Various wheel questions.

1. Are the 17" wheels interchangeable with other Skoda models?

2. What is the pitch circle diameter (PCD) and offset on the 17" Dolomites?

3. What is the diameter (wheel and tyre) of the 16" spacesaver spare?

4. What is the diameter (wheel and tyre) of the 17" Dolomite?

I'm coming around to the thought that a spare wheel maybe useful and then wondering whether there is an 80mph rated spacesaver out there that would fit.

tom

1. Interchangeability depends on model and year of Skoda...

2. PCD 112

3. Dollies are as per 2. above

4. Look that up from brochue

In my past 2 cars, I've ditched the space saver and used a full size wheel. Extra space taken in boot is negliable.

Never come across a 80mph space saver. Buy a full size wheel mate

I thought spacesavers were 80kph - i.e. 50mph ?

I've ordered a fullsize spare - I presume this will have a full speedrated tyre ?

re: 3. What is the diameter (wheel and tyre) of the 16" spacesaver spare?

4. What is the diameter (wheel and tyre) of the 17" Dolomite?

If I was to measure across the wheel and tyre what would it be? I would expect it to be between 20 and 24 inches. I doubt this is in the brochure!! (I couldn't find it)

80mph space saver?

see: Are space-savers safe? | Auto Express News | News | Auto Express

and scroll down a bit.

tom

Interesting Pg19 in brochure (09/09) describes it as "Full size steel or space saver spare wheel".

So what is it SUK? full steel or space saver???? Perhaps model dependant.

Dollies seem to be 7Jx17" 225/50 R17 94W for the SE spec

This url should help calculate wheel diameters...

Tire size calculator

Interesting Report by Auto Express. For the expense and hassle easier to buy a full size spare. Why risk anything else if you can help it !

Edited 13 November, 200916 yr by mrlapou

I thought spacesavers were 80kph - i.e. 50mph ?

I've ordered a fullsize spare - I presume this will have a full speedrated tyre ?

Ordered my SE spec Snow-monster with the spare, came with a 195/60/R16 H, which has a speed limit sticker on it for 50mph/80kph (Note: this is still classed as a full size spare, one of those skinny tyres that VW fit is a space saver, although I think Skoda sometimes refer to a reduced size wheel & tyre as a space saver).

There is no option for a 'same size as fitted' spare available for the Yeti.

Hope that helps.

Plumber -are you saying your spacesaver is a 195/60 profile? That seems near enough to a full size wheel to me, so why the 50mph/80kph restriction?

My Passat estate is 195/65 15 and I'm thinking of keeping the spare when it goes in for Scrappage. The PCD is the same I just need to check the offset.

tom

Passat MY 00>

PCD 5x112

Offset 35 to 42

Bore 57.1

So be sure to check the bore to. Not sure how to do this other than measure.

Seems most modern VW Audi Skoda & Seats cars/small MPVs share the same bore.

I am a little confused! If one takes the option of a full sized spare, what size is that and does that have a speed restriction?

Ordered my SE spec Snow-monster with the spare, came with a 195/60/R16 H, which has a speed limit sticker on it for 50mph/80kph (Note: this is still classed as a full size spare, one of those skinny tyres that VW fit is a space saver, although I think Skoda sometimes refer to a reduced size wheel & tyre as a space saver).

There is no option for a 'same size as fitted' spare available for the Yeti.

Hope that helps.

I am a little confused! If one takes the option of a full sized spare, what size is that and does that have a speed restriction?

Like The Plumber, I too have the spare wheel option at 16". I am assuming the speed restriction is because you would have one wheel (the spare) at 16" and the other three wheels at 17".

"I am assuming the speed restriction is because you would have one wheel (the spare) at 16" and the other three wheels at 17".

But this seems to say they are virtually the same overall diameter!

Tire size calculator

tom

Hopefuly this won't happen to anyone - but - if you did get a puncture with a 17" tyre, and you put on the Skoda provided skinny 16" wheel/tyre combo...... where does the full size punctured 17" wheel/tyre go ....???

Will if fit into the tyre well - or cause the boot floor to come up an inch???

Thks

Graham

Yeti SE and Elegance are fitted with 225/50/R17 94W

Spare is a 195/60/R16 89H.

These are obviously two totally different tyres in size profile side wall strength etc.

They may only be about 1.5 mph rotational speed difference at about 60 mph between the two sizes but remember you are putting odd wheels & tyres on the same axle.

Therefore it would be irresponsible of Skoda not to put restrictions and warnings on the use of a 'reduced size' spare wheel.

The terms manufactures use for spares can be very misleading, as technically the Yeti's spare is a full size wheel and tyre but used in this context it's a 'space saver' as far as Skoda are concerned.

Edited 13 November, 200916 yr by The Plumber
missed a word out

Normally when one buys a car, the spare is the same size and design as all the others fitted to the car unless it is of a space saver type. Now it appears that Skoda are saying that you can opt for a full sized spare other than none at all or a space saver except that the full sized spare is not a full sized spare at all so we are imposing a speed limit on it! :eek:

Why don't they just give the option of just purchasing a full sized replica of what the car is fitted with , end of story? I presume that one can buy single wheels to match all of the others?

I would just like to have 5 wheels all equal. Personally I would be happy if I had 5 steel wheels to go on the 170 that I intend to order, Im not too fussed abut style or bling. Function and convenience is the main thing. I understand, correct me if I am wrong, that if one intends to fit snow chains, then another size of steel wheel has to be purchased as an accessory. I am not sure why that might be so because their appears to be adequate clearance, that is when I had a superficial look at the show room.

Edited 13 November, 200916 yr by Anthony 1

So, please tell me - anybody - when was the last time you had snow chains on your car?

I'll pipe in first: In 48 years of motoring in both Europa and the United Bluff . New England and Chicago - Never.

Edited 14 November, 200916 yr by Agerbundsen
typo

Unlike the majority of people with this type of vehicle, I will be driving it off road every day of the week without exception, this is not a Chelsea Tractor for me.. I live in West Wales on a remote hill top farm, while I do have normal cars, we have usually full blooded offroad vehicles to rely on. My access tracks are about one mile each way they are not made up. One track crosses open fields with no hard surface for much of the way. In the winter the fields can get very boggy and slippery and it is up hill most of the way to get out so it is very easy to get stuck. On the down hill track, it just resembles a bridle-way which one third of it is, it is rock-strewn for some of its length and mud filled in other parts. Years ago before we improved access to a more acceptable level, we had to rely on a Mercedes UNIMOG to guarantee getting in and out as Landrovers just bottomed out not having enough ground clearance or grip. Fortunately it is not that bad anymore but it is still in the country. The roads when they are accessed can be snow bound with heavy snow at some times of the year. Snow chains are a very effective way of clawing out of mud, clay and wet grass and they are very useful in compacted snow or ice. I understand that alpine roads still also might legally require snow chains at certain times of the year. I have friends in Scotland who use snow chains every year in the winter months on their landrover on normal roads as they still get very heavy snow up in the the highlands.

I do have a Volvo TGB C304 TGB13 6x6 and other 4x4 vehicles and a tractor for emergencies however. In any case regardless of my personal situation I do not find it unreasonable to expect to be able to fit snow chains on any car let alone a 4x4 even if it is only a soft-roader, without having to purchase additional wheels. Its a pain for me that they also choose rims sizes that do not have a comprehensive range of tyres or at least offer them as an option. Its bad enough that manufacturers are taking it upon themselves not to fit spare wheels as standard equipment. I always thought that a spare fit for the purpose was a legal requirement but that must not be the case these days perhaps the law might have changed as BMW have been avoiding fitting them in some models for a number of years now. However they do go to the trouble of fitting run flat tyres with stiff side walls to prevent the tyre collapsing. I do not think that squirting gloope in tyres will prevent blow outs or keep the tyre inflated once the side wall has become damaged should it become penetrated by a nail or blackthorn for instance.

Anthony, as you describe you plase of abode. you comments are absolutely spot on - for you. I also agree that a spare should be a spare, not goop and hot air, although it is 8 years since I last had the need for one.

On public roads - gravell like in Scandinavia and surfaced elsewhere. a set of decent witer tyres without studs do just fine. Crossing the Alps in winter may need the chains or a few hours wait for the plows to come through.

The Chelsie Lads can drive slicks all year round.

Their is an ever increasing trend these days for cars to have ever wider slick type tyres with more tread and even less void in mimicry of F1 and other race type tyres. The results in heavy rain are an increasing tendency towards aquaplaning in torrential rain and pools of standing water and sliding about in winter snow or mud. Wide tyres generally give poor traction as you know in these conditions while narrow tyres give the best results having more bite particularly if they have more aggressive tread and softer compounds. Also the tendency for low profile tyres adds to this deficiency.

I absolutely agree with you concerning fitment of winter tyres. I believe that in GB that they should be a mandatory fitment as I believe that they might be in some other EU countries during the winter months. Regardless of the small amounts of snow that falls in this country. This is because of the softer and superior tread patterns that maintain grip on cold slippery roads. In the past I have experimented with rally forest stage and grass track tyres, legal and E marked I might add. The traction that these afford in snow and mud is nothing short of incredible even on two wheel drive vehicles. They allow full acceleration on snow bound roads with no noticeable slippage and allow confident cornering on the very narrow B, C and unclassified roads here. I can really recommend them. Also they are available in several compounds including soft medium and hard, even the hard being more sticky than normal road tyres. The only disadvantage being that they do not last as log as normal tyres but my last set cost about £25 each being remold types. I believe that studded tyres can be used in some countries but they are not legal in GB and unless one lived in Scotland they would probably wear out very quikely as the rest of GB only gets snow for short periods these days unlike the days of my distant childhood

I should imagine that every one in the Northern EU, particularly those in Scandinavian countries must find our antics here in GB hilarious. It is amazing how such small amounts of snowfall cause such chaos here! Huge queues of traffic manage to become stuck for long periods of time and over night, even on our motor-ways because of inappropriate tyres and the lack of driving experience in winter conditions. Even here in Wales, in the hills where driving ability in these conditions might be expected to be higher, people are constantly caught out. What is worse, few of these people are equipped to stay out over night in their cars. My wife driving to and from the hospital where she works, some 20 miles each way had no problems with winter conditions even though teams of tractors were making very a profitable time pulling cars up the hills, £50 a car up a particular hill which is not even very steep and on many other hills around here also. People either payed up or were left stranded unless they had the traction that is and then they had to battle against the frustrated drivers who had been waiting hours for their turn to be chained up behind a tractor, literally, they jumped in front of any car that had traction and was able to progress. The thing that most people do not realize and I am confident that your not one of those, is that forward progression and traction is not all that one needs to be concerned about but also steering and stopping.

Anthony, as you describe you plase of abode. you comments are absolutely spot on - for you. I also agree that a spare should be a spare, not goop and hot air, although it is 8 years since I last had the need for one.

On public roads - gravell like in Scandinavia and surfaced elsewhere. a set of decent witer tyres without studs do just fine. Crossing the Alps in winter may need the chains or a few hours wait for the plows to come through.

The Chelsie Lads can drive slicks all year round.

Some bits of information from my chat with the dealer about wheels:

I'm getting 16" rims in any case as it's an 'S', however they are alloys and the spare is steel so it (I'm told) would still be sensible to limit speed. I may at some stage buy a 'spare' alloy, but suspect for purposes of simplicity it is far easier to offer everyone a steel spare for 50 quid which can always be swapped out later.

Apparently there is supposed to be some sort of agreement between European manufacturers that cars should not come with a spare as standard - so that there is a level playing field with regard to comparing boot sizes and so on. This may well just be for the manufacturers' convenience rather than ours, but that wouldn't be a first would it.

I'm interested in the discussion about winter tyres and snow chains. Consensus in this thread seems to be that winter tyres are definitely worth while (for rural areas especially) whereas chains are not (except in very particular areas.)

Anthony, you make a very good point about steering and stopping. 4WD really does not help that at all. In the past when I lived in the Chicago area for some years, it was hilarious to see that there were a very large proportion of 4WD vehicles in the ditch - people just did not realize that while they could drive in deep snow, they did not have any better brakes or steering with the 4WD.

Winter tyres are not just for the snow, they offer additional grip in the cold as the tyres have a softer more compliant compound and will grip on ice better than standard tyres. Winter tyres also have tread that has been designed to grip snow covered roads and to help clear slush they will shed water and will be less prone to aquaplaning.

Four wheel drive vehicles are just as prone to sliding off the road as any other vehicle. The 4x4 system mainly adds traction in a forward direction but they of course will add some traction under negative acceleration , that is with a lifted accelerator peddle. It could be argued that 4x4 vehicle can more easily slide off the road because of the false sense of security that they provide and that any driven wheel will tend to corkscrew outwards of any bend. That is front driven wheels tend to cause understeer and rear driven wheels tend to cause oversteer. Of course modern electronic aids counter these tendencies some what. Still winter tyres will offer a greater level of steering response, traction and breaking than ordinary road tyres. As I have said above I believe that they should be a mandatory legal requirement during the winter months for saftey reasons regardless of weather one lives in the country or a town, its not just about being stuck or not.

I do not know what to do about a spare tyre. It seems pointless buying a spare in my view that one cannot drive on in the normal way while puncture gloop only works for small punctures and then only if the puncture conveniently goes through the tread. If the side wall is damaged it will not work. I would like to buy a full sized spare and as long as that is easily retrofitted along with the wheel retainer, thats what I most likely will do. I would still like some more discussion about the possibilities and options. that is if other wheels will fit from other vehicles, then that would give a greater option and one could buy used wheels from a breaker or off E bay for instance. Ideally I would have two sets of wheels one fr normal or summer use and one fo the winter months, its better than changing tyres on and off the rim. the other thing ois for those who like to keep rims in good conditions for show, not that Im too concerned about that but road salt will deteriorate the finish on the rims far faster so a set dedicate to winter use would preserve the main set.

Chains are really mainly for continuously adverse conditions as once found in this country when I was much younger. winters have been producing less and less snow since then. I do suspect that that might change, I am not totally sold on global warming we have tended to have cold and warm interglacial periods for thousands of years, one large volcano eruption cold easily bring back heavy snow falls for a few years. Chains are good in an emergency or if one travels frequently in areas of high snow fall. They are very good in the mud as well.

As we become ever closer with Europe, motoring regulations are becoming more standardized across the EU. Perhaps a legal requirement for carrying a spare has not been the case in other EU countries so that might be why we do not apparently need one now. I am quite happy to accept homogeneous EU regulations but I wish that they would be given greater publicity when changes from our norm are accepted!

Some bits of information from my chat with the dealer about wheels:

I'm getting 16" rims in any case as it's an 'S', however they are alloys and the spare is steel so it (I'm told) would still be sensible to limit speed. I may at some stage buy a 'spare' alloy, but suspect for purposes of simplicity it is far easier to offer everyone a steel spare for 50 quid which can always be swapped out later.

Apparently there is supposed to be some sort of agreement between European manufacturers that cars should not come with a spare as standard - so that there is a level playing field with regard to comparing boot sizes and so on. This may well just be for the manufacturers' convenience rather than ours, but that wouldn't be a first would it.

I'm interested in the discussion about winter tyres and snow chains. Consensus in this thread seems to be that winter tyres are definitely worth while (for rural areas especially) whereas chains are not (except in very particular areas.)

Knowing the size of the spare (195/60/R16 89H. -thanks Plumber), is it reasonable to assume that any 195 wheel and tyre (that fits the car) will fit in the space allocated?

If a full size "proper" wheel and tyre is used as a spare (225/50 R17 say on a Dolomite alloy) would it stick 20cm higher in the well in the boot?

As Grahamar said

"Will if fit into the tyre well - or cause the boot floor to come up an inch???"

Next time someone has to take off a wheel would they try it please? (and a photo!)

tom

I don't think it has ever been a legal requirement to carry a spare in the UK. The only law I'm aware of is that if you do have one it must be a legal spare, i.e. have the correct tread depth.

I'd agree with all the comments about Winter tyres though. I've always been surpirsed there isn't a requirement for them in this country.

I just ammended my order, from a free can of Tyreweld to the space saver wheel.

I originally thought the boot space gain/weight saving outweighed the risk of a puncture - plus I'm tight and paying £50 quid for a spare I thought was a bit silly.

However I've now realised that finding a breakdown service in this part of NE Scotland (outside Aberdeen City) that can put the Monster on its back to carry it home should the tyre get badly damaged is a) quite low involves waiting an awful long time.

SWMBO's Clio broke down last week and the "AA service" (aka service delivered by a local garage), took two hours to get to her even though she was 15 miles from the City & lone female and all that....!!

So now my thinking is that at least having the wheel in the boot means there's a chance the wheel can get changed, (by someone!) and she can get home - albeit at 50MPH.

Oh and when the Monster arrives it's going to be re-shod with Winter tyres with the Summer ones going in the Shed till June - when the Weather might be warmer!!

Graham

The choice offerings for the Yeti concerning wheel tyres spare are not very good I feel. I will buy without the spare but will try to find the on the internet of the same type as fitted to the rest of the vehicle. This will mean that a change of wheel due to a puncture will not be penalized with a lower speed limit.

You could teach your wife or other females in the household how to safely change a wheel. My wife, a Health Care Professional can and she has changed Landrover size wheels and bigger for years even at night in, poor weather. She even went to night school for simple maintenance for cars and can check all the usual stuff like brake fluid, radiator windscreen wash and all the other things that many of us take for granted.

North Scotland is not a place to be hanging around for very long in the winter months. It is not very pleasant here either and we have similar long waits for AA/RAC etc.

By the way you could have a product pumped into your tyres that would seal any puncture immediately so long as it was in the tread and not the side wall.