Road trips & jacks & spare tires (or lack thereof)

[MikeStrock]

(For context, I live about 25 miles north of Seattle, Washington. Cle Elum and Leavenworth are about two hours East, and Ocean Shores is about two and a half hours away from where I am located)

As we are entering the summer driving season, I'm curious what folks do about spare tires in their 'newish' cars.
We bought a 2024 Crosstrek Wilderness last fall. It didn't come with a spare tire, or a jack.No problem you say. You have AAA.
Sure, I have AAA. But I'd rather not rely on AAA.

What have other folks done? Or has anyone else thought about this issue?

Would love to do a cross country trip at some point, going East to Boston and then up to Maine. Sister-in-law and brother-in-law live in Boston. My brother lives in Maine.

Even doing what we normally do during the summer/fall months, go to Cle Elum to visit my namesake tavern, and Ocean Shores, and Leavenworth, I'm still a bit leery of long distance driving with no spare and jack.

I'm leery of driving cross country (whenever that may or may not take place) sans a spare tire and jack.

What have other folks done?

Thanks in advance.

Mike.

 

[Dick Foster]

That's odd, my 2021 Forester has a full size spare, jack and tools. I've also backed that up with a battery powered tire inflator and a tire plug kit that will repair probably 90% of common flats without even removing the wheel from the car or jacking the car up.
Just find the leak, most likely a nail or screw in the tread area somewhere, pull the nail, plug the leak, air up the tire and I'm on my way again. And I didn't even get the spare or the jack out of the car.

 

[bmart]

My cars all have the mini spares and a jack in them. I'd not rely on AAA either as it can take them all day for what you can solve yourself pretty quickly.

 

[Tumbleweed]

Many times a can of fix a flat will work. Walmart or auto stores. My Outback has a temporary spare, jack etc. I carry a can of fix a flat, along with a 12volt compressor, and a better tire plug kit. The $7 cheapo ones dont seem to hold up. Safety Seal makes a great one but is more money. I do travel on gravel and forest service roads a bit.

 

[bmart]

Fix a flat is really a last resort if you need to escape charging bears. Your tire guy will hate you.

 

[Tumbleweed]

Agreed that he may hate me. So, I will tip him with a 12 pack.

 

[Bob J]

(For context, I live about 25 miles north of Seattle, Washington. Cle Elum and Leavenworth are about two hours East, and Ocean Shores is about two and a half hours away from where I am located)

As we are entering the summer driving season, I'm curious what folks do about spare tires in their 'newish' cars.
We bought a 2024 Crosstrek Wilderness last fall. It didn't come with a spare tire, or a jack.No problem you say. You have AAA.
Sure, I have AAA. But I'd rather not rely on AAA.

What have other folks done? Or has anyone else thought about this issue?

Would love to do a cross country trip at some point, going East to Boston and then up to Maine. Sister-in-law and brother-in-law live in Boston. My brother lives in Maine.

Even doing what we normally do during the summer/fall months, go to Cle Elum to visit my namesake tavern, and Ocean Shores, and Leavenworth, I'm still a bit leery of long distance driving with no spare and jack.

I'm leery of driving cross country (whenever that may or may not take place) sans a spare tire and jack.

What have other folks done?

Thanks in advance.

Mike.

I may be a little extreme, but I prefer not to rely on AAA or any other road side services if at all possible. I run this set up (full size tire on the OEM wheel) and keep a 2 ton bottle jack with a couple of 6"x6" blocks to create a sturdy base for the jack, enough tools in the back to build a house and a VIAIR 200 PSI plug and play, on-demand portable compressor. Haven't had to use any of it yet, but good to know I have it...

 

[Dick Foster]

What's nice to have to complete your just in case kit is a jump battery pack and a battery powered compressor for topping up tires.

I know you have a Viair but it's hard to beat the little self contained battey compressors for convenience. After looking around a lot, I settled on Gooloo for having the good stuff. I have their jump pack and their air up compressor.

For Chinese made, the quality really is top notch. I was floored when I got it. Even the box it came in was high quality.

Jumper cables are okay as long as there is another vehicle to jump from.

Check them out.

 

[Ohiogal]

I have a 12 volt mini air compressor and a donut w/jack. And a cheater bar so I can undo the lug nuts myself. I also have a patch kit if needed. In your case I would buy a donut or spare and get a good jack with compressor (12 volt) if you are anywhere remote. Odd your car didn't have at least the donut.

 

[Dick Foster]

I have a 12 volt mini air compressor and a donut w/jack. And a cheater bar so I can undo the lug nuts myself. I also have a patch kit if needed. In your case I would buy a donut or spare and get a good jack with compressor (12 volt) if you are anywhere remote. Odd your car didn't have at least the donut.

I assume a doughnut is one of those temporary spare tires that are not full sized.

If I remember correctly Subaru AWD struggles with different sized tires and doesn't recommend the use of them.

Both my current 2021 and my previous 2004 Foresters came equipped with full sized spare tires.

BTW I'd be more prone to plugging the flat on the rim, then reinflating the flat rather than changing out the tire.

Fixing the flat in place doesn't even require jacking the vehicle up or removing lug nuts.

As a one time rock crawler, we got good at tire plugging. I've seen a slashed sidewall sewn up with wire, then patched with multiple plugs and then driven off the trail.
But when the pecker wood tried to drive home to Texas from AZ on it. That didn't work out so well. LOL

 

[bmart]

Because of what they put between the front and rear (viscous coupling-effectively a clutch), different sized tires tend to grenade that component...don't ask me how I know.

 

[Dick Foster]

I just remember the caution..

That looks like the clutch packs in an auto tranny.

I never liked nor trusted those wanna be spares anyway. I can't imagine trying one in the snow or way way out on a long cross country road trip. Like highway 50, the loneliest road in America.

 

[bmart]

A tire shop installed a matching tire...but the variance to the 3 used ones was enough to quickly grenade the viscous coupling.

 

[Dick Foster]

A tire shop installed a matching tire...but the variance to the 3 used ones was enough to quickly grenade the viscous coupling.

Oh really! Now that's a bit too fussy isn't it?

Maybe you're better off plugging and reinflating a flat than changing one out for any kind of spare.

 

[bmart]

Not my first rodeo after that...so Ebay, as it turns out, sells a lot of single and sets of 3 used tires (for obvious reasons). A friends Outback had the same problem. I just bought her a used one with the same tread depth in the same brand/model/size (diameter is what matters, of course, but no one knows what diameter is anymore thanks to our excellent education system) and she was rolling in a couple of days. There's always a solution if your head isn't only a hat rack.