[anb]

Placing spare wheel at the rear door increases the height of center of gravity which causes more instability. The spare tyre also reduces visibility while reversing.

[speedy]

How does a Santro qualify as an SUV in the first place. The owner is mighty confused here.

Here is a Picture of my Cars.

[anujmishra]

I am also no fan of mounted spare wheel on back. For me elegance come when it is tucked inside chassis. However, my Safari has that, but I have no other option than live with it.

We face problem when I park Safari on little slanted surface side wise. When you open rear door, it is very difficult to close again as rear gate get tilted.

However, it is good protection from city bikers, cabs from behind. They do not dare to touch the bumpers.

[kaviprem]

@swiftnfurious, This is exactly what one gentleman suggested in our feedback session to TML plant people and they had no clue about it

Lets see if Safari gets blessed with this kind of design. Not sure, it there is any patent involved in here !

Prem.

[Guna]

I like the spare wheel on the tailgate only on open roof SUV/Jeeps. Not on the modern SUVs/soft-roaders

[swiftnfurious]

Originally Posted by speedy

How does a Santro qualify as an SUV in the first place. The owner is mighty confused here.

Here is a Picture of my Cars.

Speedy, I LOVE that M CLASS. It makes me so happy !! Dont know why! Probably I am in so much love with this car!! Could you tell me whats the name of this model [something like F10 or so] ? I know the model is ML320 CDI. Bad that they removed this in the latest M Class. Would have loved to see it here too.

Also one of the -ve points for the old M Class was that the rear visibility was pretty poor because of such a massive tyre.

[Samurai]

Two of my cars proudly carry their spare tyres on the back.

[SS-Traveller]

Originally Posted by Aroy

I always liked the spare wheel on the tail gate.
...most of the SUV have the wheel mounted on the underside where it gets dirty, apart from being a pain to mount and unmount.

Those of you who advocate having the spare wheel mounted on the tailgate a la the Safari: How many times have you changed a punctured tyre single-handedly on such an SUV (similar size tyre, 235+, 16"+ wheels), removed the spare and replaced the punctured tyre back on the tailgate, again all on your own? I have had occasion to do it, and the resultant back pain could have serious implications on your subsequent peaceful holiday in the wild!

OTOH, removing and refixing the underbody-mounted spare wheel is a piece of cake; I beg to disagree with your viewpoint Ajoy-da, about the underbody-mounted spare being difficult to remove / replace. I consider it more difficult the other way round, and the dirty wheel should be less of a concern than a sprained back.

[ACM]

Voted Yes BUT

Spare on rear door though the most macho leads to

1) Unnecessary increase in lenght of vehicle and hence parking and moving around issues.
2) Rattling rear door.
3) Centre of Gravity moves upwards and hence this unsettles the ride on highways as well as over bumps (speed breakers) to a greater extent.
4) Though it seems otherwise one can get really messy trying to raise a tyre to the rear door for mounting it vs raising it up below the rear.
5) Also this impacts rear visibility.
6) It is a back breaking effort to raise the wheel to the mounts up on the door.

Yet have voted yes as it simply looks better up there.

[Red Liner]

How easy is it to steal a rear mounted spare wheel? I see some nice juicy alloys where these are mounted and I wanted to give it a shot.

[svsantosh]

Originally Posted by Red Liner

How easy is it to steal a rear mounted spare wheel?

I have a rare example for this Q.

A friend of mine got his TN45 (Trichy) Bolero to bangy over for a weekend. That night someone flicked the spare wheel. (Cut open the tiny lock with a hacksaw, may be...). Poor chap got a brand new bridgestone with a brand new RIM and a wheel cap and took it back to trichy, brought it back after a week, same spot, same story .

Now, he bought a used tyre and RIM from shivaji ngr gujri and always keeps it tucked between the 2 side seats...!!

[AlokSriva]

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

I consider it more difficult the other way round, and the dirty wheel should be less of a concern than a sprained back.

Exactly Doc-da.. was wondering why it wasn't brought up so far in almost 2 pages of discussion.

Having an under-body stepny is a definite boon. And there are covers which are available for the stepny too - not that it would be exposed to the forces of nature all the while. BTW, aren't tyres expected to be in the dirt/dust/muck at least on our roads? Why should the stepny receive a preferential treatment?

EDIT - IIRC, Lincoln said - handsome is what handsome does.

Don't understand why not having a spare wheel on tail gate of SUV reduce its SUV-ish-ness? And please, let's not talk about the GC being compromised in case of an under-body stepny

[anoopash]

Note from Mod : You have way too many spelling & grammatical errors in your posts. This negatively affects the forum experience for other members / guests.

You are hereby instructed to proof-read your posts prior to hitting the "submit" button. Thanks

[swiftnfurious]

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

OTOH, removing and refixing the underbody-mounted spare wheel is a piece of cake; I beg to disagree with your viewpoint Ajoy-da, about the underbody-mounted spare being difficult to remove / replace. I consider it more difficult the other way round, and the dirty wheel should be less of a concern than a sprained back.

How do we remove the spare tyre from the underbody ? The nuts also should be inside the tyre right ? So first we need to lift the car up with the jack and then get under the car [lying on your back] and then remove the nuts which bind the tyre in place?

Isnt it even more tedious ?? How could you keep the tyre in place when to keep the stepny in place since it is facing downwards and will slip downwards everytime you try to bolt the nuts? On the otherside for tail gate mounted tyres, you probably can place the tyre on the slots designed and then take your hands off and bolt the nuts.

I am not sure how these are mounted on both the type of cars [under body / tail gate]. So tips will be highly appreciated.

[n.devdath]

I do not feel that the rear wheel placed on the rear tailgate is the only feature that can be used to give them their character. There are other ways of making the rear look macho and stylish.

The rear wheels are mounted on the rear door since they get less dirty there, are easy to remove and mount and can be inflated easily. These are the only technical reasons that I can think of.