KAF

That is with driver only, the greater the load the less the distance you can travel.

Dig deepr into it.

trojan.525i

no RFT does not come with any tools...so if you want the tools, keep it from the E46...

Richard in NC

Would you drive 150 miles on RFTs with a tear in the sidewall? It happened to me. I was out of town at the start of a long weekend , the sidewall tore hitting a pothole, and I either had to find a replacement tire ASAP or ruin the weekend and limp 120 miles back to home. At 4:45 on a Friday, I found a replacement at a local BMW dealer. Even though I was able to drive without needing a spare and found a replacement tire, I vowed to never be without a spare again.

trojan.525i

ouch...that does look bad...

KAF

It's a good example of the RFT problem, not the tyre, but the fact that manufacturers do not supply a spare and wheelbrace/jack.

Even if you are prepared to accept the different performance of the RFT, there are a number of types of damage that would not make it a good idea to continue driving on them.

The lack of any spare makes a nuisance into a real problem.

Tacklebury

Thought I?d add my two cents worth.

I changed from RFT around 6 months ago when I brought some new wheels. These are 20' Non RFT's and I have not got a spare rim. BMW did give me some foam and a small compressor but I figured I would never need it.

That was until last week, when I was 165 miles from home and I picked up a massive 5mm thick carriage bolt directly through the tread of my passenger?s front tire. Ironically I had been telling people that this would be a massive issue as I was not willing to fill my Schnitzer's full of foam!

Anyway, there I was stuck on the side of the road with no spare and a leaking tire. I didn't want to take it to the local kwik fit monkeys as they would almost definitely destroy my ?1000 rim so I called BMW break down and the car was recovered home on a low loader.

Now, whilst not an ideal situation BMW were very good, the truck arrived within 40 mins, drove me home and it cost me nothing. I'm now stuck with the knowledge that a simple puncture renders my ?40k car useless, so I will be renewing the breakdown cover and living with the consequences. I don't think a small space saver as there called in the UK would be any good as they are around 15' wide and would drop one corner too much?

Do I think a doughnut or space saver is worth getting? Yes if you have smaller rims, but if you?re wearing huge rims my thinking is it won't work.

Maybe someone can shed some light on this?? Can you stick a space saver on a car with 20' rims?

08E60

I just don't agree with this point. As long as you follow the spec as specify for the 20" rims and tires. Then your overall diameter of the rims and tires for the 20" or 19" or 18" should all be the same. I don't believe the car will be tilted too much if the spare is fitted on the car...

If you believe that putting 20" rims and tires onto your E60 and the diameter will change, that shouldn't be the case. Since you should be using lower profile tires to balance it out the 20" so you should remain with the same diameter. Do you understand what I mean?

Tacklebury

I understand 100% mate!

Thinking about it you make perfect sense. My fronts have 30 profiles and the rears 25 so i guess they should be the same.

Having never seen a space saver for a 5 i assume they are bigger than say a ford focus space saver for example?

Maybe i will look into getting one after all!

faarcanal

And heavier.

They still look stupid though.

GoRovers

Respectfully disagree with RFTs being described as non-performance tires. Firmer sidewalls (in RFTs) make performance driving fun, with precise, non-mushy turn-ins, without the need to alter suspension and use pothole-attracting low-profile wheel/tire combos. (I think BMW engineers got it right.) Yes, overall RFT feel is a bit harsher, but nothing like driving over a gravel road in a Corvette. (Now that's harsh!)

I guess having the donut spare in the trunk + RFTs makes me feel doubly secure.