I use AAA constantly for my D as well as other cars. When I was first shaking the car down after getting it back on the road I had it flatbedded numerous times. More recently, any time I need to send the car on the hour long trip down to my local vendor, I let AAA handle the drop off for me. I've used AAA here in Los Angeles, in Springfield Illinois, and several times in Florida in the last 5 years. I have never, ever waited on AAA more than 45 minutes. For this reason I don't carry, or need, my spare. -----Original Message----- From: dmcnews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx on behalf of content22207 Sent: Fri 1/25/2008 3:21 PM To: dmcnews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [DML] Re: DeLorean Spare (Rear Installation) The factory donut is designed to be used on the rear as well as the front. My car came without a spare, so I had to make one. The junkyard challenge was to find a 15" rim with a 4" square bolt pattern. vintage Chrysler seemed to be the only manufacturer with that bolt pattern (4.25" or 4.5" square was much more common), but 14" appeared to be the only factory diameter. I believe the rim I finally did find was an aftermarket. An honest to goodness radial, sized to match the donut (195/50R15) was fitted to the rim. The big deal about the factory spare is that a flat rear will not fit in its well after swapping them out. A flat front will, but not a rear. If you're traveling solo, you can put the flat rear in the passenger seat, otherwise there is absolutely no place in the vehicle for it. Usual practice is to place it on the engine cover and bungee the sunshade down. More quality engineering in motion.... With all the debris on roads today, I think an owner is taking a real chance driving without a spare. Just suppose a car in a caravan to DCS picked up a nail, or even worse damaged the sidewall on a jagged cement pothole (happened to my pastor's daughter last week). The whole caravan would grind to a halt for AT LEAST many many hours trying to repair or replace the flat tire (have you ever called AAA? I did once on a Ryder truck: 12 hours!). You know how much trouble owners have finding proper size tires just for wear replacement -- imagine trying to do that in the middle of nowhere, or late at night. And the silly thing is: The above scenario is totally unnecessary. DMC put a spare tire under the hood for a reason. I am criticized ad nauseum for not keeping my DeLorean stock. Well, the spare tire is definitely one piece of DMC engineering that I intend to keep in place. Remember: My spare is not a donut. Should be good for 60,000 miles. Handling might be a little squirrely with it on the rear, but the caravan will be moving again within 20-30 minutes. All my vehicles carry full size spares. Used one of them Xmas eve (not the DeLorean). If my passenger sits in someone else's car, I'll even have a place to put the flat rear! Bill Robertson #5939 >--- In dmcnews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, Farrar Hudkins <fhudkins@...> wrote: > > Use a 17mm socket to take the bar off, then use the tire, then put the > bar back on and torque the bolts to 33 foot-pounds. :P > > I took my 1981 spare tire out anyway. The hole is a good place to keep > the car cover. :) I have AAA and a cell phone. Besides -- with my luck > I'll put a hole in one of the rear tires! > > Farrar Hudkins > #2613 [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] To address comments privately to the moderating team, please address: moderators@xxxxxxxxxxx For more info on the list, tech articles, cars for sale see www.dmcnews.com To search the archives or view files, log in at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dmcnews Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dmcnews/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dmcnews/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:dmcnews-digest@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx mailto:dmcnews-fullfeatured@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: dmcnews-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/