Will a full spare tire fit where the space saver tire fits.

No; it will not fit.

 

Your post got me thinking to the last time I had a flat. At least 15 years ago and that is probably 4 cars.

My wife called me maybe 20 years ago having run off the road in the snow into a curb...there were two cars with similar blowout problems within 50 yards of hers. She hasn't changed a tire in the 40 years we have been married. I'm not sure she could lift a full sized inflated one into or out of the trunk.

It used to be on getting a new car I'd practice the tire change. Now I'm not even sure where the jack is in her car. And I sure don't know if she has a full sized spare or a doughnut.

Lots of cars don't have a spare. I know the Porsche Boxster hasn't for about 7 years. Everyone on the P-car forums was concerned at first but I don't read of a lot of incidents.

So maybe you just don't need one as much as you once did because incidents now happen so infrequently.

(I didn't say "never".)

 

MIke,

my wife has a saturn Vue greenline. no spare tire, just a can of gunk and a compressor.

last year on the way to work she hit a piece of rebar that went through side wall, through the TPM sensor and knicked the rim. She was about a mile from work in stop and go traffic so she called me. thankfully I work about 2 miles away and i was able to go over take the wheel/tire and get a new one mounted up and save the day... thankfully it was a slow day at work...

it kind a sucked as if I was not around, it would have cost a tow and her full day. so new tire, new tpms and a tow.

when did a flat tires start costing 300 bills...????

Spare tires should not be an "option" IMO...

had it happened while we were on a family trip... sitting waiting for a tow truck...I would have been one upset SOB

all that being said. I've only ever had to change tires twice while away from home.. So I guess in the grand scheme of things. a spare tire and a jack are probably the most statically unused pieces of equipment on a modern car....

but I look at em similar to a condom....better to have one and not need it, than need one, and not have it. LOL

 

Marc,

I have both a full size spare and a donut for my own car.

A scary situation at night in a really bad neighborhood made me become much more careful.

I used to have a service van with a floor jack and a full sized spare.

I changed the tire in 15 minutes. If might have taken a hour or more waiting for another service truck to come.

 

I have thought about finding a junk yard with a wrecked vue and pulling the spare and jack... but just never really looked into it....I figure it would cost me about 100 bucks... which would pay for itself with one flat tire...that would have needed a tow...

 

You gonna carry that spare and its weight around for how many k miles on the off chance you need it? How bout a spare battery, plugs, belts, a water pump ...but you get my drift here. Just as in preventative maintenance, you can't prevent everything and sometimes the cure is worse than not taking the cure. Think of how many problems are created every time a mechanic touches the car. A lifetime of car ownership tells me I've over-maintained more cars than I ever under-maintained. The CRV I traded in for the v still had 3 oil filters in the spare tire well that I was going to use and had bought when I first bought the car. The special length lug nut wrench I bought with my VW 6 cars ago has traveled with me for 12+ years and has never been used on my cars.

 

How about the clothes including underwear that you are wearing Mikefocke?

 

I'm a bad person. Every time I see a Kia Soul on the side of the freeway in the middle of nowhere with a flat tire I laugh my nice person off.

 

lets just tow around a spare car....

when I owned a 66 mustang, I kept a spare fuel filter and a few extra fuses in the glove box...
with my 94 impala SS I did own a spare transmission and 3 sets of tires....(1 racing, 1 snow, and 1 street)

Heck with the prius, we do carry around an extra battery. I'm still kinda surprised that with the huge bank of batteries we have why we need to lug around a 12v battery...I would imagine with with a voltage regulator getting usable 12v to run the car systems would be pretty easy, but thats another thread...

 

many of us pipers have purchased a full size or compact spare and stow it on the hatch deck. i don't get many flats, but with all the construction going on the last few years, it's easy to pick up a nail now and again. and after reading stories of goo use or flatbed towing, i'd rather have my own spare. but the o/p already has a compact, so he's covered.

 

There are two wide styrofoam pieces on top of the compact spare. I think a full size spare will fit if you are willing to modify or remove these.

 

Has anyone tried this? Pics if possible?

 

The foam trays are part of the air ducting for the traction battery ventilation. I would not remove them.

 

I just went through the tedious task of opening up all these things to check the spare tire pressure. I was thinking about comparing the diameter of the spare to the diameter of the full size tire. I am kind of busy to compare at the moment, but will get back on it when I can....

 

To the OP:

You've got a temporary spare now, right? I'd stick with that, it's fine for what it does, and you're way ahead of anyone who has no spare.

Mike's nailed it in the first response, a full size spare won't fit. If you want to see for yourself, all you've got to do is take one of your wheels off and check.

I've gone through that exercise. I forget if it was with/without the tool caddy, but one way or the other, you could almost get it in there, but it was riding high, and when the sub-floor tray and floor are put back in it's riding high.

 

Another way to look at it. Suppose you are between Fargo and Bismarck, you ruin a tire with no spare, just your fix-flat-kit. Now what do you do? No way I will buy a car without a spare. I don't like a donut spare but I'll settle for it. No spare no way for me.

 

Wrong post

 

I agree, but only to some extent:
If you are sure to be on smooth, paved roads until you can replace the original tire, and are willing to use the barely adequate jack to switch tires front-to-back if a front tire blows out, then I would agree with you. (The donut is effectively a smaller diameter than a full sized tire and would wear gears in the final drive transfer case if mounted on the front in my estimation .)
BUT, my recent blowout occurred on some truly rotten, rutted, potholed gravel/dirt "highway" where I sweated bullets for every mile I had that 60 psi donut on the car and drove 10-15 mph to avoid the ruts and ease around the largest potholes to get to the next city.
My blowout was a rear tire, but I would absolutely detest jacking the car up twice on an unstable gravel/dirt surface and changing two tires if I had a blowout on a front tire. (I have had jacks collapse while changing tires and the danger to your hands is real.) So weighing relative risks, I would strongly prefer to carry a full sized spare when traveling on poor roads.

 

Piece of plywood under the (flimsy) jack will stabilize it on loose ground. Wheel chocks on the diagonally opposite wheel too.

I'm pretty sure I've used a temp spare on front wheel before, with no ill effects. Not on the Prius though.

I know it's not ideal, but swapping tires front to back with just that scissor jack..., I'm not even sure how you'd manage that.

I don't believe there's a warning in the Owners Manual, about not using the temp on front. Also, any time you take a corner the two front wheels are rotating at different rates, with no problems.