Spare tires

[Guest Mark Golding]

Hi All just wondering why so many of the old cars had two spare tires? Does anyone know what the real story behind having two is?

Thanks

Mark G

[Richard Lichtfel]

Some of the early cars had a oversized tire in the rear, like my Peerless 34x4 front

35x4 1/2 rear. This was for the extra load in the 7 pass. touring cars. Later it became a style thing. Dual side mounts and such.

[Guest Silverghost]

The roads were dirt for the most part back in these days.

The tire rubber compounds were very soft and did not hold up very well~

There were horse-shoe nails from thrown shoes & glass all over the dirt roads etc.

Farmers were known to dump glass and tacks on the country roads because they did not like the automobiles as the noise scared their horses and other animals !

My 92 year old father used to tell of the family traveling from Philadephia to Atlantic City NJ for the weekends and it was not unusual to have at least two flats on this 100 mile trip one way !

Every trip in those days was an adventure !

Tires have come a long way since the early automobile years. In those days new tires did not last very long~

Very early autos often had more than two spares, extra tubes, unmounted tires etc for long trips !

A tire pump, jacks & blocks, two tire irons, tube patching kit, rim expnders , water & oil in cans etc.

All this was necessary for a successful trip !

As a result of these problems automobile clubs like the three AAA were formed to help stranded motorists .

Edited December 22, 2010 by Silverghost (see edit history)

[Guest Jim_Edwards]

Aside from some cars having two tire sizes, most probably had two spares because the tires and road conditions of the time were miserable and punctures of tubes were quite common. Getting from point A to point B across most of the country without suffering multiple flats was nothing less than a miracle before 1936 after which most all of the highways designated U.S. highways had become paved with either concrete or asphalt.

If you couldn't afford to buy a car with two spares you probably spent a lot of time on the side of the road patching inner tubes. That was the nature motoring life, which was certainly a lot more challenging then than now.

Jim

[Guest South_paw]

Roads? What roads? :D

[JFranklin]

Go take your hand air pump and do one tire to 70 psi and you might answer the question at hand.

[Restorer32]

We tend to forget that most cars pre 1930 or so spent most of their lives driving on dirt roads. We live near the only direct route from Harrisburg PA to Baltimore Md before the Interstate System. Even this heavily travelled road was only hard surfaced in 1921.

[jeff_a]

Southpaw,

Nice picture!

[Guest Silverghost]

My Gandparents street (Weymouth St.) that was within the Philadelphia city limits was only first paved in 1960 !

I remember it as a dirt road with 1 foot of bricks at the curb & gutter area !

North East Phladelphia was still considered " County" to most city folks. ;-)

[Guest cben09]

Dr Keenan of Roslindale Ma told me he had fitted his 2yr old Pierce a A-3-66 [1915] with the rear spare option,,in addition to the std sidemounts,,and they had on ONLY 2 occasions needed to break down a tyre/rim and patch a tube on the road,,,the car was maintaned for travel to summer cottage,,Boston to the White mountans,,Most quality cars had tyre pumps on the transmission til about 1930,,He owned the car til,,,,1960??? Heated storage all its life,,Yes I got to sit in it,,Memories,,,Ben,,p/s,, Locomobile claimed their car were better balenced w/the spares centrally located,,Pierce claimed 11" of upholstry to Loco's 10",,those were the days,,CB