Anybody ever heard of "EZ Spare"

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hbquikcomjamesl

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 1, 2021
Messages
208
Anybody ever hear of these guys?
https://ezsparewheel.com/

I will note that if I calculate the theoretical outside diameter of my P205/55R16 tires, I get 24.878 inches, which matches the 24.9 inch outside diameter of the spare they show for a 2018 Leaf. Whereas, some other donut spares I've seen in my research show a significantly smaller overall diameter.

And it's supposed to be lighter in weight than a regular steel donut rim. Assuming it's any good.
 
hbquikcomjamesl said:
Anybody ever hear of these guys?
https://ezsparewheel.com/

I will note that if I calculate the theoretical outside diameter of my P205/55R16 tires, I get 24.878 inches, which matches the 24.9 inch outside diameter of the spare they show for a 2018 Leaf. Whereas, some other donut spares I've seen in my research show a significantly smaller overall diameter.

And it's supposed to be lighter in weight than a regular steel donut rim. Assuming it's any good.

Looks like a pretty nice spare at $270 but as the boot of my Leaf is already too cramped for my taste it would be a non-starter for me :)
 
LeftieBiker said:
I don't see how 35lbs plus the weight of the tire saves any weight.
Not sure where you're seeing "35 lbs plus the weight of the tire"; all I see is "30% lighter than the traditional steel donut spares."

My concern is that if it fails a test mounting, the "10-day money back guarantee" could be meaningless, depending on the cost of return shipping.

Some years ago, as part of renovations to my bathroom, I needed a new medicine cabinet. The kind that mounts entirely on the surface of the wall, below the mirror, with two sliding doors on the front. The kind that is virtually extinct today. Nothing wrong with the mirror itself, or the outer shell of the cabinet, but the entire interior was rusted out. On a rather confusing website called "homeclick," I bought what I thought was a new mirror with that type of medicine cabinet. What arrived was just the mirror. They were happy to supply me with an RMA number. Probably because they knew that as soon as I saw that I'd spend more on return shipping than I'd be getting back in the refund, the RMA number would never get used.

I ultimately ended up disassembling my mirror/medicine cabinet unit, cutting the rusted-out cabinet interior free, and fabricating a new interior from stainless steel (and I had to fabricate a crude bending brake in order to do it). And the mirror, still in the box it was shipped in, remains in my office to this day, a reminder to make damn sure I don't buy another expensive white elephant with an even more expensive return shipping cost.
 
Not sure where you're seeing "35 lbs plus the weight of the tire"; all I see is "30% lighter than the traditional steel donut spares."

35lbs was there in the specs for the rim. Once you put in the make/model info, this comes up:

Tire Size Diameter Weight Max psi Max Load Speed Rating
125/80R17 24.9” x 4.9” 35.5 lbs 40 psi 1390 lbs 55 mph
 
LeftieBiker said:
35lbs was there in the specs for the rim.

Oh, yes, of course. But given that the dimensions rather obviously include the tire, it seems likely to me that the weight also includes the tire.

But I've got an email out to the EZ Spare people, about the matter of return shipping in case I have to collect on the 10-day money-back guarantee. Along with the reason (i.e., the medicine cabinet story) why I'm paranoid about such things.

And I'll also note that when I made that cardboard test disk, to check for fit, I made it a full inch larger in diameter than the calculated outside diameter of a full-size tire, and the listed diameter of the donut. And so it should fit quite easily, standing on edge. I think I can come up with a stand for it, that will also keep the portable charger in place (the attach point for the portable charger bag on the side of the trunk seems to be more-or-less bovine scat).
 
Oh, yes, of course. But given that the dimensions rather obviously include the tire, it seems likely to me that the weight also includes the tire.

It states elsewhere that the rim is sold without a tire. I think that those specs that seem to be for a tire are actually a recommendation for what type of tire to use. Since tires don't all weight the same, I disagree that the 35lbs includes a tire.
 
I just heard back from one of the owners of the company. It is as I understood it; dimensions, weight, and price include the wheel and tire. And the purchaser is only liable for return shipping if the problem is something silly, like not being able to store it where you wanted to. Not if it simply doesn't fit when test-mounted.
 
I sit corrected. I don't know where it was I thought I saw that they were selling the rim without tire, but they do say in several places that they are including a tire. I should have taken more time to read more of the site. 35lbs still seems a bit heavy for a wheel with a tire that are smaller than OEM and not rated for normal use.
 
And assuming the 35 pounds includes the tire, the retail cost of return shipping (California to Georgia) drops by about $20-30 (for Parcel Post). Of course, even the numbers I was getting earlier (over $120) weren't nearly as ridiculous as that damn bathroom mirror. (Ever since then, there's been a Post-It Note on my computer screen, with the name of the vendor from that fiasco. Just to remind me [1] not to do business with that vendor, and [2] to always consider the possibility of having to send a purchase back.

I figure I'll be able to buy the thing sometime in June. Assuming I don't hear anything bad about them between now and then.
 
I've now built a plywood trunk rack, and it's in primer, with bolt holes drilled (but not yet countersunk) to bolt it down where the silly little hook for the bottom of the portable charger bag had been bolted.

trunk rack in primer by James Lampert, on Flickr

The portable charger bag will go on the left side of the partition, and the donut (EZ Spare or otherwise) will hang on the right side.

*******

Monday evening: countersunk the bolt-holes (having picked up some black-finished 6mm flathead Allen screws at McFadden-Dale on my lunch break), and then spot-primed them, and then shot a thin second coat of primer on the underside, to seal the dust from sanding the first coat.

Applied the first finish coat after dinner.

Also applied touch-up paint (now that I have some) to the hole I'd drilled for my "Flap Ajar" indicator wire. With 2 coats of cold-galv and a coat of touch-up paint, that hole is an extremely tight fit on my homemade grommet. Also put a coat of touch-up paint on the Gorilla Tape holding the wire as it passes through the door jamb.

*******

Wed., 5/19/2021:
The trunk rack now has its second finish coat. Still looks like painted plywood, but it looks much better now. Third coat Friday evening. Another picture when it's installed (probably not until Sunday afternoon). No actual hanger for the spare until I have a spare to hang on it, though, since that will have to be designed around the spare itself, with both the spare and the rack actually in the trunk.
 
The car no longer smells like latex paint fumes, so I would imagine the four coats on the rack are now cured.

I ordered myself a jack, 2 pair of wheel chocks, and some grip clips to secure my lug wrench (and maybe the jack handle) to the rack.

Then, after due deliberation and diligence, and verifying that the appropriate mounting hardware for the vehicle does indeed come with the EZ Spare donut, I ordered one.
 
That, of course, depends on how much it outgasses, and for how long.

The paint fumes were pretty thick, that first day. But they tapered off. And the plasticizers found in "the hyde of a nauga" could be worse than the rubber.
 
It arrived today (after UPS had lost track of it for a few days). Too late for me to test-install it on my lunch break.

EZspare-1 by James Lampert, on Flickr

I was pleasantly surprised: it came with a canvas carry-bag. And the fittings to customize it to a specific lug pattern and hub profile are pre-installed, and unlikely to fall off spontaneously.

If it actually works as advertised, it's a tremendous piece of engineering.
 
I started working on a fixture (a "dummy hub") to secure my new spare to the trunk-rack I built. I bought a set of 5 lugs and a small piece of red oak 1x8 on Friday, and by Sunday (my birthday), I was test-fitting it to the rack (at which point I got the end of my left thumb stuck between the hub and the rack while driving a drywall screw with a drill motor. Subungual hematomas are not fun, but thankfully this one is very minor).

I'm using a dummy hub with a full set of 5 lugs because the spare takes different lugnuts (taller and narrower) than the normal wheels, and so those lugnuts have to be stored somewhere. And red oak because it's hard enough for wheel lugs to anchor themselves in.

I now have 2 coats of primer and a coat of paint on the thing.
 
I finished my trunk rack this afternoon: installing the finished dummy hub to secure the spare, and a bracket to store the wheel chocks, and adding a strap to secure the jack, because I could hear it rattling just a bit. The strap (compound leverage velcro, like on laceless sneakers, wraps around a pin I made from parts of a door hinge) is visible near the top of the jack; the dummy hub is just visible, on the opposite side, secured with the three screws above the lug wrench (color-coded blue to fit the normal lug nuts, red to fit the slightly narrower ones for the spare). The yellow-and-black thing hung in a blue tube is the ratcheting handle that came with the jack, and potential rattle points are padded with black adhesive-back craft foam.

trunk rack finished by James Lampert, on Flickr

And here it is, back in the trunk, with the spare mounted to the dummy hub. You can see the portable charging unit on the left of the rack, and a stack of four wheel chocks are nested atop a shaped bracket to the right of the spare.

trunk rack installed 3 by James Lampert, on Flickr | trunk rack installed 4 by James Lampert, on Flickr
 
Nice job! The setup isn't for people who want maximum cargo space, but I'm sure that you can sell them to people who want the security of having an easily accessible spare tire.
 
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