"DryCreek".....Here's what I've done over the years. When we had our Class A Gasser, it came with a 19.5 spare. Since this is a reasonably sized tire, I carried the tools to change it. On the way home from the Grand Canyon, I felt the front tire develop a tread separation. I removed the spare, broke the lug nuts loose and then lifted the coach with the front jacks. I quickly installed the spare, snugged the lug nuts and lowered it to finish tightening.
When we bought our first DP, I felt uncomfortable not having a spare. I bought a used 'matching tire", wrapped it in saran wrap and then used a roll of masking tape and wrapped it again. I stored it in the center of my slide tray and was able to still store stuff in the center of the tire.
Here's what I tell people when they say.....all you need is a credit card and road side service......Get your tire size and brand off the side of your tire and then call around within your home town and see how available that tire is. Typically, most tire stores don't stock a lot of tires now days. They order them from a local distributor and get them in a day or so. The tire on my DP was an odd size (smaller than most) and often took three days to find. If you're retired and don't mind waiting for three days, fine. Hopefully you're not in the middle of a ghetto when you break down. By having the unmounted spare, you can simply have someone change it.
My current coach would really suffer form carrying a spare (larger tire and limited storage), but my current coach is a tag axle. In an emergency, the tag can be moved to wherever it's needed and a used or odd size tire can be placed in the tag position.
