No Spare Tire

[Chunkybeastracin@aol.com]

****. We recently purchased our first diesel pusher and one of the first things I noticed was there was no spare tire and no apparent place to carry one. Upon asking the dealer, I was told that these RVs did not come with spare tires due to liability reasons. Not sure if I was told some BS or if this is true.

My concern is being out on a stretch of highway with a no services, no cell phone coverage and getting a flat. How do you solve this problem? Do I just buy a spare, stuff it in one of the compartments and buy an extra-long breaker bar in hopes of loosening the 450-pound lug nuts in case of a flat? My old gas coaches always had spare tires and, while it was difficult, I was able to loosen the lug nuts and change/rotate tires.

[wolfe10]

No easy answer to this one.

You need to identify what is important to you and what is within your abilities.

If you are considering carrying a mounted spare: Can you safely jack up each wheel position of the coach, break loose lug nuts probably in the 500-600 ft lb range (even slight corrosion will add to the 450 ft lbs you mentioned) and remove a 250-pound (depending on tire size) tire and wheel, wrestle the new mounted tire/wheel off the roof or out of a bay and onto the hub? And finally, can you properly torque the lug nuts? This lug nut removal and torquing is more complicated than you think on the rear wheels, as you can not just use a breaker bar and pipe extension because of the offset. And when you add the extension to bring the breaker bar to "outside" the surface of the tire, you have to have a fulcrum -- whether stack of boards, blocks, etc. to support the breaker bar.

You also have to weigh the expense of purchasing a tire that will still need replacement due to age even if not used, the space and weight it takes up in your coach and your labor against the likelihood of a tire failure and your trade-off in terms of time to have roadside service come change your tire and wheel.

Another alternative, particularly good if you travel to areas where your particular tire size is not standard (like Mexico), is to carry an unmounted tire (much lighter). There are few places you take your coach that do not have roadside tire service available.

And the choice most make is to do nothing, knowing that they may have to pay a few bucks too much for a tire through road side service if one fails.

No right or wrong answers.

OUR CHOICE: When traveling in the U.S. or Canada, we carry no spare -- our size Michelin is fairly common. When traveling in Mexico, we carry an unmounted spare on the roof with a Sunbrella cover on it. And I do have the equipment to remove and replace the tire/wheel and have used it several times to do service work on the coach over the last 145,000 miles.

Brett

[tbutler]

Hey Chunky,

I'm not sure about the liability issue, I would think that is an excuse. The fact is that when you get to the tire size for diesel motor homes you are at a size that is very large, very heavy and the added weight and space it takes up are such big negatives that it is normally not carried with the coach.

One solution is to get your own spare tire, mounted on a rim and pack that with you along with the breaker bar and the jack needed to do your own tire change. Check to see what one of your tires weighs mounted on a rim! It may be more than you want to try to handle. I've moved one of these and it is not for the feint of heart. Some people who travel to Alaska will do carry a spare because of the great distances between towns along the Alaska highway and within Alaska. Most however don't do it unless they have plans to do lots of off pavement driving. You might be well advised to do this if you plan to travel extensively in Mexico or in other third world countries. In the case of Mexico and other third world countries, the tires will likely not be readily available. Besides taking up your storage space in the motor home, I have seen tires mounted on special brackets on trailers, rear hitches and in one unique case, on the front of the coach. That tire was on a bracket attached to the generator slide out so it was not in contact with the coach itself and would slide out with the generator so access to the generator would not be blocked.

Another solution is to have road service such as Coach Net or other road service. For about $100 per year, you will be covered for all kinds of breakdowns, running out of fuel, engine breakdown, brake lockup, flat tires, etc. I consider this service essential and have found it to be well worth the price paid. Even if you don't have to use it, you have the peace of mind knowing that if something goes wrong you can get aid. Will you get the right size tire immediately? Possibly not, it depends on where you are. They will be able to get you off the road to a repair location. If you are out of cell phone coverage area (becoming increasingly rare these days), you could hop in the toad and drive to where you could get phone service. I had to do that one time when an oil line broke while we were in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. It took several trips back and forth but we got a wrecker out to haul us in for repair. If that isn't a possibility, try calling 911. This was mentioned in an earlier posting. Your carrier may not have service but 911 calls will be relayed through any carrier if there is any signal at all in the area where you are. The third way to get around the cell coverage is to rely on flagging down a passing motorist. If you put out a NEED HELP sign, someone will send police or stop to help and convey a message.

If you carefully maintain your tires as your post suggests you will do, you should find that tire problems on the road are thankfully rare. I've had two tires go flat in over 8 years and 140,000 miles of full time living on the road. One was a front tire, way too exciting! The other was a rear tire just as we were parking at the Minnesota FMCA Convention two years ago.

[Chunkybeastracin@aol.com]

Thank you for your input. I was just wondering if spare tires were standard equipment on these coaches and it appears they are not. I would have to agree that carrying a spare would probably me more trouble than its worth especially trying to change one. I suppose its a flip of the coin and by taking care of the tires will reduce the odds of having that flat. I know that even muscling the tires around on my gas coach wore me out and I dont think I really want to tackle the bigger ones on these coaches.

Thanks, again, for your advice.

[jmonroe]

Many years ago now, we had a tire come apart on our rig on a trip to the Black Hills. The tire was an 'odd' size, at least for the Rapid City (Goodyear) dealer, and they had no replacement in stock, he'd get one shipped in. It took most of a week to get it there. I determined never to travel without a spare.

Our current MH came with no spare and no where to store one. I went on-line and found what has turned out to be a great solution. It is a spare tire carrier that slides into the hitch receiver, is big and robust enough to carry a 'bus sized' spare, and the hitch for our toad will slide right into it. It adds maybe 18 - 24" of overall length to our set up going down the road. Unfortunately, for the life of me I can neither remember the name of the manufacturer (I had the impression it was a small 'ma & pop' type of operation) nor the name of the company. The rig is in winter hybernation and it would be difficult to get at the information right now (both the web address and toll free number are on a plate right on the carrier). I want to say it cost just under $400. I just did a quick search and can't come up with it - sorry.

I do not carry a mounted spare. That would add a lot of weight on the reciever and would have been impossible for me to get onto the carrier. I do carry an unmounted tire of the same size and brand as what the coach came with.

[NWJeeper]

With our new Forest River Georgetown it was an option to order an unmounted spare and there is a "trunk" in which to store it. I had not been carrying it as the rig is new and I didn't foresee any problem for several years. Boy was I wrong. Due to a bad alignment from the factory both our front tires were shot and I didn't notice until we were in camp and someone pointed it out to us. Had to call a tire shop and of course they didn't carry that size, said they would have to order and it would take a week. Luckily he was able to find one at another dealer and get it overnight but if you are pressed for time you don't want to be waiting for one to come in. Needless to say I put the spare back in the minute we got home.

[kalynzoo]

In preparation for a Tracks Copper Canyon trip I purchased a used 22.5 tire from a local truck dealer who had just replaced all the tires on a motorhome. At the time of purchase it was within the 5 years of acceptable dating to me, and had reasonable tread and a good sidewall. It is stored unmounted deep in the storage bay, center coach. My travel friend purchased an extra serpentine belt, since we both have similar rigs (not the same but close enough) we were covered.

Never needed either. But I now have outdated rubber, which I can use to get me on the road till I can purchase a new tire. Still, to get roadside service, then to mount the tire, I bet I would lose at least a full day of vacation, if not two. But that is all in the fun of motorhoming.

Having watched my tires being replace this year, as I purchased new when the old were over 5 years, I realize that I could never, in my wildest dreams change my own on the coach.

Happy Trails.

[Chunkybeastracin@aol.com]

Thanks for the great input. I think carrying a unmounted spare tire is a great idea. For those of you that carry a unmounted spare and had the misfortune of a flat tire did the road side servcie you use have the ability to mount the tire for you on the spot or did you still have to be towed in to have that done

[NWJeeper]

Thanks for the great input. I think carrying a unmounted spare tire is a great idea. For those of you that carry a unmounted spare and had the misfortune of a flat tire did the road side service you use have the ability to mount the tire for you on the spot or did you still have to be towed in to have that done

Hey Chunk, I couldn't believe how they do it. I'm sure some trucks may be set up with a lot of gadgets but we had ours changed in an RV park by a mobile truck from the local tire dealer. I used the front levelers to lift the front end high enough to remove the tires. They had a good sized air compressor and a 1" drive air impact driver to remove the lugs. The guy then removed the valve stem and deflated the tire. He then broke the bead with a large sledge being careful not to hit my Alcoa rims. Once broke he pulled out a couple of really big tire irons and proceeded to manually remove the tire from the rim. He put the new one on the same way, just with the irons. Once he had one side on he dropped in a bag of dynamic balancer called "Equal" and then finished mounting up the tire. They don't have a balancer machine on the trucks but the Equal worked great. He then proceeded to remount the tire and rim and that was that.

Pretty much just like changing out a bicycle tire only much bigger tire irons.

[Chunkybeastracin@aol.com]

Hey Chunk, I couldn't believe how they do it. I'm sure some trucks may be set up with a lot of gadgets but we had ours changed in an RV park by a mobile truck from the local tire dealer. I used the front levelers to lift the front end high enough to remove the tires. They had a good sized air compressor and a 1" drive air impact driver to remove the lugs. The guy then removed the valve stem and deflated the tire. He then broke the bead with a large sledge being careful not to hit my Alcoa rims. Once broke he pulled out a couple of really big tire irons and proceeded to manually remove the tire from the rim. He put the new one on the same way, just with the irons. Once he had one side on he dropped in a bag of dynamic balancer called "Equal" and then finished mounting up the tire. They don't have a balancer machine on the trucks but the Equal worked great. He then proceeded to remount the tire and rim and that was that.

Pretty much just like changing out a bicycle tire only much bigger tire irons.

Hey Jeeper, thats pretty amazing. I would have thought they would have some protable tire machine. I remember trying to just change a motorcycle tire by hand with some tire irons, what a bear that was. I really appreciate your guys input as at first I thought I really got in over my head buying this type of RV, but listenting to your advise makes these machines seem more people friendly.

Happy New Year and again thanks for the advise, it sure is nice to find a site with friendly, HELPFUL, people.

[garykd]

Hi ChunkyBeastracin,

I agree with what has been post and the +/- of carrying a spare. I carry a fully mounted spare tire. My situation is the odd size tire (275X70X22.5). I have changed the tire on the right front and right rear inside dual. I carry all the tools to do this (including the torque wrench). I also carry about a gallon of Slime and tire patch kits. The bottom line is that I'll to this only in an emergency when there is no communication capability available. My first choice is to call Coach-Net.

[Chunkybeastracin@aol.com]

Hi ChunkyBeastracin,

I agree with what has been post and the +/- of carrying a spare. I carry a fully mounted spare tire. My situation is the odd size tire (275X70X22.5). I have changed the tire on the right front and right rear inside dual. I carry all the tools to do this (including the torque wrench). I also carry about a gallon of Slime and tire patch kits. The bottom line is that I'll to this only in an emergency when there is no communication capability available. My first choice is to call Coach-Net.

Hello, Gary, what do you use to break loose the lug nuts, do you just use a extra long breaker bar? I think if changing a flat is a option for the meere mortal person I would like to have that option as a last resort.

[garykd]

Hi ChunkyBeastracin,

I use a 3/4" air impact wrench that is on steroids. That thing will break your wrists if your not prepared. I also carry an 18 gallon compressor that delivers 150 PSI at the hose tip. In almost 35 years of using that air wrench there has never been a bolt/nut it didn't take care of in short order.