Do you carry a spare tire in your car?

[MaximDude]

I was wondering with the cost of gas these days, do you remove your spare tire from your car to lighten the load slightly?

I've been driving my current car for over 4 years and have never had a flat. The chances of getting a flat overall seem pretty slim for the most part and even if you do get a flat, does it make sense to change it on your own if you're on the highway or a busy street?

So anyone remove their spare for gas saving purposes even if its only a few pounds lighter and take their chances?

[DaVibe]

I don't think you'll notice the savings in whether you keep it in or take it out. There will be a bigger difference in how often you run your air conditioning or how much wind you're letting in on the highway or even how fast you're going.

On a side note however, I carry my spare but it would be a pain in the butt to get to, since I have a subwoofer box over top of it. (It moves but it would have to be taken out to access the spare ... and its a pretty big box).

[thecharlie]

I was wondering with the cost of gas these days, do you remove your spare tire from your car to lighten the load slightly?

I've been driving my current car for over 4 years and have never had a flat. The chances of getting a flat overall seem pretty slim for the most part and even if you do get a flat, does it make sense to change it on your own if you're on the highway or a busy street?

So anyone remove their spare for gas saving purposes even if its only a few pounds lighter and take their chances?

My car has run-flat tires on, but if I had a spare, I wouldn't take it out. Having a spare when needed heavily outweighs saving that penny of gas every tank.

[leon200608]

I don't keep anything in my car's trunk.

[TheRide]

I have a spare tire in my allocated space under my trunk floor. I'm thinking of removing it though as I doubt it would help me since I upgraded to much larger rims and lowered my vehicle.

[professionaldude]

I do but as the above person said its a pain in A## to take it out. :lol: So, I don't bother with it.

[ichpen]

Runflats should be an option on your poll there...:)

Anyway, it's silly not to carry a spare to save a penny on gas...

[VivienM]

I've been driving my current car for over 4 years and have never had a flat. The chances of getting a flat overall seem pretty slim for the most part and even if you do get a flat, does it make sense to change it on your own if you're on the highway or a busy street?


Uhm... "change it on your own" as opposed to what? Getting TOWED to the nearest tire shop?

If you call roadside assistance for a flat tire, they'll be installing YOUR spare tire. If you don't have one... hello $$$$$?

[KawaiiTentacleBeast]

If you're just driving around town and have AMA you could just have them tow you back to your house and change it there, which is what I would do. I still have my spare in the car right now because I keep meaning to fill it up but never remember.

Although I have AMA plus == flatbed to anywhere.

[thephenom]

For everyday driving, just make sure you carry those bottles that fills your tires if you decide to leave out your spare tire.

Personally, I keep the spare tire in, and just adjust my driving style if I'm worried about gas consumption.

[evolution921]

I keep unnecessary people out of my car and I keep my spare and A/C running on a hot day like today. :cheesygri

[MaximDude]

Runflats should be an option on your poll there...:)

Anyway, it's silly not to carry a spare to save a penny on gas...

You can use the other option in the poll for runflats etc. :)

Uhm... "change it on your own" as opposed to what? Getting TOWED to the nearest tire shop?

If you call roadside assistance for a flat tire, they'll be installing YOUR spare tire. If you don't have one... hello $$$$$?

I know, but I'm just saying that after driving my car for so long and never getting a flat, why lug one around? It could happen that i'll get a flat tomorrow, but it seems like there's a greater chance that something else will go wrong with my car before one of my tires get punctured.

I just took out my spare and the tools tonight and I was curious if anyone else did it. My car is pretty empty and I was thinking why not take the spare out too since its just sitting there.

[VivienM]

I know, but I'm just saying that after driving my car for so long and never getting a flat, why lug one around? It could happen that i'll get a flat tomorrow, but it seems like there's a greater chance that something else will go wrong with my car before one of my tires get punctured.

Well, your luck COULD run out tomorrow...

It depends on where you drive, I guess... my dad's had at least two flats with his current car, though both of them happened close enough to home that going back to get the spare would not have been insane...

[Sepiraph]

No one of the first 'mod' I did was to take out the spare lol.

[VorteC]

Not carrying a spare tire to save gas is pretty stupid IMO. Might as well remove your rear seats and carpetting as well .. and calll it SuperLeggera.

There are ALOT of things out there that have a slim chance of happening but it doesn't mean they should be overlooked. There's a slim chance of getting into an accident too, but that doesn't mean you should drive with no insurance.

[Broli's Mom]

I've only used my spare tire on two occassions (with two different vehicles). The most recent time was on the way to Chicago, I must have drove over some debris, but it slashed my sidewall! I pulled out the spare, only to discover that its rim is YELLOW! WTF? What makes it worse is that my car is orange. Anyway, we got to Chicago and finding a replacement tire in an unfamiliar location was another ordeal but thankfully, we found one.

[dealmeone]

Most cars now have a mini spare (or in some cases none at all). The fuel savings (if any) of taking it out would be negligible and would be far out-weighed by the inconvenience of not having it when you need it and have to have one brought to you or have your car towed, using far more fuel. You will not notice any improvement in mileage just by removing the spare tire.
My advinotice: leave the spare tire in and top up the tires with air when they get low (you will notice an improvement in mileage).

[tsatsa]

My car come with one of those donuts type tire.

[rems]

My car came with the fix-a-flat and the spare would have been like $600 extra. Decided not to get it since then my trunk wouldn't be able to hold anything else

[ImJJ]

Not carrying a spare tire to save gas is pretty stupid IMO. Might as well remove your rear seats and carpetting as well .. and calll it SuperLeggera.

There are ALOT of things out there that have a slim chance of happening but it doesn't mean they should be overlooked. There's a slim chance of getting into an accident too, but that doesn't mean you should drive with no insurance.

+1, exactly what I wanted to say...

btw how HEAVY is a mini spare tire and how far you have to travel to start seeing savings, if any...

40bucks for a road side installation and 100bucks to tow to a place to get it changed (+40 bucks)..not to mention if you lost your spare and you need the only car to get around to shop for a regular size tire...Probably end up buying at stealership and pay 500bucks...and you'll think that it'd be so much better if you had that spare tire in the trunk

[rems]

+1, exactly what I wanted to say...

btw how HEAVY is a mini spare tire and how far you have to travel to start seeing savings, if any...

40bucks for a road side installation and 100bucks to tow to a place to get it changed (+40 bucks)..not to mention if you lost your spare and you need the only car to get around to shop for a regular size tire...Probably end up buying at stealership and pay 500bucks...and you'll think that it'd be so much better if you had that spare tire in the trunk

I'd say spare tires are good for long drives. Otherwise, why don't you just call a friend to pick up your spare tire that's in your garage or wherever.

[-Jatt-]

I dont carry a spare but its not to save gas. The spare in my truck was taking up way to much room in the truck so i decided to take it out. The tires on the truck are massive so i doubt anything is going to happen.

But i keep the spare in all my cars.

[EH100501AC]

Removing a spare tire for weight savings is stupid and rice. Keep it in there.

[HBP]

Lose some weight instead.

Do you also always drive around w/ less than a quarter tank of gas to save that 30kg's? Some things are just not practical. Keep the spare, it will make a negligible difference.

[eastwood]

Yup. Unless I had a flat tire, it wouldn't occur to me to remove it. :cheesygri

[new_vr]

I have a full size spare, and am quite happy about that. I have had to use it twice (happens when you work around construction sites!)

[Jaytee]

Just because you haven't had a flat in four years does mean you wont have one in the future.

Hit a piece of metal on the highway and ran over a screw in a home depot parking lot.

Changed the tire, drove to a tire place where they patched it up and I was on my way.

You will save a lot more gas by driving less aggressively then not having a spare tire.