Spare wheel dilemma

borntobag · Post by **borntobag** » Mon May 23, 2011 5:30 pm

I am driving to the Costa Blanca in July, although my 2.5 4wd Bongo is running great, new filters, belts, stainless zorst, egr blanked off etc.. in fact it’s never run so sweet, just an LCA to fit and I’m ready and raring to go, my problem/dilemma is with the spare wheel.

I am running 18 alloys with 235/50/18 tyres on them and love the look and the ride they give, but being a 4wd my 15" steel spare is useless as the rolling circumference is less. So I obtained an RX8 alloy and shod it with an appropriate tyre to match the other 4. However the spare wheel retainer that dangles on the wire will not go through its centre.

Has anyone go a recognised solution or know of an adaptor that can be used, as I will not have the space inside the Bongo with me the wench and 3 sprogs and I really don’t want to drive over well 2500 miles in total relying on a can of tyre weld should I get a puncture.

scanner · Post by **scanner** » Mon May 23, 2011 5:35 pm

Surely if the retainer won't go through the centre hole of the wheel, the wheel won't fit your hubs - or am I missing something?

missfixit70 · Post by **missfixit70** » Mon May 23, 2011 6:00 pm

Some people have modified the retainer to fit (no it doesn't mean the wheel won't fit on the vehicle's hub, look at the design of each, totally different principle

) or use the 15" wheel with the correct size tyre to take it to the same rolling diameter, I'm sure someone will provide the link for the tyre size converter/calculator jobby quick smart if you can't find it doing a search

borntobag · Post by **borntobag** » Mon May 23, 2011 6:31 pm

Thanks guys,
The RX8 wheel fits fine, plenty of people run them, but the spare wheel has a much larger centre hole in comparision.

I have used the calculator before when I was sussing the tyres out for the rims, I know what your saying about the rolling circumference but for a 15" wheel if i did get a tyre with a bigger side wall profile it would still be a lot narrower than the 235's. I want to keep rolling rolling rolling knowing all the wheels are the same spec as I am on quite a tight shedule.

Looks like a bit of attitude adjusting to the retainer is in order or I could always buy a second hand tail gate and bolt it straight through I suppose.....

missfixit70 · Post by **missfixit70** » Mon May 23, 2011 6:43 pm

Doesn't necessarily need to be a lot narrower than the 235's & what difference will that really make as long as rolling diameter & load rating are equivalent? it's not like you're driving a performance car at ridiculous speds around track that it'll affect handling that much is it? & surely you'd want to get the tyre repaired/replaced asap in case it happened again? (sods law

)
But as you've already got the RX8 wheel & tyre, seems like the option to mod the hanger jobby is probably the way to go anyway, I'm sure there was a mention on here of someone fairly recently doing just that?

borntobag · Post by **borntobag** » Mon May 23, 2011 7:12 pm

true.....
will start searching for hanger jobby in the forum posts....
cant be that hard a mod.

mikexgough · Post by **mikexgough** » Mon May 23, 2011 8:00 pm

Tyre size calculator
I'm on 17's in the Summer and use a standard steely as a spare.....rolling radius is fine for a spare ...... Your call...

Jaws · Post by **Jaws** » Mon May 23, 2011 9:04 pm

Are you really sure the dangly bit won't go through the hole on your spare?

Pardon me if I'm wrong but I recently swapped from steel originals to 16" mazda 6 alloys including the spare. I do recall some anxiety about getting the spare to go on as the centre hole is smaller: it did fit OK albeit with some fiddling, cursing and swearing..

Quick use of tape measure suggests about 55mm diameter centre hole on my current wheels, about 65mm on steels and the retaining bar about 40-45mm in width. (None of these are exact measurements.)

So perhaps a little more persistance and you can use your chosen spare. At worst a little modification of the dangly bit should see you right.

Have a great trip and best of luck.

borntobag · Post by **borntobag** » Mon May 23, 2011 9:23 pm

my 18's are 4cm greater in diameter and 12cm or so greater in rolling circumference than the 15"spare, I had to trim over half an inch off the bumper to avoid rubbing on full lock. Using the 15" will cause diff windup and possible serious transmission problems/failures.

Jaws, I have tried to force the retainer through the RX8 wheel and although not far off it it just wount go, even after inventing a few new swear words. If I managed to force it on, when I need to use it, probably in the pi**ing rain at night, I dont want a battle trying to get it off.
Nowt for it, I will have to either reshape the existing retainer or fabricate an intermediate clamp, beween the wheel and the retainer.

rapiddescent · Post by **rapiddescent** » Mon May 23, 2011 9:37 pm

I have the same problem. I have an RX-8 wheel, with a new tyre in the shed because the dangly bit won't go through the hole on the RX8 wheel. The RX8 wheels have a machined lip on them to fit over the hub and so the hole diameter is a cm or two less.

Jaws · Post by **Jaws** » Mon May 23, 2011 9:39 pm

Fair comment. Then I would remove existing retaining widget and replace it with a simple steel bar or similar that fits easily through the hole.

An intermediate device might be OK but could fail and it may limit how far up you can haul the spare.

Again, good luck with the trip and let us know the solution.

dave_aber · Post by **dave_aber** » Mon May 23, 2011 9:45 pm

Surely you will need to modify the hanger to fit the alloys - not just so it holds the spare, but so it holds the punctured one once you have put the spare on the car and are driving to the garage still with wench, sprogs, kit etc.....

lazyb5 · Post by **lazyb5** » Tue May 24, 2011 4:43 pm

Hi guys i posted a little while ago about modifiying the hanger, all i did was cut the spring in 3 places and hammered the upstands down on the top this allowed it to go through the centre of my alloy wheel.
You could go beyond what i did and create a new hanger as there is lots of spare cable on the winch.
Hope that helped
Clive

borntobag · Post by **borntobag** » Tue May 24, 2011 7:24 pm

Clive, your a star, i will be getting medievil with the little bugger over the weekend. Thanks for your advise.
Great forum for info...cheers

borntobag · Post by **borntobag** » Mon May 30, 2011 8:21 am

Sorted....
Took Clives advise, I removed the 4 nuts holding the unit to the Bongo and took it to the garage, clamped it in the vice and got medevil with the angle grinder, did try a hack saw first but it didnt touch it.
I removed about 540 degrees of the spring in 2 parts, if you try to do it in one go you leave a floating coil of spring that is still captured around the wire.
I didnt flatten the tabs as they fit the inside face of the RX8 wheel perfectly.
It is a snug fit and at first i thought it wouldn't go but then realised the wire naturally wants to align itself with the fore mentioned tabs making it to fat to go through (note to self), just move it off the tab and hey presto...
With the 235 50 18 tyre it is a nice snug fit underneath, so much so the wheel cannot move laterally even if it wanted to, almost as if it was made for it.

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