victorcharles

My 94 Z28 has 2004 Z6 wheels on it, they were on it when I purchased it from the previous owner. Picture below. 295/35ZR18's on the back running NITTO INVOs tires. Fronts are 235/45R17s, running Federal Super Steels. All tires are essentially brand new. They look nice enough for sure, but I also wanted a stock set of wheels and tires. I particularly wanted some for an upcoming road trip which is approx 900 miles round trip. I puchased a set of OEM original stock wheels, pretty rough and have been restoring them, but they are not going to be done in time for my road trip so I am going to have to go on the Corvette wheels. I don't expect any problems but would be unwise not to be prepared for a flat or some road hazard that blows out a tire. Then it occurred to me that the Z6 wheels might be mounted with spacers or whatever, so this morning I went out to change one. No spacers, wheels fit as is. I did snap off one stud when trying to remove the locking lug nut on one wheel, so right rear will only have 4 lugs. Spare has probably never been on the ground and looked like it, but was out of air, I pressured it up to 40 lbs and it seemed to hold. Still, I took it to Discount tire to have them air it up to the required 60 lbs and they wouldn't touch it because it was more than 10 years old. OK, no-brainer, can't make a trip with no spare, so a new 'temp' spare mounted is $85 bucks. My question is, should I have a problem, with any of the current 4 tires, how far could I go reasonably go on the new spare? Trip is through some unpopulated areas and could at times be 80 miles from next town (and they are small towns at that). Not to mention the lop-sided driving? Thanks for taking time to read my post.
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Injuneer

If you have to put the spare on, you have to use it only on the front, because it is appreciably smaller than the rear tire diameter. A blowout in the back requires you to move a front tire to the back. If you put a smaller diameter tire on one side in the rear, and drive it any distance, you can damage the limited slip rear.

With identical wheel/tires on all 4 corners, it easy to move the spare to the front and a front wheel to the back. With your staggered wheel tire setup, with different diameter front (25.3") and rear (26.1") tires, it's going to be a problem if a rear tire blows out.

victorcharles

Thanks for the reply...if I were to have an unexpected blow out in the back on some deserted highway, in my frustration it is not likely I would have thought to put a front one on the back and the spare on the front...good advice and I appreciate it.

CynthiaDuff

Agreed with Injuneer, the diameters measurements are crucial. The management of front and back is an important step here, though I also had a little less knowledge about it, but the post by him made it clear. Thanks.