Spare Tire a good / bad idea?

[dtbaker61]

I also had a beyond repair blow out coming back from UT, had to have the car towed as I had no spare. I'm thinking of buying a full-size spare in case it happens again, need to drive long miles on it, eventually to get back home.

really NOT a good idea to drive 'long miles' on a spare, especially with AWD.... even if it is the same nominal size, if the tread wear is significantly different the diameter difference will be enough to be hard on the differential. So, unless you plan on an exact match for the 5th wheel, and rotating it in regularly, probably not a great idea.

Sponsored

 

[William Elder]

How often do you use a spare tire now?

It's more like When You Need one You Need one!
I would like to know which Ford Rims will fit on a Mach-E? 19" 225 55 19's

 

[William Elder]

Modern Spare has confirmed that they’ll have a full kit for the MME once they can confirm the specs.

I have 1 for a model Y Tesla I am trying to sell!
They are too expensive if you are outside the U.S.
Mine was $800.00 here in Canada... Import duties etc.

 

[P. T. Magoo]

Since this thread has been bumped, yep I have the Modern Spare kit which includes jack and lug wrench, and cover/carrying case for the whole shebang. It looks very sturdy and I'm hoping to almost never use it. That said, admittedly I keep cars a while, but I can't remember owning a car that didn't, at some point, have a flat or crippled tire. Michigan roads are not kind to tires.

I may leave it in the shed/garage when I'm just on my daily commute, but on a long trip it'll be in the car with me. Around town, I can probably limp back home with the compressor and sealant, but it'll be nice to be able to drop the damaged tire off at Discount Tire or equiv. and still have a vehicle to (carefully) drive with the spare in place.

Fun fact: The spare tire is, officially, the one and only part of the car I actually own thus far.

 

[AlpaChino]

Since this thread has been bumped, yep I have the Modern Spare kit which includes jack and lug wrench, and cover/carrying case for the whole shebang. It looks very sturdy and I'm hoping to almost never use it. That said, admittedly I keep cars a while, but I can't remember owning a car that didn't, at some point, have a flat or crippled tire. Michigan roads are not kind to tires.

I may leave it in the shed/garage when I'm just on my daily commute, but on a long trip it'll be in the car with me. Around town, I can probably limp back home with the compressor and sealant, but it'll be nice to be able to drop the damaged tire off at Discount Tire or equiv. and still have a vehicle to (carefully) drive with the spare in place.

Fun fact: The spare tire is, officially, the one and only part of the car I actually own thus far.

Does this modern spare kit fit in the frunk? Would you be willing to post a picture of how you'd store it in the car while on a trip? This concern is the only thing keeping me from buying my own.

 

[P. T. Magoo]

Does this modern spare kit fit in the frunk? Would you be willing to post a picture of how you'd store it in the car while on a trip? This concern is the only thing keeping me from buying my own.

I don't think it would fit in the frunk, not even close. Too bad, because that would result in a nice, '57 VW Beetle sort of aesthetic.

I saw a thread here somewhere where somebody was considering (with a smaller diameter spare wheel, like a mini spare from a Jaguar or something) cutting a hole in the bottom front of the frunk and sealing it back up extended downward such that the spare could be carried there.

The Modern Spare kit has a pretty large diameter wheel and tire combo, so as to have close to the same rotational speed on the road as a regular wheel. So it'll take up some serious space, and add some weight if it rides with the car. I was surprised how tall that tire is when it arrived.

What I tentatively plan to do is to build some kind of removable frame or stanchions to go under the floor in the cargo area to raise the floor to a height that'll allow the spare wheel to be under the floor (so the floor would end up higher than the level of the folded-down seats). That way I'll have the full, flat floor, albeit higher. I'll know whether that can be done practically once I have the car I guess. If the back seats slope back too much it might foil my sneaky plan by pushing the back of the floor too far back for the hatch to close.

Another way would be to just put a cover over the tire and let it ride in the back on the floor, but I kinda hate to sacrifice that much flat floor space. That is what we did with my wife's Volt though. That spare is in there full time, and we don't really miss the flat floor space.

 

[bcb]

Modern Spare now has a kit for the Mach-E listed on their website. It’s expected to ship in May.

https://modernspare.com/product/2020-2021-ford-mach-e-spare-tire-kit-options/

Awesome, many thanks for this link! Ordering now.

 

[XCommunicado]

If you're not going full out for a mounted spare, buy a tire and have it ready to take to a tire store, in the event they don't have one. The place that services our Ford dealer will take from Saturday til Wednesday to get a tire for my wife's car. That's a really long time to use the tire pump.

Being able to toss a tire in the back and get it mounted right away is worth the $225.00 it'll take to have it handy.

Not sure about your dealership but here in Atlanta, they wouldn't mount a tire we didn't buy from them...
I had a side puncture somehow from a pot hole so fix-a-flat was useless...ended up ordering from tirerack since they had it in stock, dealership would have been a few days wait. Called them and they said we won't install anything not purchased from them....

 

[kennethjk]

Not sure about your dealership but here in Atlanta, they wouldn't mount a tire we didn't buy from them...
I had a side puncture somehow from a pot hole so fix-a-flat was useless...ended up ordering from tirerack since they had it in stock, dealership would have been a few days wait. Called them and they said we won't install anything not purchased from them....

Most service stations have no problem putting a tire on your rims even if the tire is not purchased from them

 

[TonyaE]

I bought this tire repair kit on Amazon there are cheaper ones this one has everything you need.

It’s missing one thing..a human being that knows how to use it. I will need that in my kit please.

 

[BalsaDust]

My thoughts on a spare... when you have one you don't need one, and when you need one you wish you had one!
Modern Spare on order, I have the jack and breaker bar for changing.
Tony

 

[Carsinmyblood]

One week after buying a wheel/tire from a premium, owner was swapping wheels. One week after it arrived my wife found a tire had gone flat in the garage. 10 minutes with a floor jack and off to the dealer. It took a week for the dealer to have a new tire ready to go.

Spare in the garage. A little insurance, especially in a 2 MME household.

 

[Mach1E]

It’s missing one thing..a human being that knows how to use it. I will need that in my kit please.

It’s actually easier than it looks!

Remove nail/screw.
Clean hole
Insert plug

Not exactly rocket surgery.

 

[XCommunicado]

One week after buying a wheel/tire from a premium, owner was swapping wheels. One week after it arrived my wife found a tire had gone flat in the garage. 10 minutes with a floor jack and off to the dealer. It took a week for the dealer to have a new tire ready to go.

Spare in the garage. A little insurance, especially in a 2 MME household.

I had that happen (hit a pot hole and something gashed the tire wall. Called dealership since others tire shops didn't have that heavy weighted tire in stock...ended up going to tirerack.com and they had the OEM tire "same day"...went and got that tire, installed it at Mavis and was good the same day vs 3-4 days with the dealership

 

[UnforAll]

Does this modern spare kit fit in the frunk? Would you be willing to post a picture of how you'd store it in the car while on a trip? This concern is the only thing keeping me from buying my own.

This forum member wrote at the end of March 2022 that he purchased a Modern Spare for peace of mind which he stored behind the passenger seat.
Roadtrip to Retirement -- Our 1800 mile journey from IL to AZ

Sponsored