To Spare or not to Spare

[Mark Beavin]

Just wondering how many people carry a spare and what kind of equipment do you use to change a tire if you do? Or best just to have good road side service policy?

[Steve Huber Co-Admin]

Mark,
IMHO a spare and the equipment to change it takes up a lot of valuable space and weight. A good roadside service contract is probably a better solution for travel in the lower 48.
Steve

[Mike Shumack]

I agree with Steve, but if I could find a way to carry a spare (or unmounted tire) I would.

I pay for roadside assistance now, however if I need them to come out and change a blown tire I would also have to pay them for the cost of the new tire (at whatever rate they charge) and they may not have a matching tire available - which would mean I have to wait longer or have them put on a different brand tire that I cant use later. So if I can carry a spare I would only need to pay the labor to have it mounted, just have them install it on my coach if the tire is already mounted on a rim.

Unfortunately there is no way to fit a tire into one of the basement compartments. There is this (tire carrier) available but since I have the bike carrier that won't work for me.  http://www.roadmasterinc.com/products/spare_tire/index.html

Good luck.

[Chuck Jackson]

I carry a spare but no tools to change a flat. I’ll leave that to the roadside assistance. I used to carry the spare on my car hauler but now that I flat tow, it is on my sliding tray. The main reason I carry a spare is to almost guarantee I won’t need it! But if I do, I have a matching spare rather than what the roadside assistance has access to and I can (somewhat) control the cost of the the spare.

[Doug Allman]

I am with Chuck as for over 25 years we always carried a spare, on the roof between the a/c units. After we blew several tires I made that decision and we have never blown a tire since we have carried a spare. Had a lot of people ask "What is that thing on the roof?" I had a cover made by a boat shop that matched the white color up top and kept sun off tire but it was still very visible.
When we purchased the 2004 Marquis in Costa Mesa Ca it had 10 year old Goodyears on so first item they had to do was put all new, 9, tires on the coach. Yes they balked at the 9 but I insisted on having a spare and not a 10 year old Goodyear.
Had to go to HD to get a ratchet strap so we could collapse the tire enough to get it into a compartment. Moved it up to roof when we got home.
With the new 315's on the rear and 365's on steers on the Entegra there is no possible way realistically to carry two spares so we are back to if we blow a front we will wait for a tire that size or if we blow a rear just move one from the dual to the tag if necessary and roll on until we get to a distributor that has a tire of like kind and size.   Aint never nuthin easy even if it is new.

[Dave Atherton]

Mark, any more at our age just removing the lug nuts and getting tire off motorhome is
just more the the old body can handle. The old back Is not what it used to be. Road Service
Tire removel is for the young folks. Dave Atherton Retired Cat Mechanic

[Mark Beavin]

I hate to admit that at 65 I am slowing down and everything hurts when I push to do stuff I should not be doing. Maybe get a tire monitor system like I have for my trailer. At least I would know if a tire is going low or has blown and pull over before we tear up anything.

[Mike Shumack]

I think the discussion is whether or not to carry a spare (either tire only or mounted) - with the intent to have roadside service do the heavy work if it is ever needed.
a TPMS is always a good idea - but it doesn't do much for you if you run over something and have a blow out.

edit (spelling correction)

[Bill Sprague]

A couple weeks ago I had my first ever blowout.  Ours is no longer a Beaver.  Like a Beaver is does not come with a spare.  The roadside assistance experience would probably be similar. 

Having a spare vs not having one is really a time issue. 

Roadside assistance, after asking if I had a spare, offered two choices:  be towed to where it could be fixed or bring a random brand tire to me.     

The odd part was the explanation of time required.  I was told it "normally" takes a lot longer to find a tire shop that will bring and mount a tire than it does to get a tow truck.

If I had a mounted spare, roadside assistance would have found a much quicker solution.  I would have probably been on the road in a couple hours.  Finding a tire shop that could get the right brand and size tire didn't take long, but they had to order it from a central warehouse.   My tire replacement took 8 hours. 

[Gerald Farris]

Mark,
With the limited amount of storage bay room that we have on these coaches, I do not consider that carrying a spare is an option. Even though I now have a winter base, I travel 7 to 9 months a year and need all the basement room that I have without loosing most of one to a tire or trying to put a very heavy tire on the roof. The 315/80/22.5 tires on my coach weigh over 130 lbs. each and I buy them when needed but not before. I do not need a $700+ tire aging out in storage, and I would not drive without a TPMS. 

Gerald

[Doug Allman]

We have never owned a TPMS for a coach. Most reason I have for this is we get new vehicles, 5,  mostly pickup trucks or suv's every 2 - 3 years and that means 1 every year or more and we have never seen a TPMS on those vehicles that is not a problematic nuisance. At times and that is few they are accurate but if you look at the vehicle parked you will also always notice when the tires is very low. They even register a fault when all tires are at the same exact pressure! Never had a blow out on a truck or suv so maybe not best analysis for why not using a TPMS on coach.

This ought to be an interesting question. What system is the best TPMS for an 8 tire, 6 315's and 2 365's coach?

Am I correct in believing that if you have a blowout you will never be able to see it happening with a TPMS system. Lower tire pressure yes, that could lead to that, but not in the case of just a blowout from whatever reason.

This may shock some but my TPMS has always been the travelers going by me. And that has helped more than once over the years.

[David T. Richelderfer]

We have the Pressure Pro TPMS on our coach.  It reports to the Silverleaf screen with tire pressures 1 at a time in a rotation through 12 tires - 8 on the coach and 4 on the pickup.  The reporting rotation takes about 1 minute for all 12 tires.  The problem with Pressure Pro is the batteries in the sending units are not replaceable and getting new ones costs $30 per sending unit.  Other brands of TPMS systems have replaceable batteries, I am told.  We like the peace-of-mind and added safety offered by the TPMS.

[Frank Bergamo]

I have Tire Minder on coach and toad. Can monitor up to 22 tires on receiver. Also has signal amplifier that I have mounted in the rear engine compartment. It may not alert me to a sudden blowout, but it will immediately alert me to sudden loss of air in any tire. It also will alert me to gradual air loss, with a low limit setting on each tire. All this gives me the ability to get pulled over before any serious damage to coach or toad can occur. Without system, I could be dragging toad or trailer down to wheels without even knowing I have a problem. System also has replaceable batteries that Tire Minder will replace for free if I return old batteries to them. I am with Gerald, I would not be without a TMPS on my coach and toad/trailer. Hope this helps.

[Mike Shumack]

If you are going to carry a spare, I think this Roadmaster unit is a good way. Then all the roadservice guy needs to do is unmount it from the carrier and install it (and put the blown tire back on the carrier).

Gerald makes a good point about the cost of having spare "rotting away" (and hopefully never used) so it's a matter of saving the money versus the mental comfort in having the ability to mitigate a blowout event.

Also, if you do get a mounted spare, you will want to have it mounted on a steel rim (not aluminum) in case it's needed in the inside dually position. Or have the drive axle wheel studs replaced with longer ones because having two aluminum wheels back-to-back on the drive axle usually requires longer studs due to the extra thickness of wheel mounting flange.

[Jerry Emert]

I have the EEZRV TPMS.  It's about 4 years old and I go through probably 6-8 batteries a year.  They are easy to replace and cheap.  As said above they will alert you to sudden air loss which may not excite you very much when thinking about your front tires because that will be kind of obvious.  Think about your towed though!  If one of those tires blow you may not know until someone comes up along side and points at the back.  Your towed may be on fire by then.  I have removed the sensors to put air in tires and immediately heard the alarm go off through the open door or window.  I was surprised because it was immediate.  That would give me the time I need to minimize damage to my truck or the RV if it was a dual or tag tire that blew.  I strongly recommend a TPMS for both MH and towed.
Jerry