Space Saver Wheel - Is my paranoia justified?

[Mountainman]

I would. I can't think of a better vehicle to cross The Nullabor with than my Octavia. It's a paved road all the way, the vehicle is comfortable, has excellant ground clearance, decent long travel suspension, cruise beautifully at 120kmh & gets <7L/100km & about 900km between fills.

I can - my Mk7 Golf. All the positives of the Octavia plus it's even quieter and it gets 5L/100km cruising on an indicated 115km/h. It does have the spacesaver spare but the only 2 flat tyres I've had in the last 25 years and more than 1 million km has been in my Forester on really rough outback gibber roads (and then I was lucky enough to find the only new spare of the correct size in Birdsville). You would have to be very unlucky to get a flat on the major h'ways like the Nullarbor, although back in 1976 I did pick up a nail near the Nullarbor Roadhouse and had the "joy" of doing a roadside change in over 40C summer heat.

[brad]

Suspension is a bit more suited on Octavia - tuned for lousy Czech roads

[Diesel_vert]

When leaving the Overlander Roadhouse way north of Geraldton I came across a poor guy in a new Alfa coupe with the spare spacesaver on limping slowly south and that made me determined to never end up in the same predicament.

He had 300km to go to Geraldton where there was the first chance to replace the damaged tyre and had already done 150km.

I hope he made it.

You make it sound like he was being chased by Mick Taylor.

Provided the temporary spare had sufficient tread depth, there's no reason why he wouldn't have made it.

The biggest issue for him would've been the boredom and tediousness of being limited to 80 km/h.

[Idle]

I still can't understand why these things were ever legal — maybe it's because car companies can afford more political pressure than their customers?

Try and get a car past roadworthy with one (or perhaps four) of them on it...

I recently had to make a quite long run (including about 75K's of freeway @ 80K) on one — got tailgated, sworn at, chopped in on and generally abused and then, despite the damage being due to lack of road maintenance (major highway with more and larger potholes than you'd find in a third world country), had to pay for the replacement of a tyre with less than 400k on it.

Also got soaked to the skin changing the wheel.

[Diesel_vert]

I still can't understand why these things were ever legal — maybe it's because car companies can afford more political pressure than their customers?

Many changes to the ADR have been a result of the harmonisation process with that of European vehicle regulations:

Harmonisation

The Australian Government’s policy is to harmonise the national vehicle safety standards with international regulations where possible and consideration is given to the adoption of the international regulations of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). Australia is a signatory to the UNECE 1958 Agreement and the 1998 Agreement. The policy to harmonise is also important to fulfil World Trade Organisation and Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation commitments.

Source: Australian Design Rules

Thus, our regulations make allowances for the use of temporary spare tyres (T-type or standard) in emergencies.

Temporary spares are not meant to be installed and driven on for extended periods, irrespective of their tread life, and should be replaced with a matching wheel and tyre as soon as is practicable.

Try and get a car past roadworthy with one (or perhaps four) of them on it...

It won't (see above rationale). It is a requirement that all wheels and tyres fitted on an axle must be of the same size.

Though I love the idea of fitting four T-type temporary tyres and doing slides all over the place, haha!

I recently had to make a quite long run (including about 75K's of freeway @ 80K) on one — got tailgated, sworn at, chopped in on and generally abused and then, despite the damage being due to lack of road maintenance (major highway with more and larger potholes than you'd find in a third world country), had to pay for the replacement of a tyre with less than 400k on it.

I often see drivers dish out the same behaviour to any learner driver on a highway, even if they're in the left lane - just terrible. Whatever happened to courtesy and patience?

Having said that, if I had no choice but to drive at 80 km/h on such a busy motorway or highway, I would put the hazard lights on.

Also got soaked to the skin changing the wheel.

Well, look at it this way - you still would have got soaked even you had a matching spare.

[brad]

Though I love the idea of fitting four T-type temporary tyres and doing slides all over the place, haha!

I present this:

[Diesel_vert]

You've made my day - absolutely brilliant!

I now know what I want for Christmas.

[Eaglehawk]

All the spares that everyone is replacing with full size spares?

[Idle]

Having said that, if I had no choice but to drive at 80 km/h on such a busy motorway or highway, I would put the hazard lights on.

(And get pulled over by the first copper that saw me...)

Well, look at it this way - you still would have got soaked even you had a matching spare.

Yes, I'd have still got wet, but I'd only have had to jack the car up once and change one wheel — the flat was on the right front.

Also had to drive a long way on the flat (it was wrecked anyway — split sidewall, and fortunately the "solid gold?" wheel survived) to find a safe place to pull off.

[DV52]

I present this:

Brad: I agree with Deisal_Vert - brilliant Video! Is fun really better than speed? I had thought that for those who like their cars to slide around corners, fun eguals speed!

Anyhow, just one question. The space saver spares in the video were running at 60 PSI. Seems rather high. What's the accepted wisdom for pressures in these tyres?