Has anyone taken those donut spare tires off of the rims and mounted narrow 15" tires on the donut wheels? The spares that I have are 15"x4" wheels. If I remember right, the old vw's and volvo's used to have 165x15" tires.

yes, but tires machines at the local stores will not be able to do so, the valley of the rims are not deep enough to grab with most tire machines.

Has anyone taken those donut spare tires off of the rims and mounted narrow 15" tires on the donut wheels? The spares that I have are 15"x4" wheels. If I remember right, the old vw's and volvo's used to have 165x15" tires.

 

Yes I have and some of my friends have used them actually mounted used outback tires on them. They worked great for us but many will tell you that they really aren't meant for on road use. I personally used the spares from a 2Wd which are 14" and I beat the crap out of them for at least 3 years and then I sold the car. They never failed me in any way. I put some dents in them but you would have dented normal rims the way I treated them! But again they are not supposed to be used on the road.

I have personally seen donut wheels bent like pretzels in "normal" use (offroading, rallyX. beyond just driving on the street, but well within the limits of a stock wheel).

I have personally seen donut wheels bent like pretzels in "normal" use (offroading, rallyX. beyond just driving on the street, but well within the limits of a stock wheel).

 

Hmmm, I guess we just got lucky, I have a friend with a 1980 Gen 2 Wagon that he had the 15" spares on and he really betas the hell out of his cars. I've seen that car do things that I never believed a Subaru could do and he only dented the bead a couple times...easy fix...never bent any though

yep, bent one on an '88 hatch doing fairly light wheeling (well...still pretty impressive compared to a stock rig, but nothing compared to what it's done since the chevy 6-lugs). and the ice racing one was an impreza using EJ spares. slid sideways into a snow bank, and both passenger side wheels where wedged against the brake calipers, the car wouldn't even roll....even bent the caliper brackets a bit.

donut spares steel are thinner then regular rims and the inner bead has no bead lock bump they are smooth