593/3884/img7112zk.jpg"
Old Subarus?
awww, image fail.
<img src="http://img593.imageshack.us/img593/3884/img7112zk.jpg">
Old Subarus. I'm bad at HTML.
Use < and > instead of [ and ]
I'm sure many of us are a little Panther'd out, but I still like how Ford ended up using the hump created by the rear axle and fuel tank to their advantage for years. I was more than a little disappointed that my rental Town Car had the spare shoved off to the side (like old G-bodies), and that it had the cargo divider which abolished to canyon-esque space I'm used to.
<img src="http://www.supermotors.net/getfile/77952/fullsize/trunk.jpg" /img>
The old big Fords and Mercs (pre-Panther) often had the spare on top of the hump too. A nuisance on vacations because you had to unpack the trunk to wrestle the spare out plus it was a long reach forward on the biggies.
My father's only car these days is his '65 T-Bird. This one isn't his, but it illustrates the point:
<img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2109/5825455211_a207525de2.jpg" width="350">
Given the size of that trunk (and the low maximum opening angle of the lid), even checking and topping off the tire pressure is a pain.
To be fair though, it's only about as big of a pain in the ass than shoving it under the floor, right?
At least when the spare is under the floor, you usually didn't have to climb into the trunk just to muscle the spare out. As MadKaw implied, it was a long reach to the forward-mounted spare in the old pre-downsized cars.
My Fox body LTD has it this way as well. It sucks because the hump over the axle is significantly smaller so the spare actually intrudes into the main "cargo bay" part of the trunk.
B-bodies also had that arrangement. I sold PC's towards the end of the CRT-era, and the Panthers were the only cars that could accommodate a 21" CRT monitor box in the trunk without having to unpack it. It wouldn't fit in a Caprice because the spare tire got in the way. I delivered one of those bastards to a customer in a Volvo 240 sedan by shoving it in the passenger seat up against the (automatic) shifter on one side and removing the inner door handle from the other. It wouldn't fit in the trunk or through the back door opening.
I would have thought (as the owner of two 21" CRTs and a 244) that it'd go into the trunk opening fine – wrap it in a tarp and tie the trunk shut with rope if need be! I've brought all kinda of things home in the 244, most of which would have been easier in the 745.
I'm still partial to the 242/244's 'buttcheeks', allowing a spare tire and a toolbox, or even two spares, to keep out of your cargo space.
Two full-size spares, if you insist on that sort of redundancy (my tools take precedence over rear passenger footspace, but I don't really like carrying that many passengers).
Goddamn, I love my 244. Its main fault is that it fails to be a 245.
I had a '65 Buick LeSabre that carried its spare the same way. As many have mentioned, definitely a pain in the butt to reach – and that Buick was a huge car, too. You basically just had to climb right into the trunk in order to deal with the thing in any way.
Conti kits are classy, but they protect the tire from sun rot. Morgan got it right.
<img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3426/3832290216_4411d8885b.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Morgan +4 2">
Morgan did better than that with the barrel-bodied three wheelers. So much better than the boat-bodied ones. Here's a Pembleton riffing on the Morgan styling (not an actual Morgan since you can no longer find real 3-wheelers on google image search, now that morgan's victory ace knockoff fills the webpages of the world).
<img src="http://www.pembleton.co.uk/OwnersCar/038/IMAG014A.JPG" width="600">
Forward-control Jeep.
<img src="http://jeep-parts.uneedapart.com/images/jeep-fc-150-parts.jpg" width=400>
Best picture I could find of it. First generation Volkswagen Type 2 puts it behind the front bench seat.
<img src="http://www.mopo.ca/uploaded_images/elegant-design-709507.jpg">
That might have been a good application for putting the spare-tire in the crumple zone, actually.
Paging Professor Harrell…
Yeah, yeah, I know.
<img src="http://image.automobilemag.com/f/26538133+w750+st0/0911_03_z+1980_kV_mini_1+interior.jpg" width="350">
It doubles as the passenger-side airbag.
All right, I give up. Wha?
It's the car I use as my IntenseDebate avatar, a 1980 KV Mini 1. It's French.
http://clunkbucket.com/victoire-de-citrons/
It's also proving itself to be an appropriate answer for a surprising number of Encyclopedia Hoonatica and Hooniverse Asks articles. I'm still waiting for a question about rack-and-chain steering to come up, even though I don't think I have a photo handy.
this is considered the spare tire in a lot of newer cars.
<img src="http://www.newcellphonesblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/lg-cu915-vu-new-cell-phone-photos-2.jpg"width=500>
It will be for me. Not because I don't want to change it, its just I gots no place to put one, even a dinky 115series15". Dang Canadian/German kit car.
Just put a spare in the passenger seat. Works for ZomBee and his engine.
It's the only thing he can get to ride with him.
It was also common to see the spare mounted on the front of older VW buses.
<img src="http://www.oldbug.com/ryanj6723.jpg" width=500>
…bringing us to the Danbury MotorCaravans in Great Britain, which start as water-cooled Kombis from Brazil:
<img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6192/6109546539_b8b059e0e6.jpg" width="300">
to which Danbury adds a fake spare to disguise the radiator:
<img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2422/3593105993_05ef66b85e.jpg" width="300">
That's a brilliant solution to a problem that never existed in the first place.
All the way until the end of the run in '79, not just the splitties. Not a bad idea in theory, freeing up a bit of storage space, but hopefully your front-mounted spare wasn't trapped by rusty nuts when needed…
(no ginger jokes implied)
One "thumbs up" clicky for the rusty (ginger) nuts comment…!
Worst – Dodge Caravan with Stow n' Go. Right under the center of the vehicle.
Damn. You beat me to it.
But considering how many people are actually going to change the tire themselves I think it probably isn't going to be that big a deal. AAA is on speed dial for most of those drivers*.
*This from a guy with an Intermeccanica Speedster owner with no spare whatsoever. I'll be gettting the extra-premium-ultra-tow-package with my next AAA renewal.
To be fair to Caravan drivers, they seem to be either 70 or blessed with many children, both situations which make changing a tire at the side of the highway a distinctly unappealing prospect.
Unfortunately for me, you're right – they just call hubby to come save them.
Agreed. and because of that the enginerds took advantage of that space and stuck the tire right thar.*
*Professional Engineer vwminispeedster approves of this logic
If anything, it's a safety feature. "You really want little Billy running around on the street while you change this tire?" it asks. Or possibly "Your hips are old and broken, I think you want to call a tow truck old man."
Sounds to me like those parents have their own underage pit crew.
Shuddering at the potential consequences of having my spawn change a tire.
On the second-gen (2004-2010) Toyota Sienna, it's under the passenger side second-row seat. There's a little flap in the carpet to access the bolt on the pulley (you wind it down with the lug wrench). I got to find that out the night we drove ours home from the dealer, after dark.
There was a recall on them in the rust belt states, as they had a problem with corrosion on the early ones, which could cause the spare to fall out – it'd be a nasty surprise to run over one of those.
The Gen II T&C my family had put it under the cargo area, and that worked fine. I wonder why they moved it. I hope they did move the jack, as storing it in the engine bay meant a guaranteed 20 minute wait while the thing cooled down.
Two words: Stow and Go. They used the space where the spare was and put the folded down seats there.
My 740 estate has a third-row seat that folds over the space-saver spare tire to create a flat load floor, but then again, it is a rather dinky seat.
Exactly – once they've got the space for two rows of Stow and Go, the rear suspension, and fuel tank, that's pretty much the only place leftover. I've taken seats out of a van more than I've had a flat tire anyhow.
I've always liked old trucks with the spare on the fender, sticking way up.
<img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3307/3582954364_31968c0cb0.jpg">
Or standing up on a bracket, inside the bed.
I can't find a good picture, but if I remember correctly the Caravans and T&Cs with StowNGo have the spare tire up between the first and second seat rows. This always seemed a bit crazy to me because now you have to crawl under the vehicle to get the tire when it's precariously perched on the OEM scissor jack.
My 2004 Nissan Quest is like that. Best to take out the spare then jack up the van. Took me a while to find it the first time.
For those who think a single rear-mounted spare just isn't cool enough – Bucciali TAV 8-32. I'll bet the weight of those two massive wheels hung off the back did wonders for the traction on this FWD car.
<img src="http://cache.pakwheels.com/forums/2007/9/22/bucciali_3_5XF_PakWheels(com).jpg" width="500/">
I'm not sure what it is, but the proportions on that beastie are hella appealing. Thanks!
It's an ultra-expensive FWD French car from the late 1920s and early 1930s. They were more technology and styling showcases for the company rather than serious production cars and only a handful were ever built. Here's another one – the Double Huit. It had two American Continental straight-8 engines joined side by side for a total of 16 cylinders.
<img src="http://gazoline.net/IMG/jpg/doc-440.jpg" width=500>
Marvelous lines on that old beastie.
That looks like something a villain in the old "Dick Tracy" comic strip would drive.
Yeah, it does. Maybe 'NoNeck' to go along with that low roofline.
That is achingly beautiful. This is how you do high beltlines right.
The Bucciali is actually very low compared to other 1932 cars, plus it sits on large wheels and has a low chopped-style roof. Here's a "typical" 1932 sedan – a Buick – for comparison.
<img src="http://popuppistons.com/pictures/1932buick/1932buick02.jpg" width=500>
Man, if you hadn't told us, it'd be like playing "Where's Waldo"…
I once had a spare tire stolen from under the bed of a pickup, and didn't notice it was gone for an unknown length of time. Out of sight, out of mind. It could have been a problem if I got a flat during the period of the MIA spare.
Put the tire where it will get noticed.
<img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a3/Land_Rover_Series_1_HT.jpg/800px-Land_Rover_Series_1_HT.jpg" width=500>
This Rover P6 2200 TC agrees:
<img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3392/4614499973_6e6f14a122.jpg" width="450">
Yup, from the factory. Nice trailer hitch, though.
I've always been fascinated by the "Camper Special" versions of '70s Ford trucks.
<img src="http://www.fordification.com/images/forum-ref-th/1973-F350SCS_01.jpg" width=500>
<img src="http://www.fordification.com/images/forum-ref-th/1973-F350SCS_02.jpg" width=500>
My Grandad had one of those for years. I was always intrigued by the odd proportions of bed:wheelbase. Makes a lot of sense if you've got a 10' slide in, though. His rear step bumper also extended to protect the rear of the camper.
Huh! I always thought those were storage spots for tools or whatever you didn't want out in the open.
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/WDoLP.jpg">
The spare tire on our '36 Packard had its own trunk.
<img src="http://02a1392.netsolhost.com/mcvcg/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/IMGP8883wtrmkd-300×199.jpg">
The Honda Z600 also had its own spare tire cubby.
<img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4082/4914593928_965b8c3b6a.jpg">
So if the Dauphine is "sticking out its tongue" (see below) is the Z600 poo… oh I don't want to think about that.
That is a similar setup to the one on my ute. It sits below the bumper, underneath the tray. It's too damn cold out to go take a picture!
as does the TR3…
<img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6180/6166829899_5669400088.jpg" width="419" height="500" alt="59tr3rear">
It is Tuesday, is it not?
<img src="http://motomove.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/2009-ural-saharad.jpg?w=500&h=366">
Why yes, it is Tuesday. Vespas have carried their spares in nearly every imaginable way, but this position remains my favorite:
<img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4011/4416310515_2614307cf8.jpg" width="450">
Killer.
I am sure Vespa did that in an attempt to offset some of the balance issues create by an engine way off-set to one side. I hate the way every vintage Vespa wants to fall over on it's right side as soon as you take it off the stand – Vespas with the spare mounted elsewhere (an especially without a battery – which is inside the spare wheel) are seem like they want to fall over to the right if you breath on them wrong.
<img src="http://i450.photobucket.com/albums/qq228/JamesISpalding/Bajaj%20Chetak/DSCF8112.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket">
I have a Bajaj Chetak which is a clone (actually built under license) Vespa VBC (150 Super). Built for the Indian market, where it's intended role was more like a family sedan than a scooter. It has a storage compartment where the spare tire and battery would be and mounts the spare tire under a huge rear rack (kid carrier?).
<img src="http://i450.photobucket.com/albums/qq228/JamesISpalding/Bajaj%20Chetak/biz_bike_658113a.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket">
Ural? Got up close and personal with one for the first time a few weeks ago. Sadly, not something I'd put my cash into – and I'm not afraid of driving junk.
Indeed. They are quite pricey, and build quality? I if money was no object, I would pick up the Red October.
<img src="http://www.bikephotos.tk/resimler/2010-ural-retro-red-october-limited-edition-11.jpg" width=550>
It's pretty, I'll give it that. I'm just not certain of Russian vehicle build quality.
From what I understand, the materials and build quality have improved dramatically over the last few years. The one I examined was built soon after the turn of the century (it makes me feel old just saying that) and stopped idling for three separate reasons in the 15 minutes I stood there.
Wouldn't hacks be more appropriate for Three-Wheel Thursday? (Hey, there's an idea!)
Renault Dauphine. As a kid I always pictured it as "sticking out it's tongue" <img src="http://www.philseed.com/images/r-dauphinespare.jpg">
The M1083 (and pretty much all FMTVs) put the spare between the cab and the bed, then give you a crane to lower it.
<img width=500 src="http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/m1083_color.jpg">
THAT is a great idea.
The location of the SAAB 92's spare isn't unusual of itself, being on the floor of the trunk:
<img src="http://www.griffinmodels.com/media/tsw/11.png" width="500">
but the absence of an opening trunk lid means it can only be reached from inside the car via the rear seat.
I can see why you love those things so much.
I take it the same applied to a base-model Henry J/Allstate without the optional 'Continental kit'?
That's what I've heard, too, although Myth #2 on this page explains why the lidless models are so uncommon (I've never personally seen one without a trunk lid):
http://home.comcast.net/~ljfid/henry_j_myths.htm
Nor have I, though I knew a few existed. I've seen photos, of course, and heard stories, but stories are rarely completely accurate anyway. (I figured you'd know if anyone would!)
One of my great regrets about relocating to the midwest from Seattle is the lack of vehicular obscurity/diversity. It's the reason that an Alfa was my last purchase, a week before leaving. You are blessed.
I was going to post the picture of the spare but I think with a picture of the guts only true fans will get it(click pic for answer).
<img src="http://members.fortunecity.com/wibmerpeter/sahara/slov4x4.jpg" width="600" >
2CV Sahara? (No, I didn't click it)
i couldn't find a real good picture, but on several generations of the El Camino and Ranchero the spare tire had its own little compartment behind the seats and under the bed. Sort of a nice little smugglers compartment. The spare was long gone on the Ranchero I had, so I just used that as the secure trunk space.
<img src="http://www.collectorcarads.com/Picture8/2011-07-22_16-54-47_206_1.jpg"width=500>
A friend of mine had a late '70s Rancheo that seemed like that compartment went all the way back to just in front of the axle (don't know if it really did, but it was long none-the-less). Totally makes sense to put the tire there, he just threw garbage in there.
The '64 El Camino that served as my first car simply mounted the spare upright in the cab behind the passenger's seat. Apparently it was some time after that when Chevy decided to get all tricky and slip it under the bed.
It's not uncommon for the spare on a truck to be under the bed. I think Honda lost something in the translation.
<img src="http://www.westgatehonda.com/ArtImages/128161/honda-ridgeline-2011_i05.jpg">
IMG from WestgateHonda.com
i got locked into on of those things one time….I got in it to joke around, and my friends took it way too far.
the people around us kept telling them to lock it, but the people at the show had disabled it thank god
At least that is accessible without having to construct a Rube Goldberg device to lower the tire from under the bed.
but if you are actually using it as a truck and have a payload in the bed…
That would never happen, this is a Honda truck.
With the right cargo, who needs the spare anyway?
<img src="http://www.oramagazine.com/images/0502-feb/050206f-06-ridgeline/06photo06.jpg"/>
I didn't have my camera on me but the other week I passed a Ridgeline with about 1.5 tons of topsoil in the bed. The rear bumper was almost touching the ground! I applaud the owner for actually using it as a truck but fear for life that a wheel would fly off in my general direction.
One of the worst has to be the Hummer H2, among its many sins is the original spare tire/3rd row seat arrangement. I remember seeing these when they first came out. I think they later switched to the outside mounted spare as standard.
Here is the 3rd row seat: <img src="http://image.fourwheeler.com/f/reviews/7-weeks-with-a-hummer-h2/11888048/cargo.jpg"width=300> originally they came with just one seat on the 3rd row. On the other side was the spare tire:
<img src="http://galleryx.eeaston.com/d/4467-2/DSC01724.jpg"width=500> In this picture the 3rd row seat has been removed and the 3nd row folded flat.
With the 3rd row seat and the spare tire in place there was ZERO cargo space with 6 passengers. I'm still not sure how GM made a vehicle so big with less interior space than a K-5 Blazer.
Check out the location of the spare in this mid 70's Caddy ambulance….
<img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6157/6167372654_f05e0e1730.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="1 095">
<img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6170/6166833013_ba52d1e164.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="1 096">
I'll take mine on the side. <img src=http://image.jpmagazine.com/f/projectbuild/8849141+w200/0505_12z+1971_Jeep_CJ6+Rear_Passenger_Side.jpg>
How about the Corvair…
<img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5156/5871516006_af5e9879bd.jpg" alt="" />
<img src="http://paloneva.freeshell.org/caprice/caprice17.jpg" width=500>
It's behind this interior panel on the passenger's side. There's no markings or handles, you just have to tear it off. This takes slightly more force then it would if you weren't supposed to do that.
I was hunting for a picture of something else, but stumbled across this RS200 instead.
<img src="http://ll.speedhunters.com/u/f/eagames/NFS/speedhunters.com/Images/Jonathan%20Moore/07-09%20Goodwood%20Rally%20Paddock/JM-GOODWOOD-RPAD-034.jpg">
This is apparently a useful factory option from Ibex Vehicles, or at least one that would be difficult to top:
<img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Mvm0n4Zk2M8/S_BQUK6pk5I/AAAAAAAAAFQ/pbcnhkJ7f8Q/s1600/Ibex+400+Drop+Side+5.JPG" width="400">
How about Ford's MK4 Zepher / Zodiac.
They put between the radiator and the engine
[IMG ]http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk259/Frosty27_2008/zephera.jpg[/IMG]
Let me HTML that up for you:
<img src="http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk259/Frosty27_2008/Zepher-1.jpg">
<img src="http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk259/Frosty27_2008/zephera.jpg">
The 1954 Pontiac Bonneville Special Motorama show car uses its spare to hint at rocket power.
<img src="http://autotraderca.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/06-az-54-pontiac.jpg" />
The Kaiser Traveler has to win this one. In order to create an open full width flat floor in this hatchback/wagon mashup (hmmm, the first crossover?), the spare was moved to the inside of the left rear door, where it took the place of the inner door panel and all of the other door mechanisms — making the door and window inoperative, and making a rather uncomfortable and potentially dirty armrest for the left rear seat passenger.
<img src="http://hooniverse.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Fullscreen-capture-9252010-111351-PM.bmp.jpg">