So what are those of you who drive long distances in a car with big and little tires doing for flats? Spare tubes and a pump? Spare tire and limp it with odd size tires? AAA? Or is everything just living on a trailer....
Everything I build carries a spare, or a plugging kit, or patches and tire levers, if tubed. I have a Viair 380 that goes with me, in whatever I'm driving. Odd size tires have not proven an issue. I once went home with a 5" difference in height, on a rear axle, with a Eaton/Detroit TruTrac.
Like Gimpy I carry a 12 volt compressor, jack and a tire plug kit. I have a generic spare with dual pattern lugs that I will toss in to whatever and wherever I'm driving as deemed necessary. Anything more than that it's called a AAA card.
So far limp in has worked. I do carry a 12V compresser and tire plugs though. One of my buddies just made sure I had my spare with me when we went on road trips. As long as I had the Jack, spare and lug wrench with me life was good. He had a 29 A roadster with Chevy bolt pattern on all 4 corners then.
I carry a spare for the front. Its smaller to carry and will get me home. Except my avatar which carries the original skinny wheel.
Miraculously I have driven thousands of miles since the 70's with no spare tire or any way of patching a tire but this past summer my luck ran out on the way home from the All Deuce Run and fortunately for me,I was able to pull in a QT station as the tire was going down, a friend had a patch kit and a Good Samaritan came to our aide with a car that had a on board compressor and were were back on the road in less than a half hour. I pushed my luck for too many years and I now have a small jack & a portable compressor along with a patch kit. HRP
small jack I trial fit on all 4 corners, 12V compresser, 2 cans fix-a-flat, plug kit....AAA card. No room for spare.
Sometimes I have a spare, some times I have just a plug kit and compressor... but it's been a long time since I've got a flat on the road.
Plug kit. Viair compressor, Fix-A-Flat and AAA......for vehicles I have with no spare. When trailering, I carry a trailer spare, jack etc. Oddly, I have had more trailer flats than anything else, and I keep very good, well maintained tires on the trailer. Ray
Perhaps if you only associate them with 'trailer queens'. But I frequently have hauled non-ops and one ways and it's difficult to do those without a trailer. For several years I did 'rebuilders' and bought and sold off-lease used vehicles I often acquired at sales 100 to 400 miles from home. Also was into off-roading for several years.....for all these purposes and many more a trailer has been extremely useful. Was the question about flats limited to HAMB era vehicles only? Ray
I was talking about trailers in general. They are a necessary pain when they're needed, and just a pain when they're not really needed.
I carried a front size spare. it will get you home if home is not to far. Or it will get you to a tire store if need be.
A spare tire, jack, jack stand and a sense of humor. When you least expect it you will need it. A flat tire on the freeway is no fun especially when nobody stops to offer help. A coast guard helicopter did circle twice then continued on. jeff
I've been pretty lucky, I don't usually carry spare anything, just a few common tools. The last flat I had, a spare wouldn't have helped, the axle bearing slipped on the axle and it came out and rubbed the tire through on the fender lip. Other than that, I haven't had a flat since I retired. Now back when I was working I usually found a flat in the morning when I was already running late or had an important meeting or something.
A can of Fix-a-flat and my cell phone(remember bag phone's) since 89 or so, has been my spare tire for all of my Hot Rods, Hobby cars. In the years before cell phones, always had the good fortune to meet good people on the road when a problem happened, towed racecar trailer's all over Midwest many years, many miles, lucky not many breakdowns or tire failures.
Try Slime instead of Fix-a-flat. It does not eventually ruin the tire. I have pulled drywall screws, used nothing but Slime, and carried on, until I wore out the tire. My wife's car has it in all 5 (spare included), preemptively.
Have not seen one in a new car in a while. Mostly the car models that had these now just don't have any spare, at-all.
Wife's OT 88 Firebird has one on an aluminum wheel, never been aired up, has a cylinder to inflate it IIRC, or that might have been her 77 Firebird that had the inflatable one, the 88 might just be one of the mini spares. Hell, I can't remember now, I looked when we got it last year, and haven't looked at it since. I have a Ford ranger pickup wheel and tire for a spare in the Lincoln. A bit taller than the front tires, but plenty of room in the fender so no worries on it fitting. My problem is the jack. Car sits so low, you can't get under it to put the jack under the axle, so you have to jack the body up a bit first, then put the bottle jack under the axle. Haven't had to do it except here at home on the concrete so far. Best defense against flats is good tires. Not saying you won't get a flat on a newer tire, but it's less likely due to the rubber depth. When I ran maypops all the time, I was always getting flats. Nowhere near as many with good tires.
No room for spair,so plug kit an also Fix-a-flat,plus a small lighter plug in air-pump. AAA is good,but don't have it. Storage behind seat back of jumpers,tools etc. Now days a cell phone.
A space-saver spare out of a late model, a scissors jack out of a late mustang, lug wrench and I'm good to go... I've got a cel phone and towing, but too many of the places I drive don't have cel service to count on any towing services.
My space saved is the same diameter as my rear tires, as I also have a TrueTrac. Cheers Aaron. Sent from my SM-G360G using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I have a spare that's half way between size of the front tire and rear tire. Also a jack and 12v air compressor. Had a flat on left front once. With spare on it wasn't to bad to drive. Forgot to mention that spare was relatively narrow. Carry tire plugs as well. But side wall got ruined. Sent from my XT1254 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Heading to a show 1 1/2 hrs away just got off the highway rolling in the gate and someone calls your front tire is flat. It just happened. So rolled 50 yds to park. No spare. But the hot rod gods were looking after us. As the guys taking our tire off were from a local 4WD club and so happened the guy with the shaved head was the manager of a tire shop ,so on a Sunday he took care of it , an hr later we were fixed. It seems the coker tire had an aluminium tag inside that caused issues as I remember the 2nd day they were on and obviously the tire shop the merely patched the tube instead of replacing it . So 4 yrs later the poor repair let go. Do I carry a spare in my cars now. No I didn't learn. Still carry a scissor jack though. Just rely on the hot rod gods.
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