Prius Prime and spare tire

I've been looking into acquiring a space saving tire ("donut") the past couple days. Folks freak out. Oh my goodness! My favorite tire shop said we have to order through the manufacturer, wth? Now my local dealership is "looking into it." I sent him the nifty parts from the normal prius's OM and the prime's. Hopefully he can just get me a donut intended for a Gen 4 prius III. "Oh, I hadn't thought of that." He promises to get back to me soon. Finger's crossed.
I'm so spoiled by everyone's expertise here at priuschat. The toyota guy today was surprised I'd even opened the OM. Silly him!

 

Janice, check out my post somewhere here for details: my America's Tire dealer in Anaheim got me a "donut" spare; it took about a week. Remember, Toyota can only furnish the rim, so America's Tire proved the best one-stop solution for me. You can probably call them or your local dealer and get it done.

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I am confused. When you get your donut spare, are you going to lay it in the trunk and carry it around with you all the time? If so, are you going to tie it down some way? My previous car was an 09 Miata, which not only didn't have a spare, there was no room to carry one and close the trunk at the same time. My solution was to buy a stock tire and rim on eBay and keep it in my garage. If I had a flat, the plan was to park the car, go home and bring back the spare with one of the other vehicles. However, I never had a flat in 8 years, and since I traded in the Miata the spare is still in my garage. I am thinking I might do the same thing for the Prius.

 

I purchased a donut spare to keep in my garage, in case I take a long trip in my Prime. It fits fine in my trunk, although it does take up some room. It's just another form of insurance, if you've got the money.
I almost never get flats, and this would just be for thousand-mile or greater trips. I was partially motivated by the PriusChat people as to the process involved to obtain a viable new donut spare for my Prime.

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I swear I skimmed the thread before posting. You're right of course that the info I needed was here. Now I just need to convince my helpers.
I do plan to carry it and tie it down, especially on long trips through rural areas. I agree that in my day-to-day sub/urban environment AAA is a perfectly good "spare."

 

When you have your spare, I would suggest a dry run. I believe the Prime has a scissor jack and tool kit?

There's a suggestion in the Owner's Manual, to securely chock the tire diagonally opposite the corner you are raising with the jack. It'd be worthwhile to buy a pair of automotive wheel chocks for that purpose. Also, set the parking brake firmly. That alone just about negates the need for chocks, but belts-and-braces is always good.

One more item that's good to have, is a smallish square of plywood, say 3/4" x 6" square, to act as a sub-base, when you need to use the scissor jack on soft earth or gravel.

The Toyota supplied scissor jack is about as bad as they get, in particular the connection between the torsion rod (the rod with a hook at the end) and the "eye" on the jack . The scissor jack is a cast, single-eye design, and the torsion rod hook tends to dance around like crazy, with each rotation. Barely usable, but meh.

Visibility items are also good to have along: a reflective vest, and a traffic cone or triangle. Also a pair of insulated gloves, and a big plastic bag to contain the flat tire, which can be pretty grubby.

There's one issue I haven't resolved myself: the alloy rims tend to glue themselves onto the steel hubs. So even with all the lug nuts removed, surprise surprise: the dang rim is still on there solid. In the garage I wack them on the inside with a sledge hammer, with a 2x4 intermediary for protection, but I've yet to figure out a portable, compact, on-the-road equivalent for this.

Maybe a compact sledge hammer, or one of those dead-blow hammers, and a short piece of 2x4.

 

Dude, I'm calling AAA as option A!! Failing that, just call me Hank Winger, like my sister, Debra!!.
And Jeeves can ride in the back seat, Har, har ! He'll fetch the tools, floor jack, dropcloth, my coveralls, compressor and impact tools, with LED lights, and cheater bar. Come on man!!
Where's your sense of adventure!!

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my '91 miata had a spare, where did the trunk go in 18 years?

 

Did the elephant repossess it? Maybe they moved the trunk to the front?
I know, the space got taken up by the rear seats for the extra 3 passengers!!
Har, har!!. Last guess: it's been taken up by the traction battery !!


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Well, the car changed. My 09 was the third generation. I guess by then people were more accepting of having an inflation kit instead of a spare. They made a donut for the RX8 and it was often used on the miatas. Miata owners found that while some donuts looked like they would fit; correct diameter and lug holes, the brake calipers wouldn't fit. Something to think about with the Prius.

 

I anticipated that too, when I purchased my Prius Prime spare donut from America's Tire. I made sure to have the mechanic install it on the car and then was able to back the car up a little bit and drive it a little bit.
One more reason to buy all the pieces from one source and have them install it.

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Since you're here in California... did your donut come in a pink box?

 

No, it's the plane, boss!!, da plane!!
(OK, Tatu, calm down now!!)
No pinkys for me! I ordered the Male Donut!! It came in rough-hewn wooden crate, secured with chain and lock!

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Well, yesterday was National Donut Day...
(For those outside California, our dozen donuts usually come in pink boxes. Apparently it's a California thing. Pink box = donuts. Mmm...)

HPA, that's one donut that's never going to escape!

 

A loose wheel will become an unguided missile if you get into a crash, a missile that may be flying toward the back of your head. Find a way to strap it down.

As an alternative, I put Ride-On sealant into the tires. Kind'a messy and tedious to install, but now we've forgotten it's there. It'll seal a normal puncture, not a gash that will ruin the tire. For that, we've got both Toyota's free 2 year emergency road service and the emergency road service on the car insurance policy. Ride-On is not as messy as Slime (I've used both), and they claim that tire shops don't get heartburn when they have to put on a new tire.
Auto Tire Sealant | Car Tire Repair | Auto and SUV Formula - Ride-On

 

Reading through this thread it seem owning a Prius Prius reaps 15 to 20 miles of EV range but the trade-off is the potential of getting stuck on the side of the road at night hoping a garage or AAA rescues them. EV's owners get to look forward to Range Anxiety. Prius Prime owners get flat tire anxiety. Perhaps 15-20 miles of EV range isn't worth the hassle.

 

Check other threads, 15-20 really doesn't exist, more like 25-40. Roadside assistance has been reported to work very well. I would not give up this car just because it doesn't have a spare. There are way too many pluses. If "flat tire anxiety" bothers you, get a spare for about $150 and no worries.

 

Dad knows best!! As someone who has gone through the exercise of flat tire repair with his Prime, I remain steadfast in my "Keep a donut at home for intended long trips" philosophy. I blame the design of the Toyo tires for my problem and feel comfortable with the "flat resistance" of my cool Michelins.
If you're bloody worried about a flat in a Prime, do what I did. And don't forget, the car gets excellent range in excess of Toyota's very conservative claim of 25 miles of EV range. You don't pass on a very reasonably priced, extremely reliable, ecologically responsible luxury car like the Prius Prime because it doesn't come with a spare!! Neighbor, please!!! If this were the opinion of the general American public, then no one would buy American or German SUVs, trucks, or sedans where practically everything is an option!!

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The "no spare tire" is not a problem with Prime. As far as I know, not a single US plug-in car has a spare. Of course, there are many new plug-ins coming on the market, so I could be out-of-date slightly.

Let's face it, one downside of plug-ins is less cargo space, so the spare tire is history and you still have a cargo space issue. Not everyone needs/wants the cargo space, in which case that is no problem. I consider the older PiP the very best cargo space in a mid-size plug-in. But the spare tire was history there too.

Conceivably Toyota could take a bigger vehicle frame such as Prius v and give us a spare tire and a decent plug-in range and decent cargo space. Unfort we await this ideal vehicle without much hope in the short term.

 

Hey, just give me my damn Prius Prime Advanced 2-seater COUPE, hatchback!!!
Then you can have your still bigger battery, your spare, and your cargo space!! Help me out Toyota, I'll buy one NOW!!

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