<VV> Space Saver Spare for Early Model

[Mike McGowan]

Doc, I did this for myself and thought I would share my findings with the community.  If no one else is interested then you can disregard it.  I am using it for a Devin-Corvair which weighs 1400 pounds and has very limited carrying space.  So both the weight and size are important to me.  I am adapting an aluminum jack for the same reason.

As for the unsafety at speed, these spares are meant to go slowly and carefully to a place of repair.  You are not supposed to commute on the freeway while waiting for tires to go on sale.  Modern tires seldom go flat, so a spare is unlikely to be used but reassuring to have.

When I last drove my air conditioned 1966 Monza 4-door, I tried both styles of spares, the collapse/reflate and the skinny donut.  The luggage compartment as you know is irregularly shaped, and the stock spare is large and mounts at an angle which wastes a lot of that space.  Especially if you do not have Positraction and can use a smaller than stock diameter, you may find that a space-saver fits in to allow a lot more usable space.

--Mike Mc

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: RoboMan91324 at aol.com 
  To: virtualvairs at corvair.org ; mcvair at sbcglobal.net 
  Sent: Sunday, October 05, 2014 2:14 AM
  Subject: Space Saver Spare for Early Model


  Mike,

  I am curious as to why there is an interest.  Of course, I may be missing something.

  It seems that you are looking for a space-saver spare of the same diameter as our stock wheels.  If so, there wouldn't be much, if any, space savings.  The width of the tire can't be too much different either.  The reason space-saver tires exist are that they are smaller than their own car's stock wheel and the car manufacturers want to save weight to meet federal MPG standards.  This isn't much of an issue for us especially considering that the space-savers weigh about the same as our stock wheels.  ... or do they?

  Why would you want to replace a stock Corvair spare with a space-saver wheel of similar weight and size when the space-saver wheel is not designed to be driven at normal speeds or long distances?  Unsafe at certain speeds.  :-)

  Again, if I am missing something, let me know.

  Doc