I don't care. I have no problems with all of the things mentioned above. If for some 0.0000001% chance my wife is not at home during my 8 mile commute to the park and ride or my 8 mile trip home, I'll walk. If you can't walk 8 miles if you have to, you really should get out a bit more.

As far as the flat tire thing, it's not the availability of help but the time factor. I can get a tire changed by the time help can arrive.

NOTE: Any time you remove something, make sure it's not technically considered a safety feature.

One thing that I have been working on for way too long is removing that bulky hitch. It had one bolt that I couldn't remove because my socket wrench was too shallow. Then the sprinklers came on and I had to move, so I decided to finish the job today. I'll get a pic, then stow the stupid hitch in the garage.

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So I pulled my spare, and then stupidly coasted down the shoulder of the road and picked up a bolt. 25 miles from home. Luckily my son got my spare out of the garage and rescued me.

A week later in my son's car, I swerved to miss a piece of wood in the road and.... missed... the swerve that is, not the wood. Another screw, this time a spare in the trunk.

I figure I could safely remove my spare at this point..... three times ???? No way.... except for the fact that I have pushed my tire pressures up into the high 50 lb range. I think I will keep the spare in.....

Heck, I am finding that fuel managment is giving me a much bigger bang for the buck that weight reduction anyway... I got my lean burning ECU and O2 running and just did a 62 mpg tank.... easily 5% more than before... 10% maybe. An aftermarket fuel mapping device is something I would recommend at this point, at least if you do a lot of highway driving.