The Traffic Accident Reconstruction Origin -ARnews-

Re: Effects of undersized spares on a vehicle's performance

Ken Zwicker (atlanticrash@ns.sympatico.ca)
Fri, 4 Jul 1997 20:25:43 -0400 (EDT)

I have been working on a case where a temporary spare was allegedly improperly installed. After the vehicle was driven about 30 miles, the wheel and tire suddenly detached from the vehicle. During my investigation, I rented a similar vehicle, installed a temporary spare at a front position and drove the vehicle on a rented road-course race track. While sparing you the rest of the details, I can report that the temporary spare or "donut" has very poor lateral friction capabilities. In this case, with the temp spare on the front, the vehicle suffered from substantial "understeer" or "push" while in a turn. While I didn't evaluate the vehicle's handling with a temp spare on the rear, I have absolutely no doubt that such a vehicle, especially a Mustang with a relatively light rear end, would have a significant tendency to "oversteer". That is, the rear end would try to pass the front end during an abrupt steering manoeuvre.
Ken Zwicker
atlanticrash@ns.sympatico.ca

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