Space saver spare wheels, or whatever there called!

Hi Bantam, You are right about not being road worthy, in NSW your spare wheel can fail a rego inspection if it is not up to scratch. If people rotated their tyres your spare would be in good order. Rubber needs to be massaged to keep it in good order. So if your spare has been sitting in the boot for 5 years then it would have lost it's flexibility and be useless.

Oh come on Bantam.
They aren't that bad.
Take a look at how the Toyota Prius is taking over regional taxi fleets here in Qld. They all run one of those cheese cutter spares & don't seem to be stuck anywhere. A few paranoid operators here tried jamming full size spares in their Prius's at first but gave up after a while. They realised running the cheese cutter for a spare wasn't a big issue.
I've got over 700,000 up on my Prius taxis so far & haven't come across any troubles that held us up for to long.
As soon as we get a flat & have to put on the spare we either go & get the puncture seen to immediately or come home & grab another one.
Exactly the same procedure for our taxis that have had full size spares.
That should also be the same procedure for any car.
We don't carry fares on the cheese cutter. I am not certain, but I think it may be illegal for us to do so. Either way it just looks like crap anyway. Bit like having a dirty steel rim & 3 mags on your car.

Spot on Fatso, horses for courses. More and more of the electric vehicles coming out will have them because, well, you can't go too far from a recharging point anyhow.

What does amaze me a little is that some vehicles advertised for their 4WD/offroad ability carry them. The Touareg as a prime example. Even forgetting offroad work, a lot of people buy these things for their towing capacity. Can't imagine a cheese cutter standing up too well to having a double float and two horses lugged behind it. Not a fan of over regulation, but can't understand how a vehicle can have a 3500 Kg rated towing capacity with no proper spare.

A rear wheel carrier and a proper spare works for more remote travel, but guess you will see more and more of these things in remote areas as I don't doubt that someone heads off thinking all is good and realises too late that the spare is not up to it. Oh well, would be fun in sand though.

Cheers,

Matt.

Oh come on fatso no cab is very far from a spare tyre or the means to drag its sorry ass back to base.

If you go to the UK, you are very very rarely more tha 30Km from the next town or village.

Hell my wife has walked from the top right hand corner to the Bottom left hand corner of the UK ( jon agrotes to lands end) and slept in a warm bed in a village every night.

Get a flat in the UK and walking to the next village is a real posibility

There are heaps of places in this country that 100KM on good sealed roads would not get you to help let alone a place that could replace or repair your tyre.

Get falt in the middle of the Molbrough stretch and it would be about 4 days solid walk to the nearest help.

In the nearly 35 years that I have been driving I have only changed um..3 flat tyres on cars I have been driving and one of them was a cab.
At 2 am in the morning I drove to the cab owners place an there he was standing in the front of his house with a fresh spare for me.

But If I am travling distances I carry two spares..

Spares are like lucky charms, most of the time if you have one you wont need it.......but it is people that don't carry a spare that get stuck sitting by the side of the road like a shag on a rock.

A space saver spare does not look lucky enough for me.

cheers

OH
as for the full sized tyre not fitting in the space save hole....apparantly it is very common to have customers come in with the failed wheel in the pasenger or rear seat, because that is the only place it will fit.

cheers

Going slightly left of topic with the mention of electric cars - now they are meant to be "eco friendly" yet you have to plug them in ? with technology today - why have they not made the roof - bonnet and boot of solar panels on these cars ?

wouldn't that make sense that when there parked at work in the sun , there recharging themselves ( somewhat ) rather that relying on a full charge from mains ?

just a thought

BB

Then when you get home use the panels to power your house, I do. Keeps my fridge running, on a lead back to the 1600W inverter in the car.
Andy

Like Bantam I would also question the legality of driving a car with a cheesecutter on it. And no doubt the insurance company including the compulsory third party insurance company, may also question any claim if anything happened.

I have never heard of any RTA regulation about spare tyres and therefore maybe that is the loophole that allows manufacturers to supply such idiotic wheels.

Thank god we have a normal spare for both cars. I for one would never purchase a car with a cheesecutter as a spare.

Phil

I imagine they comply with ADRs and are therefore legal and roadworthy if used according to instructions. Therefore insurance should not be an issue.

The practicalities are different though. Especially having nowhere to carry the flat road wheel. What a joke!

Cheers

Frank

Hey Bantam, I hear they are thinking about putting one out for the 200 series Land Cruiser.
Seems the soccer mums reckon that big fat spare poking down under the back looks ugly. :) :).
Fatso

Frank

As I usually do to be sure I just rang the local rego inspectors in the ACT. No ADR for the space saver spare wheels.

Phil

It just confirms my view that the 200 series as it comes off the factory floor is an SUV and not suitable for off road use.

On the matter of the space saver tyre being legal........I recon if you looked at the detail, its probaly legal while its in the boot, but as soon as it is fitted to the vehicle I can not see how it can be legal.

The reglations require there to be tyres of equal size and profile fitted on each axle.
They also require tyres to the minimum specification on the tyre plackard to be fitted to all road wheels.

I have read the QLD act and regulations cover to cover, and unless there has been a recent amendment, I saw no mention of specific allowance for a space saver spare wheel.

cheers

Bantam

From what he said to me I understood that they are not covered by any ADR! Therefore they are just another piece of luggage. As is the lousy wheel brace that was mentioned earlier.

Did you see anything about the jack in the act. I would say it's much the same. That's why we have never trusted them.

Phil

Yeh...I very rarely trust factory wheel braces....but I don;t think there are any legal requirements about tools.

I cant say for sure, but I think there is some sort of requirement to carry a spare.......cant recall the details.

I can remember being "inspected" by the transport inspectors when I was driving a cab way back when, and they wanted to see a spare that had legal tread on it.

cheers

Interesting points you blokes are bringing up about the legalities behind the Space saver spares.
Just to add speculation to the debate, one of our "curry flavoured" taxi drivers was sent packing by the DTMR taxi inspectors & threatened to be breached if he continued carrying fares with a space saver spare on.
Might be something in that. I suppose it is only an emergency spare. The prius spare has a sticker on it that states 80 kph max speed. Maybe ABS assists with braking. I don't know.
Fatso

Agree about everything changing Fab, can't keep up!!,....But one thing that wont change with me is helping a stranded motorist, its a pitta situation.


Cheers Axle.

Very Good Point mate!,...safetey issues straight away......



Axle.

people do that with their 4bies as well 265s all round but a skinny 235 or 7.5 underneath to maintain clearance - maybe not ideal but perfectly safe if driven with just a bit of care