Ispeed

my spare is full of stuff: a tire plug kit and air compressor. I've got a rechargable makita flashlight, coolant, quart of oil, and now a 100+ pc tool kit sockets, wrenches, allens, etc. in its own plastic case. I feel like I'm going camping!!! I just want my LAST resort to be mulletman in a tow truck. If you bring it, you won't need it...so I'm bringing it!
Mulletman can kiss my ***.

MBMB

I had a nice cordura nylon tool roll for my BMW motorcycle:



It fit in the tool bin under the seat, and held just about everything I would need to tune up, fix, or part out the bike on the side of the road. (Now where has that damn thing gone to?) It had a place for everything (including a little pocket for the valve feeler gauge).

I'm going to order another one for the 928. I'll bet Kathy (who makes the tool rolls) would make a cordura 928 tool bag if we asked nicely.

Ron_H

MBMB:
I sure wish Kathy would make a round cordura tool bag with a handle. If I knew who she was I would ask her nicely.

While we're on the subject, another thing I want to take along is a collapsible jack stand. The braces are the problem. I have drawn a few concepts and done my diligence in the patent office, but haven't been able to simplify it yet. I don't like to jack up the car without a stand around, and having one in the trunk would be nice if it stowed neatly out of sight.
Thoughts?

SharkSkin

I have an idea about the tool holder... but hadn't thought about jackstands. You could always lay the spare under the car to catch it in the event it slips from the jack.

But you don't necessarily have to jack the car to get under it. I had to do muffler work on one of my early cars up near Los Trancos on Page Mill(remote, narrow 2-lane for you non-locals. Far from help.). So I drove the car up onto a berm along the edge of the road and luckily found a spot where the tendency of the car to move downslope held the wheel against the edge of a very large rock. I had to slide in under the bumper instead of at the side, but I got under there OK and tightened up my collector and re-hung the muffler with a coathanger. There's almost always at least a curb or some sort of terrain feature around that you can use to increase the space under the car.... assuming it will move.

So, back to the jackstands... Seems like a good idea, but it seems like there's hardly room for all the stuff I'd like to put in there as it is... It would have to be pretty ingenious, to fold into the available space and be something I'd trust my life to. It would have to have a means to keep itself from sinking into soft pavement or dirt, and it should fit into a 15" spare to suit the broadest market.

The tough question is, if you're using the stock jack in the lifting point, where then do you support it with the jackstand?

Interesting...

Ron_H

Dave:

I have that same problem every time I jack up the car using two floor jacks in the garage. Where to put the jackstands? The manual cautions against placing anything anywhere but under the jacking points. HA! Lucky them. They have lifts. So I find suspension points and just barely touch the stand to the point so if it falls it will give me time to roll out but not stress the point in the meantime.

Well, I'm off to think about a tool bag somemore. Still haven't located my drain so I need to keep taking a look at the battery and emptying the spare of stuff to get in there.

Old & New

Ron,

Being Vegan and owning a car seem mutually exclusive!

Ron_H

Old & New:
Why?

Ron_H

I use a relatively small inflator pump but it still conflicts with all the other stuff in the spare space. I bought it at a parts store and it takes forever to pump the tire but it will do it. Bring a book and relax while it does its thing. I also stuff tools in that rear space but they rattle around and fall out of place. I will bring this up with Devek. Maybe such a bag with a couple of compartments could be devised and a prototype sewn to consider as part of their offerings.

Old & New

Ron,

1) So many animal products are used in the manufacture and maintenance of automobiles besides what is readily visible.
2) Gasoline and oil are products derived from animal sources.
3) Burning fossil fuels has deleterious affects on the fauna.
4) The killing of countless little critters under your tires and on your windshield should offset any enjoyment you get from driving the car.

Ron_H

Old & New:

For 10 years I lived in the city and gave up my car. I took mass transit and buses. As I sat on the bus I rationalized and said the bus driver is killing the bugs on the windshield, not me. Yeah, sure. I'm paying him to do it. Does that make him a *****? No, I don't think so. If I was a Jain, I would cover my mouth when I was awake and sweep the street when I walked so as not to ingest or squash any organism, right? And for all I know, they have better orgasms...probably screaming, violent ones, as a reward from the spirits. But to get real, I am not a Jain, and if you drink water you probably ingest organisms, and eat them inadvertetly when you eat unwashed vegetables. Shall I starve myself, or give up water? I don't think so. I wrestled with this issue already, so I'll not belabor it here. The fossil fuel argument fades when you realize that those animals died years ago and not at our hands. And we have alternative fuels which will ultimately become widespread since petrol is not infinite (someone said 40 years left). I have already covered the breaking eggs to make an omelette argument. I must get from point A to point B, and would do the same harm with a bicycle or walking anyway. As for using animal products, I would not recover my seats with leather or use Leatherique; I will let them rot and recover them in fabric which I prefer anyway. Remember, the world was as I found it and is undergoing drastic changes, particularly with respect to this topic. In not many years all this will be a moot point as battles over food and water demand a permanent change. 16% of the US is now vegetarian/vegan. When it reaches 20%, and it will, a permanent societal change will result as in the hundredth monkey pattern of behavior. Don't say it will never happen as it already is on an irreversible path. As smokers were once "cool", and are now "uncool", so will be our other consumption habits. Believe me, I know. As for using and exploiting animals to produce industrial products, that will all change as alternatives are found. We find the world to be wrong, but don't kill ourselves in a rush of guilt. Rather we identify alternatives and work to bring about change. Or are passed by as evolution dictates. No longer are other animals needed for lab tests as computer models are developed that are taking the place of that practice, for example. As that happens, good Karma replaces bad, and evolving practitioners experience success while bad comes to those who resist obviously more acceptable practices. They die out and good prevails. And some are spared to continue evolution.

Another point is that many people don't realize as you have stated how many injurious practices exist, and if they did, would cease patronizing those who perpetuate them. Or at least seek to change them. But society will not change overnight, since some of these patterns of behavior are deeply ingrained into our unconscious minds and childhood orientations. The chaos that would result from an abandonment of some of these practices would not be tolerable for much of the world, but abandonment of them is taking place. I will agree with you that I should not seek to continue supporting some of these patterns. For instance, I would pay extra if I bought a new Porsche for leather delete. But industry will remain until we all run out of fuel, destroy the ecosystems of the world or overpopulate. And cars will continue to be produced as well as roller skates, and some other animal suffering may be the by-product of that industry, including our own suffering which far exceeds any by the other animals of this planet. Ask a doctor or a pharmaceutical company executive if you doubt that. And until cities are re-planned and lifestyles, which are always evolving, change drastically, we will use automobiles. Hey, other animals are hurt in the production of plywood and cardboard and newpaper and ..........etc. Do I advocate that forest should cease being wasted and ecosystems should not be disturbed so as to bring a halt to production of those materials? I guess I should if I chose to become a monk and live as a Jain, (a lifestyle which I don't condemn by the way). Think about how little paper is consumed by this email as opposed to writing a letter. But if I wish to see society as we know it evolve, I must accept the slower sometimes painful process of that evolution for the sake of the species' survival. And I should choose education and information over condemnation. No guarantee exists that we will survive as a species, but we can try and we must make incremental steps of change. As anyone involved with the problem solving process knows, once you accept a goal, and define objectives, solutions and favorable alternatives come into view. But first the committment to the goal must take place, no matter how nebulous.

Do I feel guilty about driving a car? All the time, and as I've stated, for 10 years I lived without a car. I also usually don't drive at night anymore for fear of hitting a critter (which has happened) or killing exponentially more bugs. God knows this. Maybe I'll think about it another 10 years and ask the Jains about their orgasms. Maybe I'm missing something. I will tell you this, though: I am getting sick and tired of viagra offers in my email. Vegetarians don't need it.

Please forgive my verbosity.

Ron_H

OK. Here is another question for all: How many of you would buy such a canvas or cordura (softsided) bag if it fit well into your spare wheel and had some form of durable closure such as zipper, latches, etc., and had a soft handle on top?

And if you would, what would you consider a fair price?

Bear in mind that at an autocross you must remove the spare and all the stuff from your trunk and stash it somewhere out of the car. What a pain.

I suspect that not having a zipper would lower the cost. And I would like a couple of separate pockets inside for small stuff like latex gloves and fuses and sockets/extensions.

What say all of you to this unofficial market study?

MBMB

Here's the place that sells Kathy's Cordura, so you can see some of her other work.

SharkSkin

Personally, If it were a tool bag, I would prefer leather. Far more durable. Here's what I was thinking:

First, line the inside of the spare and the bottom of the spare compartment with something as a spacer... perhaps 1/4" felt. Put the spare in place.

Take a garbage bag and put it under the spare, with the open end pulled up through the top of the spare.

Then take some of that super-expanding crack filler foam and squirt it into the bag until the bag expands out and fills the space under the spare.

Let it cure, and remove the foam plug from the back of the spare.

You now have a plug that is the exact shape and size of the space under the spare, less the 1/4" or so of filler that was placed in there earlier.

Now cover the plug with a thick layer of plaster or some other material that you can use for a mold.

When this dries, remove the plug and clean up the inside surface of the mold, filling and filing where needed to smooth out the uneven spots left from the bag, spots that didn't fill 100% with foam, etc.

Now you can do one of two things: either use the mold to lay up some fiberglass, or use the mold to make a solid plug that can be used to vacuum form a container that fits inside the spare.

I think I could do all of the above fairly easily. The tricky part would be figuring out a good way to close it, to make it into a container that you could pull out easily, then open up & access the contents. Foam rubber could be used to keep it from rattling, and it could be fitted with either a handle on top so you could pull it out after lifting off the spare, or it could have a couple of bolts that hold it to the spare so you could take out the spare and the tools as a unit.

Any Takers?

D

Old & New

Ron,

Thought provoking and well stated. Thanks for taking the time.

SharkSkin

Another idea.... instead of a bag, how about a custom-made steel can that occupies most of the space under the spare?