Waste of space saver more like

[Dand]

Late last night my mums C180 SC had a blow out which lead to a large split in the side wall of the tire(suspected faulty tyre). Luckily she was only traveling slowly and wasnt far from the house. Due to there being next to no light i decided to change the tire in the morning before taking it to get a new tire fitted. When i came to check the spare i found it was one of those space saver jobbies which you have to inflate with some silly compressor. After about half an hour of bu*gering about trying to get the compressor to work i decided to let it beat me and as i wasnt using my CLK today i got the proper spare wheel from that which solve the problem with ease which is exactly what you want in that situation.

This has got me thinking, whats the point in a space saver anyway. From the looks of it you can only use it once, you can only do 50mph on it which if your traveling on a busy motorway seems a bit dangerous to me. You have to use and carry a compressor incase you need it (why isnt it just inflated anyway). Imo if you need to use a spare the last thing you want to be doing is inflating it on the side of a busy road. its only good for around 100miles too which would be great if your traveling from Cornwall to Manchester overnight. Also by the time id got all the packing and cr@p out you could nearly fit a 205 size spare in the well anyway. Plus its not really creating extra boot space because in the cars my family have had with space savers all the junk we dont use often but is useful to by you has to be kept inside the actual boot and car, whereas with the cars with full sized spares you can hide those random bits inside the wheel in the well. Anyway Sorry for the rant but i had to get that off my chest.

 

[bingo999]

rant away i understand where you are coming from, i had a flat in the corsa 3 days after i bought it. no spare wheel and a phone call to the AA and it was sorted, now i have a spare wheel in the back garden if ever i need it as the corsa has no wheel well

 

[Dand]

Cheers Bingo Thats the thing, after trying to use a space saver i think id rather do without and have more boot space or even better a real spare, its confirmed to me its defiantly worth keeping hold of my standard Ronal's incase that happens again.

Its got my mum and i joking about sticking a full size spare on the roof like the old Porsche Dakar cars,lol.

 

[GP801]

Totally agree. The SLK has one of those useless ones you need to inflate - totally pointless. We carry a large can of sealant to use instead unless of course its a big hole. CLK at least has a useable but smaller spare. Old 124 has a full size alloy spare - much better. So much for progress.

 

[Dand]

Your not kiddin there. With the tread they have im surprised they are actually legal tbh. luckily the CLK i have has a black 5 spoke wheel (looks kind of cool in a barry/Mad Max kind of way) exactly the same size as the OEM wheels. Im going to look into sealent next time im at a motor store or something. i think the hole was beyond repair in this case tho. i wish i would of taken a picture of it now as it was 4" long if it dose turn out to be due to the tire being faulty im defiantly not buying or recommending Kuhmo's again in a hurry.

 

[camerafodder]

I have a space saver in mine. It remains fully inflated and I've used it 4 times in the last 3 years. Yes it's crap and makes the car look like an old Comma van but I wouldn't be without it. It will do way more than a 100 miles but just go steady on it.

 

[Stratman]

I always wondered where the car manufacturer intends the driver to put the punctured 305x19 wheel and tyre when the spacesaver is on.

 

[GP801]

The other problem with the SLK is that if you do have to use the silly blow up spare then it wont go back in the well unless you get all the air out of it again. Usually means taking it to a tyre place just to remove the air or the tyre wont collapse enough! Crazy

 

[markjay]

I think the inflatable tyre you are referring to is not actually called Space Saver?

The Space Saver is a real fully-inflated tyre, albeit much thinner than a usual tyre, to be used temporarily in case of a flat tyre. As such this type of Space Saver works perfectly well and is fit for purpose (though personally I would have preferred a full-size tyre as spare in any case - it simply gives you more options when rotating tyres etc).

Your inflatable affair however does sound like complete c**p....

 

[312 Sprinter]

I always wondered where the car manufacturer intends the driver to put the punctured 305x19 wheel and tyre when the spacesaver is on.

In the case of one car I saw a few weeks back you throw it on the front seat. Which leads to a filthy seat and PIRELLI in mirror image imprinted in the pale cream leather after it is left sitting in an airport car park like that for a few weeks. That leads to attempts to clean and Connolise the leather; attempts which aren't to the satisfaction of the owner.

That then leads to the car being retrimmed so everything matches perfectly and by the time the owner was fully satisfied you could have bought a cheap new car or a rather nice used one for the final cost of one puncture

 

[camerafodder]

It would seem that this aspect of the SLK is poorly thought out.

 

[GP801]

Considering that there is no room for a useable spare in the SLK dare I suggest runflats would have been a good idea

 

[camerafodder]

Couldn't you just inflate the punctured tyre with one of the numerous cans of hairspray that are inevitably to hand in an SLK?

 

[GP801]

Couldn't you just inflate the punctured tyre with one of the numerous cans of hairspray that are inevitably to hand in an SLK?

I was wondering who would come up with this one. Have to admit it is the wifes car but I do enjoy driving it. Definitely no hairspray on board. Not much hair either in my case.

 

[Dand]

I think i may have been a bit hasty when i was in rant mode as i suppose anything that can get you home is worth it. This one was pointless, the one we had in the s203 was an inflated space saver and that wasnt bad although it did lead to having a 245 covered in muck filling the boot. This uninflated one was a nightmare! God knows how someone is supposed to inflate it in and fit it on the side of a dark motorway if you ask me, I could understand if it was a sports car eg, SL or SLK or a supercar but the space that was being saved by having this silly wheel was wasted by fancy plastic trim to make it look nice which no one will hopefully see and is bothered about when it comes using a spare wheel. Il take some pictures of it when i get chance.

 

[The mallard]

Some years ago, a friend of mine bought a new Ferrari 355. A spare wheel was an optional extra at a cost then, of £1500. He asked he dealer what size it would be as the front and rears are different. The dealer did admit that even if he got one it was unlikely that a punctured rear tyre would even fit on the passenger seat, the nice immaculate white leather seat!!!!

He took out AA membership instead!!!

 

[IMR]

Couple of videos on youtube of the space saver (Vredestein Space Master) similar to that on the CL203:

Inflating

Deflating

 

[Dand]

Yeah, the space saver tire on it is a Vredestein, I take some of what ive said back as seeing it do that has impressed me. Im still miffed that the compressor didnt work and i still much prefer the idea of a proper full sized spare if there is room for one.

 

[Colin_b]

Considering that there is no room for a useable spare in the SLK dare I suggest runflats would have been a good idea

And there isn't enough space for the punctured wheel/tyre! I'm not sure what you are supposed to do with it, once its off the car!

 

[Burger]

Couple of videos on youtube of the space saver (Vredestein Space Master) similar to that on the CL203:

Inflating

Deflating

In fairness though he is inflating that with a high pressure air line and not with a silly little 12V compressor that would struggle to explode a fruit fly.