Hi all, Considering a spare tire for my Canadian Clarity and wanted to get others' thoughts about the best way forward. Should I just try to fit a full size winter/rim combo in my trunk since I have two sets of tires/rims, or are there good compact alternatives that are safe for flats, whether on the front or back end of the car?
http://www.insideevsforum.com/community/index.php?threads/spare-tire-that-fits.2579/page-3 See post #1, #26, and #47 for a spare tire that fits well. It is only a 17" tire but it fits with plenty of clearance on the front and back and is almost exactly the same diameter as the original tires.
I have this one: https://www.ebay.com/itm/07-09-G35-Compact-Spare-Rim-Tire-Donue-Wheel-17x4-Temporary-Black-Aluminum-OEM/164335966897 It (145/80/17 size) is within 1% of the diameter of the stock tires. I like it in that when I travel and lay the seats down in the back, it easily fits behind the passenger seat with the headrest of the downed back seat nicely inside the hollow of the wheel (outside of the wheel is against the back of the front seat). I simply put a beach towel or two over the front and back of the wheel and adjust the front passenger seat back until it is "wedged". Essentially takes up no room at all when carried that way. Normally I just let it lay loose in the back of the trunk with the outside of the wheel on the floorboard. When buying groceries, we tend to put the frozen stuff inside the middle of the wheel together, or just use the middle of the wheel to hold stuff that tends to roll around. I keep the jack and all the tools needed to change the flat in the space under the floor at the back of the trunk (where the charger would typically be carried). Edited to add: You will also want to pick up the correct lug nuts for the wheel you buy. It looks like this one in the ebay listing uses mag-type lug nuts, some use acorn (radial or conical) lug nuts, - the original honda lugs are semi-circular. Edited again: You will also need to get a set of Hub-centric wheel ring adapters, 66.1mm to 64.1mm. I like the aluminum, but others use plastic. https://www.ebay.com/itm/4Pcs-Aluminum-Alloy-Wheel-Spacer-Hub-Centric-Ring-66-1mm-OD-to-64-1mm-ID/153775509692 There are some posts here about how to install. I use JB weld to build up the inside of the wheel to make it flush (Nissan and Infiniti have a drop-off before flushing up against the wheel hub on the Honda). You will see this when you compare both the spare and the original OEM wheel on the inside of the wheel.
Based on my apparent golden luck with tires... I've only had a single tire dramatically blow out in 40 years of driving (!). I carry a tire plug kit in my Clarity. Don't want to bother with lugging around the extra weight of a spare tire, jack, lug wrench.
I agree with the tire plug kit. I keep a good one of these with several plugs of a couple of different diameters in the area where I store the jack. They can be life savers and keep you from having to deal with running the spare (or at least running it for long). I haven't had as good a luck as you with not damaging a tire beyond this being the fix. On three occasions, I have had to have a spare (or get a car towed) in the past few years (two with a Volt, one with the Clarity). The additional weight of the compact aluminum spare and associated jack, lug wrench, etc is probably around 30 pounds. I guess it does take a little energy to carry it around, but it seems negligible to me for my comfort in having the spare.
A couple of additional considerations: If you get a spare with a diameter that is more than 1-2% different from the other tires, OEM or aftermarket, use that spare only in a rear wheel position. To elaborate, if a front tire goes flat, move a good rear tire to the front to replace the flat and put the spare on the rear. This will give you 2, same size tires on the drive axle. Also, be sure the spare is a non-directional tire, so that it can be used on either side of the car.
