Full sized spare tire for Model 3?

[texas_star_TM3]

I haven't had a car with a spare tire in 10 years. Maybe I have good luck, but I've only had to stop and plug a tire once.
Plus, with these cars I'd gladly throw on Netflix or Disney+ for hours.
I used Tesla roadside once for a warranty issue and they showed up at my work within the hour. I'm near Boston so there's plenty of quick towing options around. The trunk is not big enough to handle a tire and $200 of groceries.

oooh... I only drop the modern spare into the trunk when doing road-trips through more remote areas. for daily driving around the Dallas-FTW metroplex I keep it out of the car.

For example: Dallas - Taos / New Mexico takes you on the shortest route between Amarillo over Clayton New Mexico to Taos New Mexico for hours through very isolated areas where the nearest tow truck would likely come from Amarillo or Dumas or Santa Fe and it would take hours.

 

[toolman335]

oooh... I only drop the modern spare into the trunk when doing road-trips through more remote areas. for daily driving around the Dallas-FTW metroplex I keep it out of the car.

For example: Dallas - Taos / New Mexico takes you on the shortest route between Amarillo over Clayton New Mexico to Taos New Mexico for hours through very isolated areas where the nearest tow truck would likely come from Amarillo or Dumas or Santa Fe and it would take hours.

Yes that makes sense!

 

[nstig8]

Here are some pictures from someone whose Model 3 was rear-ended by a Chevy Equinox. Where do you think a full size spare sitting in the trunk would end up when a taller SUV/truck hits you above the bumper like this? Again, my kids ride in the back seat. I'm not putting a spare in a position to totally negate the crumple zone meant to protect them. It would be different if we had a place molded in below the trunk floor and parallel with the bumper beam to store a compact spare from the factory.

 

[KenC]

Under the floor would definitely be safer. I thought bumper height regulations were supposed to be matched.

Anyhow, now you've got me thinking about what can be done in the interim to maximize safety with a spare in the back.

I just went and put my compact spare in the car to measure the distance behind it. When butted against the rear seat back, the compact spare has 19" of space to the rear trunk lid. If you were to depressure it, you might get an additional 7" of space for a total of 26" to the rear trunk lid, as the sidewalls are ~3 ½". Maybe just remove the valve stem? And keep a valve stem tool with your other flat tire paraphernalia.

26" before impacted is actually a fair amount, and appears to be deeper than the penetration of the Chevy Equinox, which doesn't appear to have penetrated more than a foot. However, can we do even better?

I'm wondering if the safest strategy is to do as some have shown, and tie the tire up to the top crossmember. By tipping it up, you put the leading edge of the tire at the base of the seat, where the hinge is going to be the strongest. Plus, you've tied it to the top crossmember on the rear deck lid, which should be fairly strong. Plus, you've given yourself a lot more margin beyond the 26" to the end of the trunk. And, then deinflate it as above, by removing the valve stem, and you've given yourself maybe 30" to the back of the car. So, the top red arrow indicates you'd strap the compact spare to the top crossmember. Strap it in a couple spots. The bottom red arrow shows that there's 25" from that point in the floor to the back of the trunk. As you can see, even without deinflating the compact spare, you've got more than 25" to the back, then if you deinflate it, you may have over 30" before the compact spare would be impacted. Food for thought.

And, flip the spare over, would give you some more margin of error.

 

[nstig8]

Up and at an angle like that does seem the safest way and the most space efficient. If modern spare (or someone else) came up with a nice way to secure the wheel like that I'm sure it would sell well. A metal anchor that bolts to the upper wall/trunk deck on either side and a couple short ratchet straps would be ideal. I might even buy anchors like that for securing other cargo (gas cans, pool supplies, etc). My old car had an aftermarket strut tower brace across the trunk that I used to strap things to. It was super convenient.

EDIT: This guy has a similar setup: Spare Trunk Ceiling Mount: Easy! Tips Here.
I'd prefer some hooks or U-bolts that attach to that factory metal and allow me to attach whatever to them, but this works.

 

[Andy7]

Under the floor would definitely be safer. I thought bumper height regulations were supposed to be matched.

Anyhow, now you've got me thinking about what can be done in the interim to maximize safety with a spare in the back.

I just went and put my compact spare in the car to measure the distance behind it. When butted against the rear seat back, the compact spare has 19" of space to the rear trunk lid. If you were to depressure it, you might get an additional 7" of space for a total of 26" to the rear trunk lid, as the sidewalls are ~3 ½". Maybe just remove the valve stem? And keep a valve stem tool with your other flat tire paraphernalia.

26" before impacted is actually a fair amount, and appears to be deeper than the penetration of the Chevy Equinox, which doesn't appear to have penetrated more than a foot. However, can we do even better?

I'm wondering if the safest strategy is to do as some have shown, and tie the tire up to the top crossmember. By tipping it up, you put the leading edge of the tire at the base of the seat, where the hinge is going to be the strongest. Plus, you've tied it to the top crossmember on the rear deck lid, which should be fairly strong. Plus, you've given yourself a lot more margin beyond the 26" to the end of the trunk. And, then deinflate it as above, by removing the valve stem, and you've given yourself maybe 30" to the back of the car. So, the top red arrow indicates you'd strap the compact spare to the top crossmember. Strap it in a couple spots. The bottom red arrow shows that there's 25" from that point in the floor to the back of the trunk. As you can see, even without deinflating the compact spare, you've got more than 25" to the back, then if you deinflate it, you may have over 30" before the compact spare would be impacted. Food for thought.

And, flip the spare over, would give you some more margin of error.
View attachment 868842

This is not a bad idea, but I have not tried it. It does appear that you would lose trunk space with this since the space between the angled spare and the back seat would not be useable unless the back seat is lowered to fill the space and then set back up. Plus the space is narrower at the bottom than the top, making it tough to put things in. As I had mentioned, with mine flat on the floor there is plenty of useful room on top of it.

Also, if I really needed the trunk space, I have put the spare behind the front seat standing on the rear floor. The Modern Spare comes in a clean zip-up soft case. This, of course, limits the back seat room. Then putting in the regular tire will be tough as it is much wider (I also have not tried this, so I could be wrong).

 

[texas_star_TM3]

i cannot figure out why the engineers at Tesla didn't tweak the sub trunk storage compartment *just a tad* so at least a spare tire would fit...

 

[fuddy]

Modern spare strapped to the top of the trunk. Spare has saved me twice. Both times I was out of there in 20 mins.

 

[nghiaho58]

I bought a plug kit. These are designed to slip into the hole some foreign object has made in a tire after the object was removed, and they seal the hole nicely and permanently. They last longer than the tire, and... THEY COST ABOUT TEN BUCKS. They don't require that you stick a full-sized tire into your trunk nor that you carry one around trying to fit other things in there with it. I, personally, have not had a flat for several hundred thousand miles, so carrying a spare is silly for me, but, on the RARE occasion I do get a slow leak, I pull over and push a plug into the hole and trim it. End Of Story. Even when I DID get flat tires (while my business was construction) I still carried a plug kit. Tires are expensive. A plug is not. Carrying a full-sized tire around with you all the time is a huge waste of space, while carrying a plug kit hardly takes up any space at all. "Even" a woman can find a slow leak with some soapy water, pull the nail or whatever with some pliers, and push a plug into the hole. She can probably pull out her small air compressor (another ten bucks) and fill the tire from the cigarette lighter socket. I'd MUCH RATHER carry around a plug kit that a honkin' big tire that gets in the way every time I go shopping at Safeway.

Could you share the info of the plug kit you use? I like that idea than a spare tire. Thanks.

 

[Tronguy]

Could you share the info of the plug kit you use? I like that idea than a spare tire. Thanks.

Walk into $RANDOM auto parts store; they're in bubble packs hanging on the wall. Less than $10, I think. Used them in the long-ago a few times, they work as advertised. Lots of rubber cement involved, something that looks like a king-sized needle (with eye and slot in the eye). Usually a decent idea to carry a small jack and one of those hockey-puck buffers to put under the lift point on the car so one can get the tire off the ground, making it easier to find the hole.

Warning, though: This kind of thing works super-duper wonderfully if the hole is on the belt. It's Not A Good Idea At All if the hole is within a half-inch of the edge of the belt or involved with the sidewall in any way. Anything like that and it's time for a new tire, no joke. Putting a plug there is a good way to get killed when the tire explodes at speed.

Final, minor point: The usual way to fix a repairable flat (i.e., on the body of the tread) is to put a no-kidding bicycle tire patch on the inside of the tire. The rubber plug approach puts a rubber thread and rubber cement into the hole, spreads it all around, thickly, and seals it up pretty well. The patch is better, because it's really hard for air to leak under the edge of a properly applied patch, travel to the hole, then leak out. Where with the plug kit one is kind of depending upon that massive amount of rubber cement to do the job. Which it'll do.. but it's not quite as good, natch.

 

[Timbo2]

Up and at an angle like that does seem the safest way and the most space efficient. If modern spare (or someone else) came up with a nice way to secure the wheel like that I'm sure it would sell well. A metal anchor that bolts to the upper wall/trunk deck on either side and a couple short ratchet straps would be ideal. I might even buy anchors like that for securing other cargo (gas cans, pool supplies, etc). My old car had an aftermarket strut tower brace across the trunk that I used to strap things to. It was super convenient.

EDIT: This guy has a similar setup: Spare Trunk Ceiling Mount: Easy! Tips Here.
I'd prefer some hooks or U-bolts that attach to that factory metal and allow me to attach whatever to them, but this works.

That’s me.

Keep in mind it is a compact spare. You lose the width of tire in bottom and about 15 inches at the top. The loss of capacity has never been that much of an issue. You can also access the “lost“ capacity by folding the rear seat to gain access. For example I store an insulated bag that fits on the trunk there with room to spare.

 

[Tippytj2]

Where exactly are people attaching the straps to the trunk roof? There are a bunch of holes in the frame up there, but I have no idea about their load carrying capacity and am a little concerned the thin steel could bend under the tension of a ratchet strap and sudden jerks while driving. I can’t imagine these are designed to be load bearing. I’m using the ones that are most conveniently located for my spare installation and am just trying to keep the ratchet strap just tight enough to keep it snug, but not too tight. There doesn’t seem to be any difference between them, or any sense of if any are meant to be loaded. It would be nice if they installed clear load points in the trunk, or, better yet, a subtrunk designed to suit a spare tire, but what do I know. Any insights?

 

[Kevy Baby]

You pay $16 a month for AAA with unlimited tow? That’s bs. In Cali it’s $70 for 200 mile tow and like $30 a month extra for someone else. So that’s $1200 a year.

Not sure if someone already covered this, but your numbers are WAY off. This from the AAA web site.

 

[RayK]

Not sure if someone already covered this, but your numbers are WAY off. This from the AAA web site.

Yeah I covered it back in Oct 2022 and @dmoon86 acknowledged it. You can read it upthread.