Asymmetric and Unidirectional tyres - What do we do for the fifth or spare tyre

[DieselFan]

Most good tyres now-a-days are either unidirectional or asymmetric or both. When we go for such a set of tyres for our car we would invariably need a bidirectional and Symmetric tyre as a spare. Is there a way to avoid such requirement? If not then what do you folks do while buying new shoes for your car would you buy a bi-directional/symmetric tyre as a spare?

[gigy]

while using such tyres try to match the outer diameter with the stock one , so that one stock can be used as spare. alternately buy a normal tyre of required outer diameter along with 4 of these.
i am using 4 185/65/R14 yokohama c drives with 1 165/80/R13 default

[WasavaTyres]

I second gigy. I'm using 195/60/R14 with a 175/70/R13 (stock) as spare on my getz. Besides,with tubeless tyres you're much less likely to need the spare.

[GTO]

In my Benz, I have an asymmetric spare but in the Honda, its uni-directional.

The spare will anyways be used only for a couple of kms. Its okay to drive a uni-directional the opposite way as long as its a temporary fix. And you dont speed at all.....drive very conservatively.

[Jaggu]

same here 195/65/14 for uni directional and spare is 195/70/14 non directional, assumption that it will be minimally used (touch wood). though its a bloody mental agony while out on highways

[Ricky_63]

It makes sense to retain the OE tyre & rim in the stepney, as long as the OD of the wheels match. I have Uni-directionals on 3 of my cars & the OE tyres on OE rims in the boot. As rightly said the stepney is usually used for short periods of time / kms so just drive carefully - that should pretty much be OK. Only my Scorpio has all 5 Hankooks identical ones, coz on SUV's IMO the ground clearance being higher can lead to more dis-balance if the OD's are not identical...

Cheers

[Ajaybiz]

This topic gave me great idea to save some money in buying tyres.Will be keeping the stock one as a stepeny also going to save by not buying the 5th alloy wheel.

[cypher]

Originally Posted by Ricky_63

As rightly said the stepney is usually used for short periods of time / kms so just drive carefully - that should pretty much be OK.
Cheers

If you use a regular tyre as a stepney, what happens when the tyres are rotated at the 5K intervals? I believe they rotate the stepney tyre along with the other tyres. Like shown here below -

[vikram_d]

Originally Posted by cypher

If you use a regular tyre as a stepney, what happens when the tyres are rotated at the 5K intervals? I believe they rotate the stepney tyre along with the other tyres. Like shown here below -

The image above is good for normal non-directional tyres but not for directional tyres. For directional tyres it is



The spare tyre in this case will go either to the front or rear of the direction that it has been fitted for.

For eg. in my car the spare has been fitted to be used on the right hand side of the car. So during rotation the spare wheel goes to the rear, the rear goes to the front and the front becomes the stepney. The left side are just swapped between front and rear.

[theMAG]

Here's my contribution from another similar thread

[DieselFan]

Originally Posted by vikram_d

For eg. in my car the spare has been fitted to be used on the right hand side of the car. So during rotation the spare wheel goes to the rear, the rear goes to the front and the front becomes the stepney. The left side are just swapped between front and rear.

This doesn't help. The left side tyres wear out faster than the right ones and we need to replace the tyres anyways before right side tyres wearout.

[vikram_d]

In that case you alternate your car's spare tyre between left and right sides. This will mean having to remove the tyre from the rim and changing sides. Follow alternating cycles.

[GTO]

Originally Posted by Ajaybiz

This topic gave me great idea to save some money in buying tyres.Will be keeping the stock one as a stepeny also going to save by not buying the 5th alloy wheel.

Ajay, its actually a good idea to buy a 5th alloy wheel. Mag wheel designs frequently change with some going out of production each year. If you damage one of your alloy wheels, the 5th is always available to come on duty.

[DieselFan]

Originally Posted by vikram_d

In that case you alternate your car's spare tyre between left and right sides. This will mean having to remove the tyre from the rim and changing sides. Follow alternating cycles.

This is a great idea. I would go a step further in suggesting that the spare tyre should be removed from the wheel and reversed whenever you do wheel balancing (Typically done every 10000 KM while wheel rotation is done every 5000 KM).

[vikram_d]

Balancing, alignment and rotation should all be typically done at the same time. Most manufacturers recommend every 5000 kms. I follow a 10000km cycle as it also coincides with my car's servicing cycle.