2023 - Prius or Prime - spare tire?

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If you took out all the white foam, would there be enough room for a spare?

 

Answer is in the Owner’s Manual? Spare, scissor jack and lug nut wrench are shown, noted “if equipped”.

 

There’s another thread that talks about this. Sorry, I can’t find the link right now.

 

The AWD has space for a spare. However it's a good idea to get the $45 protector and 3 nuts that are part of the AWD parts list. That protector goes over the high voltage connector for the rear motor to protect it from the spare.

 

Thanks. Really appreciate your detailed info. I’m hoping this spare kit package will all come together at some point. When the time comes it might be less expensive to order it elsewhere.

 

There is not room for a spare in the prime, it is tight quarters under the foam. I posted pictures on another thread

 

My DIY Spare Tire for my Gen 5 Limited FWD is now complete. Total added weight is 30.30 lbs, or 32.76 lbs if you want to continue carrying the "repair kit" compressor and sealant.

Should I continue the discussion in this thread, or start a new one just about my solution. If so, what's the best forum, the main Gen 5 forum, or the Accessories and Modification forum?

Here's the spare and tools, there's a cover layer of foam that goes over that, and then the OEM floor and floor mat.

 

Wow!!!! Congrats!! Please post all the parts and total cost. I have a Limited AWD but hopefully it’s very similar

 

What size spare is it? Did you get the 17 inch, or a 19 inch spare?

 

Can you breakdown the details itemized in where to get and prices for this? Did you use the white foam already in there and carve out a space? Is this a full tire spare with either the Toyo or Bridgestone ecopia in the wheel?

Thanks!

 

Anyone just stick the stock tire itself, no wheel, under trunk area where white foam is, maybe take white foam out to fit.

Just to have one in the trunk if needed, get a tow to somewhere and have them replace tire. If needed?

 

This is a very long thread and probably everyone hasn't read all of the posts in all 15 pages. A lot has been covered earlier and that info influenced my approach to a solution. You can't go out and buy what I did, the spare and tools were purchased used on eBay and they came from a 2019 Toyota C-HR. I constructed the foam myself, from a 4'x8'x2" sheet of Styrofoam insulation paneling purchased at Home Depot.

It is the same spare that Toyota lists in the 2023 Prius owner's manual (if equipped), T145/90D16 106M

This post by Hammersmith had the critical info pointing to which cars used the same bolt pattern and 16" spare tire wheel as the 2023 Prius to focus my eBay search. But you also need to look carefully at the pictures to be sure that the correct spare tire is on that wheel, some of them had different tires. There was also some variability in tire manufacturer, the one I got was Goodyear, some others I saw were Yokohama. I was very lucky to find the spare along with the tools all from the same Toyota.

2023 - Prius or Prime - spare tire? | Page 9 | PriusChat

C-HR, Lexus UX 200, 200h, 250, 250h.

#161 Hammersmith, May 2, 2023
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2023 - Prius or Prime - spare tire? | Page 9 | PriusChat

You should look at some of my initial posts earlier on pages 12, 13 and 14 of this thread
2023 - Prius or Prime - spare tire? | Page 12 | PriusChat
2023 - Prius or Prime - spare tire? | Page 13 | PriusChat
2023 - Prius or Prime - spare tire? | Page 14 | PriusChat

Here's what I earlier wrote about the purchases I made for this project.

I got my spare, including the lug wrench, jack, and hold down bolt used off of ebay for $179.99+Tax, they all came from a 2019 Toyota C-HR. This is the exact listing that I purchased. This was ideal because it also had Toyota OEM tools, and it's the T145/90D16 tire on a 16" wheel with the correct bolt spacing. I was lucky to find that complete OEM set all from the same car.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/265737102958

The styrofoam that I bought to construct the floor support around the spare.
R-Tech 2 in. x 48 in. x 8 ft. R-7.7 EPS Rigid Foam Board Insulation 310891 - The Home Depot

"Some assembly required", that's the hard part. What I did was not a simple finished product you could purchase.​

So my total parts cost was $179.99+$16.42 tax = $196.41 on eBay, and $26.78+$2.63 tax = $29.41 at Home Depot
Grand total is $225.82.

Also used tools and supplies I had on hand, for the Styrofoam used a bare hacksaw blade, a serrated kitchen knife, a utility knife, a straight edge and a vacuum cleaner.

Labor, I did most of the work over a period of about a month on and off, it's a huge amount of work hand carving the foam and trying to figure out where cuts need to be made in order to get it to fit the contours of the hatch area and floor pan, as well as knowing where the cutout for the tire needs to be. I had a general idea of how I hoped it would work out in my mind, but it was being refined and some trial and error as I went along.

The original Toyota "Type B" foam is completely removed along with the two "clips" that held them in place. I do retain the towing eyelet, compressor and sealant can that were in the OEM foam compartments. The compressor and sealant are really optional since there's now a spare, and Toyota doesn't include them when a spare is "equipped". I just wanted to keep them with the car so they won't get lost.

I'll post more as time permits, with pictures of the foam pieces, there are 5 foam parts to my solution, all hand made from a 2" thick insulation panel. I also put some thought into how I would cut them out of the 4'x8' sheet to reduce wasted foam and only use a single sheet with lots left over.

 

Thank you so much for doing this, super thorough and thoughtful!

 

The foam structure is mainly made of three 2" layers. 2" thick was a pretty good choice, if you look at the hatch area with everything removed you'll see the side black "floor". The factory styrofoam rises exactly 2" above the lip of those side "floors", and the large folding factory center floor goes over the Styrofoam. That factory floor material is pretty thin, and if you press down on it over some of the larger compartments in the foam below, you can feel the lack of support below it.

The drawings in the owners manual and pictures I've seen of the factory foam used with a spare has no support at all in the area between the tire and the thin factory floor. I don't know if they use a thicker floor when there's a spare, but that's a huge area with nothing beneath the floor to support it.

Due to the shape of the metal floor pan, the spare tire sits tilted upwards with the side near the rear seats higher than the side near the bumper. There's probably about 1" between the tire and the floor at the high side, and about 3" at the low side.

So my first step was to create a 2" solid piece to fit between the lower side floor and the large upper center floor. Since this spans across and in many places rests on top of the tire, it provides excellent support for folding factory floor, it's more solid than the OEM "Type B" design.

One thing the Type B foam has is a cutout near the 12V Battery compartment to provide some clearance to pull open the battery compartment cover. I didn't put in a cutout, but this entire top layer of 2" foam can be easily removed to access the battery compartment, and even without removing the foam or the floor I've been able to open the compartment, but it's a bit tight.

Here are some pictures so you can see what I'm talking about.

First with everything removed you can see the metal pan and the side floors.

Here's the top side of the cover layer of foam (I intentionally used silver side up), there are cutouts near the seat edge for the hooks in the factory floor.

The underside, with cutouts for the high side of the tire and some tools that needed more room.

Finally this is what it looks like in the car, covering the layer shown in my earlier post, before putting in the floor and floor mat.

 

Just to clarify the factory install...

The spare tire isn't meant to sit directly on the sheet metal or be tilted at an angle. There's a foam pad that sits on the floor that supports the tire, distributes the weight, provides a level pad for the tire, and protects the high voltage junctions in AWD models.

It's part number 64778-47090.

 

Any pictures of what that part looks like?

I'm trying to visualize it's size and location? Is it as large as the entire tire? The area that needs to be lifted is near the bumper and the AWD wiring is to the right of the tire?

One struggle with this whole project was no detailed pictures of the OEM spare tire solution.

 

Next is the middle 2" layer, it sits just below the side floor and supports the cover layer.

It's made of left / right halves, and has cutouts for the tire and tools.

Top view (silver side up intentionally)

Bottom view

And here it is in the car without the tire, supported by the lowest layer

 

This is the best I have for right now. I'm sure I've posted them in at least one of the spare tire threads, but there's something like 48 of them on this forum, so it's understandable if you missed it. I hope to have some photos of the real thing within a few weeks. 12 of the 18 items I've ordered from my Russo-Japanese reshipper have arrived at their warehouse, and the remainder should arrive before the 20th. Then another week to get them to me.