Thank you Toyota

[Enigma]

Some of you may have read previously about my exciting Monday morning, where my 81 would not start due to gelled fuel, and then the Sienna had a flat tire.
Well today at work the phones, and that very same tire had blown out, luckily mere meters from the house. With the help of some neighbours, they were able to get it in front of the house at least. Pretty lucky, as this could have been nasty if it had happened farther from home.
But the point of this message is to give thanks for the engineering design of the Sienna, or more exactly, its spare tire.
It has a full size spare, mounted underneath the back end, which my immediate reaction was "ughh"! But upon further inspection, all one has to do to release the tire is to lift the carpet up in the back hatch area, and there is an exposed nut there, that when cranked using the factory tire iron, gently lowers the spare to the snow covered ground by a cable. No clunky rod to extend through a hole, no climbing underneath a cold wet vehicle.
Its just perfect.

Thank you Toyota.


Now only if my 81's underslung spare was that easy, but it is not.

 

[canucksafari]

Our Villager had the same set-up. You will grow to hate it after a few winters, as it is a perfect place for a tire rim to get sand blasted and then rust. Best design is a enclosed box accessed from inside the back.

 

[Granite Grinder]

Our Sienna has a little bitty spare tire, which is apparently located under the van, behind the passenger side seat (or below the sliding door). I can't see it from underneath, nor can I find the release for it. Can you say "BCAA".
GG

 

[brownbear]

In my wifes 80 I keep the tire underneath. It's safer. In event of an accident its safely slung underneath and cannot come loose and fly thru the vehicle. Lots of incorrectly stored spare tires in car trunks kill passengers according to my dad who spent 20 yrs as a highway cop in ontario. So I don't risk it.

Instead I lower ty to lower it in the summer and clean it good, then oil the hoist.

My bj60 hoist died long ago, now the tire sits on my roof rack getting sun damage....oh well.

 

[sdtash]

Our Sienna has a little bitty spare tire, which is apparently located under the van, behind the passenger side seat (or below the sliding door). I can't see it from underneath, nor can I find the release for it. Can you say "BCAA".
GG

Dont you hate that type of spare tyre. Nice if ur miles from know where. May have t carry 2 of them.

 

[d0ubledown]

Our Sienna has a little bitty spare tire, which is apparently located under the van, behind the passenger side seat (or below the sliding door). I can't see it from underneath, nor can I find the release for it. Can you say "BCAA".
GG

ours too. its an '04. what year is yours jeff? i didnt think passenger cars these days carried full size spares..

 

[Enigma]

ours too. its an '04. what year is yours jeff? i didnt think passenger cars these days carried full size spares..

Ours is a 2002. I was quite shocked to see a full size spare myself.

 

[toynut]

my wifes 06 Nissan Xtrail has a full size spare mounted on factory alloy.