Necessity of a spare?

willald wrote:

Executive wrote:
For those that espouse being "ripped off" by the guy/gal bringing the replacement tire...I call B.S.!
This is just another one of those "myths" that continue to be promulgated.

I agree, Dennis. There may well be cases where you may pay extra because they they are coming out to you during non-business hours. I expect to pay more in that case. However, the proverbial $2000 rip-off we hear about....Like you said, I think thats one of those "myths" that keeps getting passed along.

When I called CoachNet with a flat tire, they asked me my tire size and asked if I had a brand preference. I told them my tire size and requested a Goodyear G670. They brought me a new tire with a date code 10/14 at an installed price of $733. That's $684 for the tire itself which is pretty close to what any Tom, Dick or Harry tire place would charge in a big city. Hardly being ripped off.

...This is very much like the experience I had, when I had to call Good Sam ERS once due to a flat tire. They asked what size tire I had, what brand I preferred, and they brought exactly that size and brand with them ('twas a Goodyear G670 as well). And, their price for the tire if I had needed it (fortunately I did not), was not much different than I would have paid for that tire, regardless.

If I owned an older coach that had odd-ball sized tires that were not easy to come by, that would be different. In that case I probably would carry an extra unmounted tire or two. Fortunately, that ain't the case for us. The 19.5" tires on our Ford F53 based MH are very common and not hard to find at all.

Will

Yep, all of that sounds pretty standard for an incident that happened near a metropolitan area. Now, what would happen if the nearest tire shop was 100+ miles away and they did not stock Goodyear, or the brand that you have on your coach.
It is obvious that many of the posters here never travel off of the beaten path out West where gas stations can be 100 miles apart and name brand tire availability could be several hundred miles away.
Don't dismiss anyone's post about what they experienced and compare it with your own when you are comparing two completely different locations, etc. Back on the road in 1 1/2 hours with a new tire is a joke when there are places out West where it can take 2-3 hours, one way, just to get a mechanic to respond.