What's everyone doing with their spare tire?

[Escape.idiocracy]

I get nervous with only a single spare on the sharp, young, uneroded rocks on my usual trips in Death Valley, the Colorado Plateau, etc. Had too many flats on week-long trips, where driving in deep backcountry on your spare can take the fun out of things. All sidewall cuts. I carry a good plug kit, a gluetread patch kit, but no second spare. Would never consider no spare. When I went to bigger tires I got five wheels and tires and rotate them all

^^^^. All day every day! I also keep two tire irons in my kit…. As much as I’m going to cuss up a storm taking a tire off by hand- after I’m on the spare, some times you might need to get creative on your fix… stitching a tire and a HUGE patch- will get you home/to tire shop….

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[Kevin_D]

My spare sits under the truck and hasn't been touched since I bought it over four years ago. I've checked it a few times to make sure it was still inflated, but that's it.

That's exactly where mine's at. I got rid of the Hot Wheels & shitty HT Duelers, and got a set of 17" Rubicon & 18" Sahara wheels, and buy whichever size tires I can get a deal on.
The spare ain't gonna match regardless, and it IS a spare, so there it stays.
If I didn't hate Fix-a-Flat so much, I might even ditch the spare altogether.

Kevin

 

[Mad Dog]

Mall Crawlers don't need spares, they're not very far from the tire shop. Real world always carry a spare.

 

[Minty JL]

I'm spareless, I like to live on the edge

 

[zxd9]

Might I suggest always doing a 5 tire rotation? In the event you switch to a different tire size later you won't have wasted a perfectly good tire that now doesn't match the others. Plus your set of 5 tires will last you longer than a set of 4.

 

[Discount Tire]

@High Alextude many aftermarket wheels fit on the spare holder. Without the caps if designed to cover the whole center of the wheel. There are adapters that you can purchase to raise the cyclops eye and extend the bolts for a wider wheel.

 

[MikeD93]

My spare doesn’t fit anymore lol

 

[TurboHarley]

It’s my understanding that your spare should be the same diameter as your tires. You may do some drivetrain damage driving on different size tires. It’s worth an extra 100 bucks to find a tire on eBay and you can still use the spare steel wheel. Of course this is simply my opinion which I’m sure many won’t agree with.

 

[EXXXchef]

I'm actually thinking of looking for a spare carrier to mount on the tailgate to where the spare tire swings out and then the tailgate pulls down. I saw a Willie's that had it and i thought it was the coolest s***

 

[tysongladiator]

Got 37x13.50s. Bought five on my recent set. Found a brand new 17x9 rim on marketplace for $60. Had them mounted and put the tire back underneath.

 

[Wildtoad]

isn’t the spare on a Gladiator on a different rim, thus requiring remounting and rebalancing?

Might I suggest always doing a 5 tire rotation? In the event you switch to a different tire size later you won't have wasted a perfectly good tire that now doesn't match the others. Plus your set of 5 tires will last you longer than a set of 4.

 

[zxd9]

isn’t the spare on a Gladiator on a different rim, thus requiring remounting and rebalancing?

It is a different rim. I bought 5 aftermarket wheels. But you could just buy one matching wheel if you are staying with factory wheels.

 

[Stuntman Mike]

It’s my understanding that your spare should be the same diameter as your tires. You may do some drivetrain damage driving on different size tires.

Is that really the case?

I could imagine that driving some 20-30 miles with one wheel having a different diameter would not cause any damage. And if it is put on the non drive axle there should be no issue at all.

 

[TurboHarley]

I had the dealer install the Mopar lift kit and 35's before taking delivery. They told me to change the spare because a different size tire was going to tear up the drivetrain. So I have now changed the spare tire twice going from stock to 35's and now to 37's. Daily driver so it's an easy decision for me.

 

[bleda2002]

Is that really the case?

I could imagine that driving some 20-30 miles with one wheel having a different diameter would not cause any damage. And if it is put on the non drive axle there should be no issue at all.

If you put it in 4WD then you could possibly have some issue, in 2wd just put the spare on the front axle, the passenger front being the best.

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