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Spare tire worth the upgrade?

Upgrading/upgraded spare or keeping stock?


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    150

Tufelhundin

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I currently have 315 70 17 Cooper SST's but I waited for Walmart to put the Kenda Klever 35x10.5 on sale for a spare. I picked it up for $174.

Thinking if the Coopers ever wear out Ill go with the Kenda's. Very nice tires and like the narrow width.
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danielspivey

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Just curious on how many people plan to or have already upgraded their spare tire with the rest of their wheel setup.

I’m currently stock and trying to decide if it’s actually worth upgrading the spare tire. I plan on upgrading to 35s and if I run a flat I will use the spare only to make it to the tire shop. Most likely will patch.

Yes if you plan or have upgraded your spare.
No if you kept your spare with the donut it came with.
If other, comment if you went a different tire or wheel setup up from the rest of your current setup.
I think the biggest reason you would add a full size spare is when towing, especially heavy. I went from the stock sport tires to 34s. I tow a travel trailer that is around 6800 loaded 4-5 times a year, usually 40-150 miles one way. I have everything really dialed in with the WDH and I would be afraid of things being off with the wimpy spare. It’s important to be level, and distributed between all wheels evenly.

When not under load, I don’t think it would be a big deal, like on trails or regular roads. I upgraded mine to match the other 4 when as soon as I got my TT.
 

ShadowsPapa

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That orange setup looks too nice to use!
 

CrazyCooter

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Never run mis-matched tires on a limited slip situation.

I rebuilt this differential for a guy - some of the plates were blue.
Granted, he may have had other issues like the wrong fluid, etc..... it took a full clutch kit and all new bearings and seals to make it right.

There is always some "friction" with this type - the specs for this one were 45 pound/feet to break-away. In other words, one wheel on the ground, the other off the ground, it's supposed to take 45 pound/feet to turn the wheel that's off the ground. Even without torque on them, the clutches are pre-loaded a bit.

posi-plates_2011.jpg
Just did a theft recovery differential overhaul where the theif got a flat and drove at least 400 miles with a 32" spare and 37" tires on the rear axle.....Only thing that was usable was the housing and yoke
 

ShadowsPapa

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Just did a theft recovery differential overhaul where the theif got a flat and drove at least 400 miles with a 32" spare and 37" tires on the rear axle.....Only thing that was usable was the housing and yoke
Got pretty hot, eh?
I need to find the other pics of this - the pics showing the BLUE plates and warped plates.
 

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TheHime

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Just did a theft recovery differential overhaul where the theif got a flat and drove at least 400 miles with a 32" spare and 37" tires on the rear axle.....Only thing that was usable was the housing and yoke
Ok just this alone makes me want to get a matching spare lol.
 

CrazyCooter

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Got pretty hot, eh?
I need to find the other pics of this - the pics showing the BLUE plates and warped plates.
Hot? Full on exploded with steels, clutches, and spiders broken into pieces that went through the gear set. The smaller spare looked like did a burnout for 100's of miles.
 

CrazyCooter

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Ok just this alone makes me want to get a matching spare lol.
If you have an open diff or elocker, it's not as dire need. If you have a T/L then it will roach stuff pretty fast.
 
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CrazyCooter

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I have a LSD.
High priority then or put the spare on the front. Not sure yet how the stab/trac control will be affected by this though?
 

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High priority then or put the spare on the front. Not sure yet how the stab/trac control will be affected by this though?
Typically the truck will read all the sensors and notice that otherwise normal operation has one wheel speed sensor reading ~10% fast. Then it will throw an error, disable traction control, and treat that sensor as defective.
 

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If you have an open diff or elocker, it's not as dire need. If you have a T/L then it will roach stuff pretty fast.
Yup - as those spiders/carrier gears will just spin on the shaft and they're lubed by the lube being tossed up by the ring gear. The housings typically are shaped to put the lube where it's needed as things sling it around. It's pretty clever some of the channels inside the housing that literally guide the lube to shafts and bearings.

But those clutch packs in there can only take so much - they get hot, they heat the lube up and it's suddenly not enough to do what's needed. Hypoid gears are a balancing act, once things start to go to pieces those pieces are in the lube between the teeth of the pinion and ring gear and start tearing it apart.

I should post a couple of pics of the carrier bearings from my SX4 - with the inside end snapped off the axle. I was lucky with that thing, but then it had 190,000 hard miles on it, too.
 

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Don't forget to factor in Tire Rotation.

Definitely worth it if you follow a 4 tire w/spare rotation.
Jeep Gladiator Spare tire worth the upgrade? TIRE.ROTATION3.3
 

ShadowsPapa

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Don't forget to factor in Tire Rotation.

Definitely worth it if you follow a 4 tire w/spare rotation.
Jeep Gladiator Spare tire worth the upgrade? TIRE.ROTATION3.3
The Jeep manual that comes with the Grand Cherokee even says "use 5 tire rotation if you have matching spare tire/wheel" or words to that effect.
It keeps wear more even across all tires and extends tire life of the whole set because you spread wear over 5 tires because you are adding in a 5th.
Someone figuring tire life and expenses would figure that in.
 

HoustonGobi

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I always run a full size spare if I can. We travel across west Texas a lot. It can be a long way to travel to a tire store. I found a matching OEM wheel and bought a spare 37" tire. Fits perfectly under the bed. The size difference was too much for me to leave the factory 33" tire under the bed. I also do a 5 tire rotation now.

Jeep Gladiator Spare tire worth the upgrade? IMG_20200612_183223
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