Hot Rods As I was sitting on the side of the road yesterday ~

With a flat tire on the shop delivery van and trying to figuring out how to get the spare tire out from under the van and fighting with the screw jack I started thinking about this kind of problem out on the road in a hot rod,

A couple of years ago when we went to the '54 Ford Nationals in Novi,Michigan I had everything needed for a situation such as this in the back of the wagon,spare tire,floor jack,4 way wrench and wheel chucks,everything was covered but....

I have traveled thousands of miles in hot rods without a spare tire,no room in the back seat of a 32 sedan,I've always thought with a cell phone I could get help.

So do you guys carry a spare tire? HRP

 

I have the room so............yes.

 

Tire Pando, but it's been in the tool box a few years now. Might be time for renewal.

 

no i don't

but i do carry a big can of fix-a-flat and a 12volt portable air compressor

 

The thing that worried me most without a spare on long trips is finding a replacement bias ply that matches my set. Would bug the hell out of me running around on vacation with 3 bias while walls and one black radial.


In my old age...
Grant me the senility to forget the people I never liked.....
the good fortune to run into the ones I do.....
and the eyesight to tell the difference.

 

One car yes, the other no. I do plan to get one for the 40. But I need a 15" 5x5.5 wheel, and a tire that will fit both ends with minimal trouble.

 

No spare tire,I carry a small hydraulic jack,12 volt small air compressor and plugs if I need to patch on the side of the road which I've done.
All else fails there's AAA.

 

0 for 3....... no.

 

current rides do not have room/place for spare - so, No - at times when had tire troubles one size spare would not work on both front/rear - plus, at home have to use a small, then large jack to raise ride far enough to get a tire off - no room/place for floor jacks - in rides that had room/place for spare have never had tire problems.

 

Since mine is still original, yes, I do carry a spare. Both of my 1931 Dodges were ordered with wire spoke wheels, but both came with wood spoke wheels since the parts for the wire wheels were tough to supply during the Great Depression. The previous owner to my blue/black car changed the wheels to wire so I had to make a spare tire rack for the rear....

 

...in over 35 years of drivin old cars n trucks, I've always carried a spare, never ever needed one, guess I'm pretty lucky.

 

On the coupe, no spare tire, no jack, no tire wrench, no Fix-a-flat, no compressor, but I have AAA!
My pickup, there is a spare under the bed, if it even hold air is pretty questionable, there is a screw jack and tire wrench behind the seat, I assume they function. I have AAA.
My wife's car, there is one of those doughnut spares, it was on the car one time in the cars early history, and has pretty much been ignored since then. Did I mention I have AAA?
The 47 Dodge I'm going to build next will be just like the coupe. I keep good tires on everything, and there are a lot of places that repair and sell tires. There are to many idiots driving on the roads these days, I'm not going to be changing a tire along the side of the road. I'll make the call and wait for the rescue. Gene

 

I have always carried a spare tire in my Rods & Customs. I have been lucky and never needed to use one. I was getting my 1941 Ford ready to sell, checked the spare, it was as flat as a pan cake! I'm guessing it never had air in it. Soo I think if I am going to carry a spare, I should check the air in it once and awhile!

 

Nope, never carried a spare in 38 years, one flat and that's because the dumb ass who put the tube in the tire didn't use baby powder on it and it tore. Found a corner station , broke the bead on one side, pulled the tube out, put in a stem , put it back together and drove it home tubeless 600 miles. Guess I've been pretty damned lucky throughout the years.

 

Some times. Depends on the car, the trip, what tires it has on it at the time, etc. I wonder, if I have a pair of slicks in the trunk, does that count as a spare?

 

'55 F100...Only when I have my tarp on.
Dropped truck requires small, 1/4 ton floor jack, 4 way lug wrench and reversed '50 Merc steelie with 7.10 X 15...(a harsh compromise for the 1.95 X 15 fronts and 2.55 X 15 rears)
Attractive dumped Merc and handy 'kit' bolted down in bed when visible seems to send that age-old message to ne'er do wells walking by: "Take me, take me..."
The tarp 'screens' otherwise unfortunate occurrences...

 

You know you just jinxed yourself, better knock on some of the wood you do your artwork on!

 

My truck has bags, so with the air tank aboard I also put in an aux line off the tank and with an air line coupling
at the end so I can run an air gun if I need to, or inflate a kiddy pool, party dolls, or air mattresses. But I don't carry a spare, just fix a flat and a tire plug kit. Besides a tool box, I have a scissors jack to lift a wheel should I have a brake problem or something like that and on very long trips I also try to carry one jack stand if I have room. Gary

 

You'll never need one when you have one.

I have Slime sealer in my tires and carry Slime Quick Spare.

 

Haven't put a rear seat in my Willys yet. I wonder if a spare tire under a home built seat is feasible?

 

One weekend we went to Billetproof...I had stuff in the bed, (tailgate party stuff: Hibachi, charcoal, folding chairs, table, coolers, etc.)
Afterward, stopped off at son's house (triangulated the trip, son Rich's house in San Jose, Billetproof in Antioch, we live near Merced; Rich met us in Antioch with his F100, we 'caravanned' to S.J. after the picnic.)
Got to Rich;s house, and I got a flat. 5 minutes after arriving. No spare...Rich found a Merc wheel out back, gave it to me. We aired it up...PSSSSS, out the bead. Tire wasn't bad, but had sat outside...
Took Rich's truck to Big 'O' tires, the young mgr. broke it down, RUST city!
He had his shop mech grind, sand, & buff the wheel at the bead surface of the rim, then coat it with some 'primer'...Cleaned the tire, then put it on and balanced it.
When I told him I had a shop in Atwater, he refused to charge me!
I tipped his shop guy $10, went back to Rich's and promised to carry a spare...LOL
My tank is under the drivers side of the cab, (std. F100) a friend has his spare under the bed...
I was thinking about that, AND the cool (Datsun? Toyota?) screw jack for removing and replacing...Just a cable with screw attachment that lifts the damned thing back up there and secures it.
I'm only 74, should be 'pressing' that spare for exercise, right? Give me the 'spare Hoist'!

 

"On the coupe, no spare tire, no jack, no tire wrench, no Fix-a-flat, no compressor, but I have AAA!
My pickup, there is a spare under the bed, if it even hold air is pretty questionable, there is a screw jack and tire wrench behind the seat, I assume they function. I have AAA.
My wife's car, there is one of those doughnut spares, it was on the car one time in the cars early history, and has pretty much been ignored since then. Did I mention I have AAA?
The 47 Dodge I'm going to build next will be just like the coupe. I keep good tires on everything, and there are a lot of places that repair and sell tires. There are to many idiots driving on the roads these days, I'm not going to be changing a tire along the side of the road. I'll make the call and wait for the rescue. Gene"

who you gonna call???

 

i have a trunk so carrying a spare is easy. it's a modern space saver from the dump. fits front and rear, easy on and off, and would get me home. again, i'm spoiled having pleanty of room for a jack and toolbox also. mabe i'll never need it........

 

No...... wish I could carry a spare tire though, as many times I've had flat tires over the years! We had an incident with my roadster few years ago, when my wife took the little car for an evening meeting at her work (she doesn't like the double-clutching in my 1961 jeep)...her car was in the repair mode at the time, so I said ''go on and take it'' and gave her the keys.....about 10:30 pm that evening, she called me and said that several pieces of sidewalk rebar were protruding from a concrete sidewalk and out into the road about 2' feet, as she took a corner ( I went and checked, and sure enough...gleaming metal was mangled from the sidewalk, which I called the next day to report the incident)...she bumped the metal spikes, and ruined both the right side tires on the sidewalls.

Of course, I was a little concerned when she called, late at night and my wife broke down on a 2 lane road, half crying & half scared...I drove over in the jeep immediately and took a spare I had in the garage for the car, and ''thought'' I could repair one or the other (not thinking it was as bad as she stated) with fingers crossed, until I noticed the high amount of damage on both...no go! I didn't have a second spare on a 4.5 hole Ford wheel handy, and I ended up returning back home and finding, tearing one tire down, and praying it would hold air, from a ratty old wheel back at the house that was similar in size, while my wife sat for 2 hours longer in the car in the meantime (about 20 miles from home) on a road that wasn't a good place to be stranded.

About 1:30 am in the morning, I finally had ''two'' spares on the car, and I drove it home gingerly, while she followed me in my jeep...the old tire was losing air slowly, but did manage to get the car home, while holding my breath most of the way.

Ever since then....I've ALWAYS kept ''2'' spare tires available at all times (1 in the jeep ready to go).....who woulda' thought having 2 flat tires at the same time...I sure didn't! Nowadays, I keep spare parts in my jeep for the hot rods in a handy box, with things that ''might'' be common for breaking down, as well as a spare tire for whichever hot rod is on the road at the moment, ....and if my wife has to come to me broke down along the road, I can probably get the little car back home in an emergency. That little car is too small for much of anything much less a spare tire, and with both of us in the car seat, it's a tight squeeze anyways!................but, from experience, I would advise everyone to have ''2'' spares handy that "actually fit"...ya' just never know when both are needed at the same time!!! I sure learned my lesson!

 

Goimg to the Nationals in Columbus years ago a fellow club member ran over a pieces of metal amd cut a tire on his 33 Buick and we all pulled over to help/watch while he wrestled with the spatr mounted on the back of his car only to find that he hadn't checked it in several years and there was not enoough air to mount it so we loaded it up in my 40 sedan and got it aired up,no major problem but if you have a spare it wouldn't hurt to check it. HRP

 

Yes. Have enough room in the club coupe to carry donut spare, screw jack, and 12V compressor. Also, carry in my tool kit, tire repair kit with plugs, reamer. Used it a couple of times on OT cars.

 

Nope.
I just cross my fingers and carry a cell phone and my Hagerty road service card!

 

Be careful Danny, if you blow that shoulder out again, we'll have to endure another year of your incessant trivial posts.
Just kidding, I love every one of them.
OT but kinda related, this reminds me of a story from many years ago.
My best friend of nearly fifty years is a truck driver and we were quizzing his dad (a truck driver) about what he carried in the truck for tools when he was on the road in the 50's.
He said company policy was he was to keep a dime in his pocket so he could call for help if he needed a repair, that's the only tool he was allowed to carry.
As much as I hate to admit it, at our (my) age, I think the only tool I'm going to carry is my AAA card for roadside assistance.
For me, too many repeat shoulder surgeries has taken the fun out of wrenching on cars on the side of the road, not that it was ever that much fun.

 

See, even @2935ford agrees with me.