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I have 195/65 R15 wheels and had to trim about 1" off the depth of the cover to get it to sit close to the boot lid (so it should be deep enough for wider wheel/tyre combinations).
The VW alloys I bought yesterday don't fit !
I trial fitted one tonight and there is still about 30mm gap all round so no improvement on the 14" steel spare.
The alloys are 6.5J, so now we know they don't fit, either.
The VW alloys I bought yesterday don't fit !
I trial fitted one tonight and there is still about 30mm gap all round so no improvement on the 14" steel spare.
Peter
Hi Peter
Thanks for trying anyway. Someone must have an answer - I have seen quite a few Sportsters with the spare wheel cover fitted. Unless of course all that was underneath was a "repair in a can" aerosol....
I will post the question on the Marlin Owners Club forum to see if we can hit a different audience.
I used a space saver 15" wheel from a ford focus which is a get you home emergency up to 50mph max job but had the 4 x 108 spacing I needed. Fits under the wheel cover really well and has the advantage of being lighter compared to a full size wheel. Bought it off flea bay, stated as used but it had never been on, came complete with michelin unused tyre, cost me £20 if I remember rightly.
Stud spacing may not do the sporster if its BMW based but there must be space saver wheels which will do the job as almost every car uses them nowadays.
From Marlin Owners club forum. Looks like a space saver might be a good option we can find one with the correct fitting...
Bummer that sucks Thanks for trying (BTW if you relist and don't get quite as much for these as you paid I'm happy to help make up the difference!)
I am happy to help out with any loss on these too.
I was looking around on ebay and can only find 15" 5 stud space saver wheels which should fit under the cover but obviously have 1 to many studs.
So was thinking on a 4 to 5 stud converter which we could carry in the car and fit if we needed to use the space saver.
Any of you had any dealings with stud conveters?
I've got a set of 5->4 stud adapters I got on eBay a few years back for £180. They don't quite fit past the brake pads on the front, but they are fine on the back. I could see if I can turn them down a bit on the lathe.
Sure, I'll have to see if they will fit in my lathe I also have a 5 stud space saver in the back of my E46 which will be redundant at the end of the month as I'm having LPG fitted.
Sorry its taken a while to look at this I've been really busy the last few weeks:
This is the spare from my E46:
Fits under the cover just fine
You can't fit it with the spacer attached as it comes up to far. However you could use the 5 stud adapter / spacer as the clamp that holes the wheel on from the back. Problem is these adapters don't fit properly on the front (the bind on the brake pads).
After weeks of looking, i've finally found something that I think will fit.
It's a VW Corrado spare wheel which I think has the same PCD and bore hole as the e30 BMW hubs.
It fits just fine in the spare wheel well and the cover fits over OK.
I haven't had a chance to try it on the car hubs yet. I'll give it a try at the weekend. The tyre diameter is about 1/2" smaller than my current wheels and tyres but I imagine the cars supension will just adjust for that. It is after all a 'get you home' only spare.
It cost me £10 and about £20 of fuel to pick it up. It's a bit grubby with some surface rust from being stored outside but nothing a good scrub and a spray of Hammerite won't fix.
Tyre looks almost new.
I've only seen one other on eBay in about 3 months, so get watching
Brilliant, IIRC VW 4 stud wheels need spacers to bring them in line with E30 offsets, however given the Sportster is all over the place and that wheel is mega skinny you might get away with it. Worst case you'll need a hub centric spacer (which you could use to mount the wheel on the tub)
It is ET40 offset so I just fitted it with the same spacers i'm using the road wheels.
It fits just fine and the car handled OK with it on the back or front.
The tyre is a 105x70x15 so is rather skinny and smaller daimeter than my road tyres.
I've noticed that some space savers (not VW) have 80 or even 85 profile tyres, so I might try and get a slightly bigger tyre for it.
So there you are, a spare wheel that fits in the back carrier and fits on the car! Make sure if you are looking for one, you need a 4 hole, 15" rim. Most around are 14" rims.
I look forward to seeing if they fit 
Thanks for trying (BTW if you relist and don't get quite as much for these as you paid I'm happy to help make up the difference!) 
