• Hi Guest!
    If you appreciate British Car Forum and our 25 years of supporting British car enthusiasts with technical and anicdotal information, collected from our thousands of great members, please support us with a low-cost subscription. You can become a supporting member for less than the dues of most car clubs.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

Donut spare !!

Share this page

N

nomad

Yoda
Offline
I'm new to this learned group and have learned a lot already. It's a subject that has probably been covered but I was wondering if there is a junk yard donut spare tire that will work well on a spridget. Should save some room in the boot. Could probably do measuring and junk yard man hasseling but you guys probably already know!! Tnx, KA
 
I doubt there are any the right size. The only other car I know of that shares the same bolt pattern is the Vega. I Don't think they had "donuts" back then. Besides, can they be that much smaller than what we're riding on now?

Walter
 
The (real) Mini with the 10" rim bolts right up to the Spridget, probably could be used. The OD with a common tire is 19" for it. I am pretty sure that the MG1100 and Austin America use a different bolt pattern.
Bill
 
Nothing that I know of, the Monza/Vegas did have one of the original type small collapsing spares but these haven't be available for years and I wouldn't trust a 30 year old one at all. Probably the best solution is just to find an early MKI narrow steel wheel and fit up a little 135 series tire to it for a spare, about the smallest package I can think of.
 
I use a bugeye rim with a 145 series tire on it
 
This one came with the car. I don't know the source but they exist.
 

Attachments

  • 14854.jpg
    14854.jpg
    41.5 KB · Views: 248
Chris, have you tried that on the car? Looks like the offset would be too much for the rear and the tire would rub on the spring.
 
I've actually used 4 X 100mm donut spare tires/wheels to roll around my parts cars or push them on a trailer.

They'll fit....sort of.

And there's zillions of them available from Hondas, Toyots, etc.

But I WOULD NOT use them to actually drive a car on.
 
I was told a VW Jeta spare does the job.
 
I appreciate the comeback's. Looking a CrisC's photo's reminded me that most car's nowdays have a huge offset that our cars did'nt have. Dose the Jetta too? Probably best to just run a early rim with a small tire. Wondering what aeronca65t considers to be the main problem though? If it is simply a dislike of the modern "donut", I understand, but I know guys that run without any spare just "fix-a-flat". All I've ever thought them good for is to get somewhere to fix the main wheel.

Tnx, KA
 
So some Monza / Vega mag wheels are a good fit for a Spridget?
 
all these

Austin-Healey Sprite
Crosley - all '39-'52
MG Midget
Jensen Healey
Opel Manta, Kadette, GT
GM L-body
Buick Skyhawk '75-'81
Chevrolet Vega, Monza '71-'81
Pontiac Sunbird, Astre '76-'81
Oldsmobile Starfire '75-'81

have 4 X 4 inch patterns

recently someone made the point that he doesn't carry a spare with his motorcycle or his Midget. Radials being better than they used to be
 
nomad said:
...Wondering what aeronca65t considers to be the main problem though?....
Click to expand...

Nothing to do with the offset, thought you might have problems clearing frame or springs with the bigger offset of wheels intended for front-wheel drive.

The problem is that your wheel pattern is 4 lugs on a 4" pattern. If you do the metric conversion, the 4 X 100mm metric wheels are 4 lugs on 3.937" pattern.
This is a significant amount of difference that could cause your wheels to run off-center.
Also, the delicate 3/8" diameter lugs on a Spridget are more likely to snap from the side-pulling force as you torque the wheels down.
And the incorrect wheel fit might cause lugs to loosen when driving.

The Vega/Monza/etc wheels do have the correct 4 X 4" pattern. But they have much larger lug holes in the wheels. I've seen Spridget autocross cars rip Vega wheels off. You should at least use larger wheel nuts if you run the Vega rims (or better yet, bigger studs and lug nuts....at which point your regular wheels won't fit).
Using a narrow Bugeye rim and 135-width tire is your best bet, I'd say.
 
I appreciate the comeback! Looks like the early rim is the best bet. If I had done the math on 100mm I probably would have seen a problem. Thanks especialy to aeronca65 for his experience! My wife has learned long ago how to pack for sports car trip's but would always like a little more room. She miss'es the spacious MGB boot!!
The days are getting longer! KA
 
Nomad, there's a solution for that problem, at the next MG event show her the trunk on a MGA, she'll think the Midget trunk is huge!
 
The wheel I showed does clear the leaf springs.
 
The heck with the math, in my opinion a 4 inch donut spare is just that, it is to be used to get you to the next town at low speed and no further. At 25 miles an hour it should take you a long way.
 
Thanks alot folks, I've got an MGA but I know there's no "knock off" donut's out there!! It definetly needs one!
Like I said ---She miss'es the MGB.
One day closer to spring! KA
 
Back
Top