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We are planning on driving the ole CMC a bit this summer. Has anybody been able to find a space saver that will fit into the trunk? I have a scissor jack from a Toyota I had that I can actually fit in the engine bay in front of the tail light! So I'm covered in the jack and the breaker bar department. Thanks all!
1956 CMC(Speedster)
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Keith, make sure you get some kind of a strap and bracket in there to hold the spare off of your battery. Before I chopped my car up and deleted the spare, I had a devil of a time figuring out what the trickle-drain was on my battery. It was the curve of the trunk combined with the 'natural' placement of the tire in that space -- the steel wheel was laid across both terminals.

I bought the bracket and a tire strap and never had that problem again once I installed them correctly.
I just got back from the tire dealer who put a 125 15 on my wide 5 wheel. It is smaller than the 145 and will do everything I need from a temporaary spare plus gives me more space in the trunk.

Thanks Mango for this idea.

Best $10 plus a $5 tip to the guy who mounted and balanced it for mw
I ever spent!

I wouldn't travel without a spare.
David:

I guess the first question would be; "How far will you have to go on the spare?"

True, if you put the different-sized spare on the rear, you would have two different diameter tires and that would make your axles turn at different rates. But that difference would be compensated for by the differential within your transaxle. It should cause no damage if you're running it for a short while - 100-200 miles or so. Personally, I might even go farther than that, but I would probably be worrying the entire time but that's because I worry about things like that. I have not yet seen a rear differential destroyed by running mis-matched-sized tires on the same differential.

Just be aware that it's going to handle really, really weirdly, especially when you step on the brake, because the braking torque arm at the wheel will apply different amounts of force to each rear wheel (you'll pull to one side), and you may experience a bit of "torque steer" when you accelerate (probably pulling to the other side from braking). Either of those will probably cause you to get the right size tire re-installed ASAP.
That's what we did in Salt Lake City, Utah in 2010 when we blew the first rear tire, Keith. I didn't know much about VW trannys so we put the front on the rear and the spare on the front just in case. When the second tire blew 75 miles later that became a different story....Three night delay in beautiful Spanish Fork over the long weekend. We did get to Sundance and Park City though.
I carry a plug kit and pump also--along with a spare. I like the idea of keeping the rears the same and that's what I will do if I have a flat. This removes any potential problems with the differential
---just have to be careful driving and braking with the donut on the front.

Beats the hell out of sitting beside the road.
Samba guy finally emailed me 4 minutes ago.... Theres a local VW yard, and they are all 5"+, which just isn't going to close without bowing the hood. I found a whole stack in this air-cooled yard today, but they were all wide 5.... maybe this last ad will pan out. They had a set of gorgeous NOS Mangels wheels... $600.... yikes....

Update, as I wrote this.... reply from the one ad that has what I need... LOL
"Not interested in shipping. Sorry. Jim"
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