Has anyone replaced the space-saver spare in their Outlander at all? I personally don't feel that comfortable relying on a space-saver when I am out in a national park camping which is something we plan on doing more often due to the purchase of a camper trailer.


I have heard that there is an extender bar (aftermarket or comes with car?) that allows a full size wheel to go into the same bracket as the space-saver. It would make sense if it came with this as where are you going to put your full-size wheel once you have taken it off the car? To they expect you to hopefully leave enough room in the boot?


Hopefully someone who owns one of these cars can shed some light on this for me. I was thinking of trying to source a standard rim with suitable tyre, don't really care if it doesn't match the factory alloys.


Thanks

 

From what I can tell the problem would be with the tread width of a full size tire. The space saver spare has a skinny tread width and the bracket to hold the spare would need to drop down farther to hold the wider tread width.

I did some rough measurements on my ES model with the P215 tires on it and it looks like the tread width of them is about 4 inches wider than the spare.

One thing to keep in mind if you were able to find an extender for the bracket. Your full size spare would be much lower to the ground, and may reduce your ground clearance if you went off road.

The other alternative is to replace your tires with "run flat" tires, although this is an expensive option, since these can easily cost $300 - $400 per tire.

 

From some comments on articles, apparently it doesn't go lower than the muffler which is a good thing.

I am just wondering what Mitsubishi expect you to do with the wheel you remove from the car if you need to do a change. Normally you would put the damaged wheel into where the spare went. In this case do they expect you to just throw it into the boot if it doesn't fit?

 

I agree putting a dirty/muddy tire in the cargo area of your Outlander isn't a very appealing idea, not to mention you may not have the space if you have a bunch of luggage and camping gear back there. If ground clearance is not a problem then by all means try to find an extender kit. I've never heard of or seen one advertised. If you do find one, let us know on this forum where you bought it, and how well it works.

 

I wonder if there are any contraptions that would allow to carry a full size spare on the roof rails?

 

if you wanted to carry a full size up top for a temporary basis, you could always use dowl rods (wood rods) and zip tie them perpendicularto the rails...then set your tire on the dowl rods, then tie your tire to them. May not look the prettiest, but would get the job done.

 

Is there any 3rd party accessory to fix spare tire on tailgate, like one on Toyota RAV4?

 

I was thinking of this too. My brother-in-law has two spares at the back of his 4x4 (Patrol) and one is on an after-market wheel holder. The unit swings out to allow the door to be opened.

Problems with this is that it needs to fix to something secure. In his case they replaced the whole back bumper with a metal railing which it clipped into. Also the way the Outlander's tailgate opens would most likely interfere. It would have to be in a spot that doesn't stop it from folding down, something that would be very difficult.

 

You could get a Thule roof basket I've seen off road Truck use them for their spare tire before!
http://www.thule.com/en/CA/Products/...ets/37643.aspx

 

Well, the Outie has been purchased. Got a 2008 model with only 24,000 kms on the clock.

The dealer said that the full size wheel does fit under the car, it just sits lower. One of the salesman had taken one of them home at one stage and got a flat so had to swap over the wheel and stored the full size under the car.

The dealer is replacing the spare with a full-size one for us and also fitting the proper Mitsu towing hitch and will make sure they don't get in the way of each other for us.