THE SPARE WHEEL.

Putaruru Press, Volume VII, Issue 277, 28 February 1929, Page 7

THE SPARE WHEEL.

“A LIFE OF INDOLENCE.” A life of indolence is bad for all of us, and my heart often goes out to the spare wheel of the modern car (writes a correspondent in the Autocar). Five wheels and five tyres are provided by thoughtful manufacturers on every car sold, and the hand of Destiny (in this case the fitter) de-

crees that one of these wheels complete with tyre shall be mounted as a spare. Meanwhile, the remaining four wheels and tyres start to work in earnest for their respective livings.

Tyres are so good nowadays that a new car will run 5000 miles or more without a puncture. Meanwhile the spare wheel leads a life of complete indolence.

When the first puncture occurs the spare wheel starts life, the damaged tyre is duly mended and takes a wellearned rest. But to obtain the full mileage from a set of tyres it is obvious that all five must do the same amount of work, and the spare that only starts life at 6000 miles or more has a lot of leeway to make up. It is a good plan to do a little changing around every 1000 miles or so. Put the spare wheel on the offside back wheel, for example, and give that tyre a rest; after another 1000 miles change over with the near back tyre, then the off-front, and in turn the near front.

To avoid getting confused as to

which wheel is which it is a good plan to enter up the cover numbers in a book, so that one can tell at a glance how far each cover has gone.