After market spare tire for Prius Prime?

They don't make full contact with the spare donut wheel's lug holes. If you chalked them and spun them around in the spare's lug hole they'd make a thin circle. Not the best, but I was told by a tire guy that it would be sufficient, but I'd need to stop every 25-50 miles and check them all for tightness. That's something I would do regardless.

 

I've had my Prime since July 2019, just passed 18,000 miles, and I've had three flats. One of them I had to call a tow truck, the other two I was less than 10 miles from my house when the TPMS warning came on, and I was able to limp home before the tire went completely flat. The latest flat was last Friday night, and for me, it was the last straw. I love this car for the amazing fuel economy (I've managed 63mpg a couple of times), but I can't handle the stress anymore, of wondering "am I going to get another flat tire today?" every time I leave my house. So I started calling around for options.
1. Local Toyota salvage yards want $100 for a used OEM Prius wheel. These are nice aluminum alloy wheels, but too much money for a used part that I might never actually need. So the salvage yard option was a no-go.
2. America's Tire offered me a new, plain black steel "spare" wheel, from Dorman I think, 15x6.5, 5-100mm with a brand new "house brand" 195/65-R15 tire, $67 for the wheel, $50 for the tire, and about $40 in taxes and California-mandated recycling fees. Still more than I wanted to pay, but because of the fact that an ever-increasing number of cars are being sold with no spare tire at all, there aren't all that many wheels off of wrecked Prius's just sitting around in junk yards, and scarcity breeds higher prices. So I went with the America's Tire option. I am driving to Las Vegas in a couple of weeks, that's 1,200 miles round trip, and if I have a flat somewhere out there in the Great Empty along US-95, this spare tire will pay for itself.

Storage: I am waiting for shipping on a TorkLift model 306-X7369 2" hitch receiver; I bought it through a local shop that specializes in hitches and cargo racks for small cars and CSUV's, and they've installed this hitch on about 2 dozen Prius's and Prius Primes. The install is going to cost me $500 in labor, but if you've ever watched a video on what it takes to install a hitch on a unibody car that doesn't have a ladder frame like a pickup truck, you'll know why. The entire back end of the vehicle has to be dissassembled, the bumper removed, part of the exhaust system has to be dropped down out of the way. It's a 5 hour install, hence 5 hours at $100/hour = $500. I'll get a hitch-mount tire carrier, or carry the spare in a cargo basket or in my Thule roof pod, when I'm on a long road trip. Meanwhile, I have the tire behind the driver's seat. By sheer good luck, it fits very snugly in the left rear seat footwell. I rarely have more than one passenger in the car, so keeping the spare there will be a viable long-term solution for me. Here's what it looks like:

 

This is what you need:



The gas can is an option for those who also suffer from extreme range anxiety.

 

Yes, this is exactly what I want to use as a spare tire carrier once I get the hitch installed (hopefully early next week, if the manufacturer can expedite it). Do you know what brand/model number this carrier is?

 

Look closely at the photo above... It is photoshopped. LOL
But I know at least one person who actually has installed a hitch and tire carrier on his PP. Let me see if I can find the thread.