<VV> Space Saver Spare for Early Model

[RoboMan91324 at aol.com]

Thanks Mike,
 
>From your original post, I assumed you were looking for a spare that  
closely approximated our stock wheel's diameter.  I agree that the  intent of 
"space-savers"  is to save space and weight and if you have even  less space in 
your trunk than a normal Corvair, a space-saver can have value if  you can 
live with a smaller diameter.  My assumption that you were  looking for a 
wheel of similar diameter must have been incorrect.   This is why I asked if I 
was missing something.
 
Bill pointed out that the Econo-Run folks have a use for these.  Most  
standard tires have a flattened road/tire surface for maximum contact and  
friction.  The over-inflated round profile of the space-savers would  minimize 
contact and save some small amount of fuel in that application.   However, in 
that event, the cars move at a snail's pace which minimizes the  danger of 
these tires.
 
I have always considered the space-saver tires to be a dangerous solution  
to minor issues on modern cars.  I have seen people driving with these  
things on their cars at highway speeds.  As I do not want to be involved in  a 
multi car pile-up, I avoid them on the highway.  On this venue, I think  it 
should be stressed that as dangerous as these tires are on the cars for which 
 they were designed, the danger is multiplied on our Corvairs.  If we know  
nothing else about the handling of our cars, we know that they are very  
sensitive to tire issues in a very bad way.  With these wheels, never,  never, 
never drive at high speeds even if you are going to miss that job  
interview.  Taking a corner at anything higher than Granny speeds is just  begging 
to reinforce the bad reputation Ralphie sought to give us.
 
Keep the shiny side up,
 
Doc
 
PS: To you and all who share their Corvair related investigations and  
experiences, thanks.  As you imply, not everyone will have an interest in a  
particular post but some may.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
In a message dated 10/5/2014 9:00:09 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time,  
virtualvairs-request at corvair.org writes:

Message:  4
Date: Sun, 5 Oct 2014 10:15:35 -0500
From: "Mike McGowan"  <mcvair at sbcglobal.net>
To: <RoboMan91324 at aol.com>,     <virtualvairs at corvair.org>
Subject: Re: <VV> Space Saver Spare  for Early Model
Message-ID:  <1F1A8D5025BD43078D739059769B62FA at Workstation2>
Content-Type:  text/plain;    charset="iso-8859-1"

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