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I just purchased a 2010 XLE AWD with the intention of doing a semi-camper buildout. First step was the lift; I put the Journey’s Off-road 3” lift on and bumped up the tire size to get an additional 1” of clearance. With the new lift and tires, the rear diff is just over 10” off the ground, unladen.
I hadn’t built out the interior yet but we were anxious to go on a trip, so we more or less used the same setup we had been using in the back or our Outback to sleep in the van. Woke up to a flat tire after the first night out. Didn’t have a spare or pump so we had the car towed to the nearest town for repair.
Fortunately, the campsite we stayed in that night was only 20 ft off a county maintained dirt road and it was easy for a tow truck to come and get us. But after this incident, I decided I needed to have a spare, a tire repair kit, and a pump. Tire repair kit and pump are easy enough to sort out and don’t take much space. But the spare tire is the big challenge.
On the 2010 AWD Sienna, there’s no room for a spare tire under the body. I didn’t want one on the roof because then it wouldn’t fit in my garage. And I don’t want a spare tire rack on the back because it gets in the way of opening the rear door and mounting a bike rack. If you look closely, the trunk has a depression in the interior trim at the rear of the vehicle (left side), also the floor of the trunk area has a bump under the carpet. I believe this was designed as the location to store the full size tire when the spare is in use. The bump under the carpet is the feature that secures the center of the tire to the body of the car.
If you’re running the stock tires on your lift and you want to carry a spare, I think you’re probably better off either getting another full size tire and stuffing it in there or getting the stock spare for the 2WD version and storing it there. But I have plus sized tires (245/65R17) that are 2” diameter taller than the stock full size tire (225/60R17). I wanted a spare tire that was as close to full size dia as possible, while still fitting in the aforementioned trunk storage scenario. I happened to keep a stock tire from when I bought the new upsized set with the thought that maybe I’d use it as a spare. I decided not to do that, but having the stock tire on hand allowed me to see how well it fit in that trunk space; it’s pretty snug. With the stock full size tire dia at 27.5” I didn’t figure that I could fit a spare that was larger than 28” into that space, I settled on 155/90R17 as the size for the spare that I would seek; not an ideal match for the new 29.5” tires, but better than the stock spare from the 2WD or even the stock full size.
An eBay search yielded pleanty of spare wheels in this size (155/90R17, 5x114.3 bolt pattern) usually about $150 with shipping, but none matching the wheel bore size (60.1mm).
It occurred to me that I hadn’t been to a pick-a-part in many years and this might be the time to go. The person running the counter said full size wheels and tires are pulled off and resold/recycled, but most cars in the yard will still have their spares. I searched ebay for my desired wheel size and lots of listings came up for CRV spares. I cross-checked with a couple other sources to confirm. Tire size and bolt pattern were good, but bore size was different. Turns out they make bore hole adapter rings for this. For a total of less than $20, I now have a 28” donut spare with adapter ring that fits in the trunk; as well as a lot more peace of mind when we’re out in the middle of nowhere. Though, it should be noted that this wheel size only fits in that space when mostly deflated and with a bit of coaxing.
I just thought I’d document my saga in case anyone else was looking around for a spare tire solution for thier AWD lifted Sienna.
I hadn’t built out the interior yet but we were anxious to go on a trip, so we more or less used the same setup we had been using in the back or our Outback to sleep in the van. Woke up to a flat tire after the first night out. Didn’t have a spare or pump so we had the car towed to the nearest town for repair.
Fortunately, the campsite we stayed in that night was only 20 ft off a county maintained dirt road and it was easy for a tow truck to come and get us. But after this incident, I decided I needed to have a spare, a tire repair kit, and a pump. Tire repair kit and pump are easy enough to sort out and don’t take much space. But the spare tire is the big challenge.
On the 2010 AWD Sienna, there’s no room for a spare tire under the body. I didn’t want one on the roof because then it wouldn’t fit in my garage. And I don’t want a spare tire rack on the back because it gets in the way of opening the rear door and mounting a bike rack. If you look closely, the trunk has a depression in the interior trim at the rear of the vehicle (left side), also the floor of the trunk area has a bump under the carpet. I believe this was designed as the location to store the full size tire when the spare is in use. The bump under the carpet is the feature that secures the center of the tire to the body of the car.
If you’re running the stock tires on your lift and you want to carry a spare, I think you’re probably better off either getting another full size tire and stuffing it in there or getting the stock spare for the 2WD version and storing it there. But I have plus sized tires (245/65R17) that are 2” diameter taller than the stock full size tire (225/60R17). I wanted a spare tire that was as close to full size dia as possible, while still fitting in the aforementioned trunk storage scenario. I happened to keep a stock tire from when I bought the new upsized set with the thought that maybe I’d use it as a spare. I decided not to do that, but having the stock tire on hand allowed me to see how well it fit in that trunk space; it’s pretty snug. With the stock full size tire dia at 27.5” I didn’t figure that I could fit a spare that was larger than 28” into that space, I settled on 155/90R17 as the size for the spare that I would seek; not an ideal match for the new 29.5” tires, but better than the stock spare from the 2WD or even the stock full size.
An eBay search yielded pleanty of spare wheels in this size (155/90R17, 5x114.3 bolt pattern) usually about $150 with shipping, but none matching the wheel bore size (60.1mm).
It occurred to me that I hadn’t been to a pick-a-part in many years and this might be the time to go. The person running the counter said full size wheels and tires are pulled off and resold/recycled, but most cars in the yard will still have their spares. I searched ebay for my desired wheel size and lots of listings came up for CRV spares. I cross-checked with a couple other sources to confirm. Tire size and bolt pattern were good, but bore size was different. Turns out they make bore hole adapter rings for this. For a total of less than $20, I now have a 28” donut spare with adapter ring that fits in the trunk; as well as a lot more peace of mind when we’re out in the middle of nowhere. Though, it should be noted that this wheel size only fits in that space when mostly deflated and with a bit of coaxing.
I just thought I’d document my saga in case anyone else was looking around for a spare tire solution for thier AWD lifted Sienna.
