No space for spare tire!

Where do i put my spare tire for an AWD mini-van that used to have RFTs - and now, has conventional tires/wheels? And: am i safe driving this way? The spare is just taking all that space in back

Toyota has a spare tire kit that takes up the space of one of the third row seats. The part numbers are in this forum and it is not a cheap fix. The issue with keeping the spare in the cargo area is it becoming a projectile in a crash.

On my wife’s 06 Sienna (fwd), the spare is mounted under the middle of the van where the center differential is located for the AWD Sienna (thus the need for RFTs).

Ed B.

I wonder if it could be mounted exterior?

If it has a luggage rack on top, yes. All you would need is a strap or two. I would also put a cover on it to protect it from the sun.

Then there are these:

http://www.jcwhitney.com/spare-tire-carriers/c1517j1s17.jcwx

https://www.4wdfactory.com/store/products.php?product=Universal-Spare-Tire-Mount-Kit-(Flat)

https://www.4wdfactory.com/store/products.php?product=Universal-Spare-Tire-Mount-Kit

I think auto makers need to look at cars of earlier years. In the 1930’s and possibly through 1940, expensive cars had exterior side mounted spare tires. They were called side mounts. Other cars had a rear exterior mounted spare tire. These lasted at least through the 1950’s and were called Continental spare tires because the Lincoln Continental introduced in 1941 had the spare tire so mounted. In fact, kits were offered in the 1950’s called Continental kits that would allow one to mount the tire just in front of the rear bumper.

Maybe the old days of the side mounts and the Continental spare tires were better than run flat tires with no spare tire at all or room for one.

By the way, these run flat tires without a spare are nothing new. As I remember, the 3 seat Rambler station wagon of 1960 didn’t have a spare and used captive air tires. The Willys Jeep Overland station wagon introduced in 1946 had the spare tire that was mounted behind the right rear side window. The spare looked like an afterthought, but at least the Jeep wagon had one.

And my wife wonders why I like the old cars better than the new ones!

You might consider a roof rack…this would also allow for extra storage on road trips

Not everyone would have the upper-body strength to lift a spare tire and wheel up to the roof rack, and not everyone would have the upper-body strength to hold that equipment long enough to lower it down to the road when the need arose.

And, then there is the issue of checking tire pressure in the spare.
More than likely, checking/correcting tire pressure would necessitate removing and replacing the tire in this…not very convenient…location.

Truthfully, the hassle involved in checking tire pressure with this type of placement is such that most people would never bother to take care of that task. The end result would likely be a flat or seriously deflated spare, just when it was needed.

True they had many places to put the spare tires, but how often does one get a flat tire or blow out today compared to the 30s when they were using nothing more than what equates to oversized bicycle tires? Steel belted radials became more popular and replaced those bias plied tires.
Plus, if the tires were factory runflats, then that’s why there isn’t room for a spare. They got rid of the spare tire(thus saving weight) because one wouldn’t really need it. I know some cars will give you a can of Fix-A-Flat with the car instead of a spare.

If you carry a small 12 volt compressor, you don’t need to check the pressure very often.

Did you check out the links? Some of them seem like good alternatives to me.

I had a blowout on our 2003 4Runner on the original tires and a year later had a tire go down suddenly. Both times I was on an interstate highway. I was glad I had a full size spare tire.