as i said earlier my (2002 , ordered new ) komfort trailer has the spare mounted under the chassis in front of the axle. I upgraded my tires one load range.
I camp 70 % without hookups and maybe half of that boondock camping in the National Forests .
My trailer spare has never been on the ground . I have lowered it to check the tire pressure and examine it for cracks .
About 14 years ago I modified my boat trailer . I raised the fenders , increased the steel wheel diameter by 1 inch , increased the tire width by 20 cm , increased my load range one level . I increased my tire load rating capacity by about 38 % .
I have not had a boat trailer tire failure of any kind.
I have been in the habit of checking tire pressure before each long tow .
The tires are very easy to check for nails and screws . I check them for heat with my hand after high speed towing , even at a rest stop .
So my experience is that I have not had a road hazard imbed in my tire .
On a boat trailer the spare tire mount is in the way . Plus , I depart out of Bend sometime between 5 pm and midnight on these long tows . The huge tire upgrade made sense for my usage . Plus if I ever do pick up a nail , the leak would be slow enough that i will see / feel / guage it anyway .
The road hazards picked up on our lightweight pickups always were noticed long before a critical stage . The nail shines at you or your tire looks low . How hard is that ?
One other story to create more controversy .
I owned a lumber company for over 20 years . My life's experience is that our light pickups that travelled on passenger car tires were considerably more prone to picking up nails than our trucks that were on 10 ply tires .
I have been a boat tower since my 16th birthday 51 years ago . My first new car was a 1972 suburban C20 with 6 ply 8.75 x 16.5 truck tires .
My DD has been a heavy duty pickup ever since .
My life's experience is that my truck tires were less prone in actual practice to pick up nails than the passenger tires on the light pickups .
Probably just luck .
In any event upgrading to 10 ply type or Load Range E seems to have eliminated any issues for me .On the towed vehicles i inflate to the max sidewall tire pressure. On the tow vehicles like my duramax i run 50 psi on my 3415 # load rating 265/75R15E michelins .
