Kevin11

Hi all,

Looking for any thoughts/advice regarding what could be used for a spare wheel and jack for my '72. My car is for sure a weekend cruiser, not really used for long distance trips, etc. so I'm never terribly far away from home (carrying a full size spare isn't as important). I do have the full size spare and the factory bumper jack, but I'm looking to "convert" to a donut and scissors jack for a few reasons:

• The tire on the spare is ancient and I don't trust it even if I needed it
• Both the wheel/tire and jack are heavy, and take up a lot of trunk real estate
• Originality of retaining the spare wheel/bumper jack in the trunk isn't that important to me (I'll still keep 'em in the garage though)
• I don't want to deform or otherwise mar my bumper with the bumper jack, if ever needed

As part of this project, I'd make a custom foam retaining "block" to hold it all that still uses the loop in the trunk floor. My tentative plan is this:

Jack
I'd like to use an aluminum* scissors jack. A buddy of mine mentioned that a Nissan 300ZX came with an aluminum jack, but the lift height may not be high enough; does anyone know of any other OEMs that had aluminum?
*aluminum--light as possible

Wheel
Using a 15x4 or 17x4.5 drag from wheel, probably one of the two Jegs SSR offerings:
https://www.jegs.com/i/JEGS/555/681252/10002/-1
https://www.jegs.com/i/JEGS/555/681291/10002/-1

Tire
This is where I'm struggling. I'd like to find a "real" street tire as opposed to a temporary-specific or a drag racing front tire. Not surprisingly, I'm having a heck of a time finding something suitable for a 4-4.5" wide wheel and is ~27" in outer diameter.

I appreciate anyone's thoughts!

Fun71

I have a Craftsman scissor jack in my Cutlass and it works well, but I really like the factory jack in my Jeep Wrangler. It’s similar to a small bottle jack but has worm gears instead of hydraulics. It is compact, light, very easy to operate, and has enough extension to lift the Jeep’s 32” rear tire off the ground when placed under the axle tube.

Based on the above I would recommend getting a compact factory jack as opposed to an aftermarket one. It seems the factory ones are easier to operate and are more rugged.

oldcutlass

The weight savings and space savings difference is not that much. Put a new tire on the spare and pickup a cheap floor jack.

Kevin11

Yeah, that's what I'm leaning toward (an OEM one from some other vehicle). It stands to reason that a factory one likely had to go through more vigorous testing for liability's sake than an aftermarket one.

And thanks for the tip on the Wrangler jack...I'll have to investigate and see what they're all about.

joe_padavano

Aluminum is only 1/3 the stiffness of steel. Many parts of a scissor jack are stiffness-driven, not strength driven, so aluminum won't be appreciably lighter. The neatest OEM jack I've found is the one in the late 80s and early 90s H-body cars (Delta 88, Bonneville, etc), which are small, have good lift height, and come with a convenient plastic storage box. As for the spare, frankly, if you're "never terribly far from home", then just get the donut spare from a 1980s B-body. These had a dual bolt pattern wheel (4.75" and 5" bolt patterns) so the same spare could be used in Deltas, Custom Cruisers, and Ninety Eights (as well as the equivalents in other divisions). Of course, if you have anti-spin, then matching the OD of your rear tires is very important for any distance over a couple of miles.