everybodys favorite unseen abuse item

Ok so this I guess is only very mildly car related...actually just deals with 1 part everyone has seemed to use but nobody talks about...the space saver spare...aka donut tire...I regularly get 1 and put it on just to beat the crap out if it...I've gone about 1500 miles on many of them...and endured speeds of 80 to 85 mph for extended periods of time without fail....I just want to see if I'm alone in this sick little pleasure of destroying a tire that really wasn't that good to begin with brand new...or if there's more out there like me

Guess I am alone on this one...btw I've allready put 650 miles on the one I just started on last week....and a new high speed reccord...95 mph on the donut

is that like modern day evil knievel stuff :dunno:

I think its the fact that I have nothin better to do because I drive a lot and have to easy of access to donuts...its just fun to watch them melt away because it only takes me a few weeks to a month to get enough milage to kill one

I must be getting old, it sounds like a good way to have a crash.

I have raced around a wreckers yard in an old Datsun on space savers though, that was fun :)

I now have reached 1000 miles on the donut....and it still has a full 1/32 of tread left...so it lives on...for now..hehe....and a new top speed reccord of 100 mph for about 2 miles...I think that's as fast as I ever want to go on a tire that small....more updates as they come up.....don't be affraid to comment on what I'm doin...I actually havin fun with this and wonder what y'all think

I now have reached 1000 miles on the donut....and it still has a full 1/32 of tread left...so it lives on...for now..hehe....and a new top speed reccord of 100 mph for about 2 miles...I think that's as fast as I ever want to go on a tire that small....more updates as they come up.....don't be affraid to comment on what I'm doin...I actually havin fun with this and wonder what y'all think


I think your mad :runaround::runaround:


A couple if girls were killed in a crash here a few years ago that was attributed to the spacer saver tyre they had on.
Basically they kept driving like they still had a full level of grip, and spun at high speed into a tree.


I think the problem is they have quite a lot of grip, but when they break away it's not very progressive, instead they just let go off the road with a quick snap.

Would you agree, you've been doing a 100MPH on them :uhoh:

my concern is the other cars around you which might become unaware targets. i think its your choice to take chances of wrecking & njuring yourself. maybe i'm just really liberal

:runaround:

To let everybody know...my donut has been on the right rear of the car so if and when it does blow its more managble to control than to have it on an active drive/brake position...so I have considered safty....and I'm not throwin it into coners. On crouded public streets...mostly very rural country roads...and there's no real thril to tryin to corner that has a 2inch square contact patch on the road....its not autocross....if I did want to tear the donut up in less time I would have just autocrossed my car on 4 of them and watch them blow out after 3. Rounds....I'm just showing that when placed well on a car...the donut is perfectly fine as long as you don't do 100 like I did....and proper inflation is critical to the tire...so put it on the right rear and keep makin sure the pressure is set at 60 psi

Once, when I replaced most of the front suspension from the A frames out, I put two of those on the front and drove it for a couple of weeks until the high school auto shop could schedule a free alignment. Worked out pretty good and it reminded me of my high school days driving the '64 Chevy with huge near slicks on the back and regular tires on the front, but I never took it out of town or over 45.

I'm just proving that donuts are not delicate dainty little tires...they do function...and mine now has 1200 miles on it and still has tread....its all about keeping them at their reccomended pressure....like I said I'm not looking at this from a traction standpoint I'm looking at this more as a durability challenge...so ill keep you all posted until it finally gives out....by the way the donut started off brand new never used donut from the trunk of my 98 neon inflated to 60 psi....which I check the pressre twice a week

Dude, you're living on borrowed time. This is a perfect example of how things are built stronger than they need to be. There's a reason for speed limitations on tires.

I just hope that when you lose control from a donut failure at 100mph you don't hurt anyone else.

i dont do 100 every day...i did it once and that was plenty enough for me...my car mostly lives between 45 and 60 mph on a day to day use....i just did a couple of high speed runs to see if the tire would show any ill effects....like i said that keeping proper inflation is key to long term survival of the tire...at proper pressure the tire does not build up the heat and degrade as rapidly....it has not shown any unusual wear and has a reasonable contact patch which is a 2in square...so its not built to handle...but as far as duribility i would say that if you were on a long roadtrip with no place to get a new tire...like at night....as long as you put it on a non drive axle...like the rear on a fwd car and front on a rwd car it will be fine at 70 mph for the trip...the key...and this applys to your regular tires too is pressure pressure pressure...check it regularly and remember that the donut even when not in use can lose up to 10 psi in a year if left unchecked...so if you are driving a 2005 car with the donut unchecked in the trunk since the day you bought it...it could very well have 10 psi in it and be completely usless....and most donuts that fail are probably living in the 35 to 40 psi range where they have more friction and building up excess heat....i.e the ford firestone issue from about 12 years ago where they reccomended they be filled at 26 psi to give a comfortable soft ride and build up all kinds of heat...especially on a hot highway...tires will fail quickly like that....i had a friend of mine with a explorer of the vintage who brought the vehicle home and put the pressures to 35 psi and not only did the tires not fail but lasted a full 40,000 miles before they were worn out...sorry to go on such a long rant but air pressure has a lot to do with how a tire behaves

i dont do 100 every day...i did it once and that was plenty enough for me...my car mostly lives between 45 and 60 mph on a day to day use....i just did a couple of high speed runs to see if the tire would show any ill effects....like i said that keeping proper inflation is key to long term survival of the tire...at proper pressure the tire does not build up the heat and degrade as rapidly....it has not shown any unusual wear and has a reasonable contact patch which is a 2in square...so its not built to handle...but as far as duribility i would say that if you were on a long roadtrip with no place to get a new tire...like at night....as long as you put it on a non drive axle...like the rear on a fwd car and front on a rwd car it will be fine at 70 mph for the trip...the key...and this applys to your regular tires too is pressure pressure pressure...check it regularly and remember that the donut even when not in use can lose up to 10 psi in a year if left unchecked...so if you are driving a 2005 car with the donut unchecked in the trunk since the day you bought it...it could very well have 10 psi in it and be completely usless....and most donuts that fail are probably living in the 35 to 40 psi range where they have more friction and building up excess heat....i.e the ford firestone issue from about 12 years ago where they reccomended they be filled at 26 psi to give a comfortable soft ride and build up all kinds of heat...especially on a hot highway...tires will fail quickly like that....i had a friend of mine with a explorer of the vintage who brought the vehicle home and put the pressures to 35 psi and not only did the tires not fail but lasted a full 40,000 miles before they were worn out...sorry to go on such a long rant but air pressure has a lot to do with how a tire behaves



I think what your doing is very interesting, and it does prove a good point.

These tyres are clearly way over engineered, this just proves how well.
It also shows how proper tyre care is important if you want to pro long their life.
That's just as true for a proper road tyre as it is for a space saver.

thanks...i mainly came up with the idea of reporting my donut tire adventures because i have been trying to gather information on them and find very little information on them as far as reliability and lifespan....so i figured id report my donut adventures so it can show what you can do with one and that tire pressure is key to a long efficient lifespan of a tire...because when i do find news on donuts its usually the horror stories on how they have failed and led to some big crash....well ive probably burned up 20 donuts since ive been driving and am still here and alive with no crashes or incidents to speak of because of them....ive just always been taught about keeping check on a regular basis of ALL the tire pressures...donut included....and if this post has done anything at least i just hope it makes people think of it and check the pressure....and if i may add...just for awareness....everybody whos readin this...go check the pressure in your spare and post it up if you would be so kind....just intrested to see how many are under inflated..let me know if its a full size or a temporary spare

proper inflation on a full size spare should be no less than 32 and proper inflation on a temporary spare should be no lower than 50...and should be 60 but 50 will get you to where you can add air safely

I guess nobody is gonna humor me on this one....btw I'm at 1650 miles and tire has not shown anymore visible sign of wear in about 500 miles....its goodyears version of a spare...when this one dies I may just go to the junkyard and buyin diffrent brands of spares...like kenda and uniroyal and ect to try....as long as I can find them in a 14 in size I can. Mount them on my original donut rim and start burning through some of those too

I'm now at 2200 miles on the donut and the tread is starting to get a bit on the. Faint side....I'm guessin its probably only gonna last about another 400 miles before I'm deeming it unsafe because the tire will be too thin to stave off impacts and road debris....so I guess unless something drastic happens soon then I'm gonna say 2600 miles is gonna be the limit on how one last....so I've more than proven that one will last a long roadtrip in both speed and durability....anymore questions anybody has I will gladly answer...thanks for viewing this post

Is it still up?

Yes it is...and still very much in use...but I've stopped driving on the interstate for now till it does die...for safety...because it is getting really thin now...if people keep showing intrest in this ill keep testing diffrent brands. As well

3200 miles and its still goin

3200 miles and its still goin

You drive a LOT. But that is quite impressive that it has lasted that long.

Something I did once was replace my dampers on my track car with solid steel replacements while I revalved the dampers. Driving that thing around the lot was rough!

Lol I bet it was...spring 2012 I'm gonna break into some autocross with the lil neon...I've got a new set of dunlop direzza star specs on 2000 neon es snowflake alloys....but till then I've just been killin off the 14 inch tires that came with the car...and the first one died a while ago...so I threw the donut on and decided to have a little test that I could share with everybody here...since I found no info anywhere else online...I've done this many times before but this is the first time I've kept a running reccord of how far it last...by the way the donut tire is at 4000 miles and some change....and just about completely smooth....like racing slick smooth...so its commin off next week and a real tire is goin back on because since I live in the northeastern part of the country...winter is soon upon us

..since I found no info anywhere else online..
About 30 years ago Car and Driver magazine built 2 Datsun 200SX (aka Silvia) project cars..... one was a serious performance car attempt, and the other one was a tongue-in-cheek low-rider mod.

They used 4 space-saver tires on the low-rider, and got some good information and test results on them. Apparently the 50mph (80 km/h) speed limit we see on the sidewalls of these is present to:

maximize tread life,
Limit liability due to a crash due to their lower traction and performance specs.

These tires will not come apart at the higher speeds that most ordinary cars can achieve. High speed driving simply wears them out faster.

C/D also found them to be a significant fuel-economy aid and suggested that millions of gallons of fuel could be saved in the US each year if even a small portion of the population used a compact spare on their cars

yeah...but now vehicles like hybrids come with higher pressure low rolling resistance tires for the same reason...fuel economy...with much better traction then the good ole donut....but it is true 4 donuts probably would give a 25% increase in fuel economy