Why do we carry a spare tire around?

Guess it depends on where you take your B... On my 03C190P the spare resides inside the rear doors. In 10 years I've had 3 flats that I can recall. One, in Tok, AK, on a Sunday. One, Mother's Day in middle America. Most recently last Fall on a gravel road in northern NH. Road service would have been non-existent in the 1st and last scenarios, and a LONG wait on the 2nd. So for me, and the the way we use our van, the spare stays. I also carry a small air compressor and a tire plug kit if 1 spare isn't enough. If you confine your travels to pavement, you may have an argument to not carry one. I just find, to take full advantage of the nimble aspect of driving a B to out-of-the-way beautiful places, we need to be a little more self-dependent. And, for what it's worth, I do carry a spare serpentine belt. I may not be the one to install it, but at least I have the part to put on! That's the beauty of this past time - to each their own! ST

You should always make sure the tire shop hand torques the lug nuts to spec. Over tightening can warp the rotors. Even though my tire shop says they are hand torqued, I re-torque them when I get home. Only takes about 10 minutes.

FYI Sears has half off right now on torque wrenches. Oh, and never store them with the spring loaded, always back them down to 1.

I'm very old school, I always carry a spare.

I have not carried a spare for years now on my Roadtrek. It frees up space under the bed and I am getting too arthritic and old to wrestle a 80 pound tire out of storage or onto the lug nuts. Since tire places use power tools to tighten the lugs, I'm not sure I could remove them myself. If and when I have a problem it will be an "adventure" and I will call for help and take my lumps. Since no spare, I make sure the tires are maintained properly.

Heapie wrote:

TheRE seems to be three solutions.
1. Do nothing and store chairs in a milk carton behind the drivers seat.
2. Get a storage unit attached to the trailer hitch. Cost up to 600.00 bucks.
3.Buy or make a tire carrier. Cost, up to 1500.00 bucks.

those nice fold up canvas chairs can be tucked anywhere. I bungee cord stuff to the back of the passenger seat that is taken out first when I arrive.
Good quality hitch baskets are under $100 and I got a Highland 1041700 Rainproof Cargo Bag for under $50. There are scooter hitch carriers for $300 and less on Amazon, maybe used ones on Craigs.

New vehicles are losing their spare tires. The ones I have seen come with a small air pump and a bottle of slime or something.

I have used a small air pump and a plug kit to fix more holes in tires than I have used the spare tire to move the vehicle if a tire is flat.

One flat was big enough to need several plugs, this is my most recently used spare tire incident. Took tire to walmart where a plug for a big rig type tire was used along with a patch and tire went on to go for lots of miles, was on a grand cherokee.

If you ever drive through the remains of an accident on the road you might pick up a lot of trash in your tires.

If you travel during or shortly after a tornado or other mother nature hissy fit, you might pick up trash in your tires.

During the recent snow/ice/sleet issues east tn had lots of folks called aaa. They never showed up because they kept running into people stuck in the ditch or other stuff. Took days to get caught up from what aaa members at work talked about.

Some of this stuff you can avoid. Some you can deal with.

As far as jacking a vehicle goes, I like to replace the stock jacks with a real bottle jack and I make sure using those tools in the vehicle I can remove and replace a tire. And if on a berm of the road or on a dirt road some scrap wood for supporting the jack might be a good idea.

Anyway, I will always carry a spare tire on a vehicle I am taking trips in because a flat at a bad time or in a bad area is not going to keep me in that area.

But I do find it easy to jack up vehicle and air up tire first and find leak and see if I can just plug it. Some won't like this idea, but it is often faster and easier than changing out to the spare tire.

One thing I do these days is buy a truck type tire rated easily for the job at hand. Something squared off and made to handle some off road sidewall abuse. Even if I don't off road, the tougher tire tends to not have as many problems. I had some bad luck with passenger car tires and now move to light truck tires almost instantly.

Hi Folks,

Thank you for answering my question about the spare tire. The reason is that my wife needs a scooter to get around. The scooter takes space as does two chairs, tools, etc. She, like me, wants to have everything in its place and not have to move things around.

TheRE seems to be three solutions.
1. Do nothing and store chairs in a milk carton behind the drivers seat.
2. Get a storage unit attached to the trailer hitch. Cost up to 600.00 bucks.
3.Buy or make a tire carrier. Cost, up to 1500.00 bucks.

THANK YOU AGAIN,

HEAPIE

I do carry one. I have needed it 1 time. I am 1 that does most of my,own work on my vehicles and as long as I can, I will continue to do so. I don't like having to depend on someone else. But, I also realize most people aren't like me.

My Roadtrek 170 did not have a continental kit when I bought it used. The spare tire was under the bed, accessible through the rear doors. I put the tire in storage to reclaim the space for a foldable Brompton bicycle. It's a calculated risk that I'm willing to take.

I am also going to call for help to change a flat but if there is no spare and the shop has nothing to match you could sit at that garage for days in some locations to get the right tire. It is easy enough to carry the spare.

I have sat with my class A (I own both a B and A) in the middle of nowhere between Mt Lassen and Klamath Falls. Wife on the phone(Tmobile actually worked out there) to roadside assistance arguing about the $250 fee to come change a tire because our coverage didn't include the only tow company available. By the time my wife was about to agree to pay up, I had the tire changed. When I did get to Klamath Falls nobody had my size tire except for a used one. In fairness to Klamath Falls, my front tires are an odd size and I meant to bring an old spare tire (unmounted )but it was forgotten at home. Darn.