Spare Tire

You don't need a spare tyre until you need a spare tyre! The people who are most likely to need one are the ones who delete them for 4x4 weight and clearance reasons.

I changed a tyre on my wife's car a few weeks ago and its the first flat I have change in about 30 odd years other than a Trucks trailer re caps.

If you look at all the situations you may need a recovery tow for then you just need to add a flat unpreparable tyre to the list and carry other repair methods and its fine.

A spare tyre is for convenience but its a convenience I personally would rather keep, I don't have one on my motorbike or fat e bike Slime is the answer for them. I think it would cost a small fortune to Slime 33,s and above and it wouldn't help with a sidewall tear anyway which would be the biggest problem with a 4x4 given you can plug most flats to get you out of a situation.

For me a spare tire falls into the rule of “it’s better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.”

I don’t run a spare. I carry a valve stem replacement tool, a tire plug kit, and a compressor. Could I get a flat? Yes. Have I had a flat in all the places I’ve wheeled? No. Not yet. Will I eventually mount it in the tub? Yes. I just don’t want it on the back. It scrapes all the time. It also impedes vision.

EDIT: and the Jeep performs better in every way.

Spare tires and fire extinguishers...you don't need them until you need them.

Well...I carry a spare...and a plug kit. Lots of sharp rocks cut sidewalls.

Another use for a spare is winching or recovery rope...put the rope over the tire to get some lift to break suction.

-Mac

Old_Crow said:

Spare tires and fire extinguishers...you don't need them until you need them.

Click to expand...

And guns.

JEEPCJTJ said:

And guns.

Click to expand...

And gold and girls and God!

Another thing to consider when not carrying a spare is the other types of vehicles that you wheel with.
TJ's and JK/JL/JT's have different bolt patterns. As do the Toyota's and the 8 lug guys.
My TJ is 5 on 5.5 so their spares (wheels) are useless on mine. And breaking down someone else's bead lock is just a hassle.
I'd rather switch to my own spare and move on if my tire is fubar'd

Yeah, there are scenarios in which a spare might be more of a hindrance than a help, but as a general rule, I want a spare.

This is a nuanced conversation without a lot of hard and fast rules. Everyone's situation and reasoning could be different, even from one wheeling trip to the next.

- Are you running 33" or smaller tires? No big deal either way, keep the spare or don't, it won't matter much either way in terms of what your rig can or can't do on the trail.
- Do you trailer your Jeep? Keep the spare on the trailer unless you're heading way out into the weeds from the trailhead.
- Do you daily drive your Jeep? Most of the issues you're likely to have on the road (nails, screws, debris, etc. causing a puncture) could be fixed with a plug kit, spare is optional.
- Do you do some pretty extreme wheeling which might rip the sidewall? Might be good to have a spare with you unless your trailer is walking distance away. Don't forget, you still gotta get that big-ass tire all the way back to wherever your Jeep is on the trail.

Mine is mounted in my tub with a JCR Prerunner mount.



I can remove the spare, and the mount, and put the rear seat back in if I want to. (Generally, this doesn't really happen, but could. When I trailer it down to TN in a few months for a wheeling trip there — friend's trailer — I might pull the tire out.)

When you get to 38" tires it's just too big to keep the tire on the tailgate. It's a bad place for it and the tire carrier adds a bunch more weight which is undesirable.

-JC

Kon said:

I have been watching this channel lately and just bumped into this video.

My understanding from what I have seen and discussed so far is that carryon a spare even if it’s heavy and causes other sorts of trouble is necessary.

Thought on the video and the channel in general for those that have watched it…

Click to expand...

That guys voice is a clone of the product evaluator on Extreme Terrain. Like, I think he watched that guy then recorded this video.

macleanflood said:

Well...I carry a spare...and a plug kit. Lots of sharp rocks cut sidewalls.

-Mac

Click to expand...

I wish I took a picture on new years day of the sidewall slice that would have needed a football to plug. Luckily it wasn't my tire that blew out when it slid into the side of a tree root on the way up a steep muddy hill.

Really I would have taken a picture of the tree root too, if I didn't get there as it was being macheted* off. It's not like it was broken off and sticking out like a railroad spike. It was more like the knuckle of your finger if your knuckle was the only part exposed by the grooves cut into the hill by Goddess knows now many previous tires that went up.



* I checked to see if that was spelled right. Yes it is. It's the past tense of the verb machete which I wasn't even sure could be a verb. Why there's no "ie" or "y" at the end as a noun or verb I'll never know. English = the most difficult first (and only) language I'll ever have.

Reasons like this are why I carry a spare tire. I was considering not carrying one due to my sidewalls being Kevlar reinforced but it's a good thing I decided to keep carrying it.

There is no right answer, it's just opportunity cost like everything in life. Recently on the Bradshaw trail I had a friend blow a tire and destroy a rim. It was a weekend trip and instead of blowing whole thing driving hours out and back to get a tire fixed we simply put the spare on and continued the trip. For us time scheduling a trip is a huge consideration and having a spare is a small price to pay if it saves a trip. Personally I've destroyed a rim in Death Valley and blown a tire on a completely easy section on a trail in Santa Barbara so I have one. But just because I carry one doesn't mean it's right for everybody. If you've got a trailer at basecamp and it's a few minutes out and back who cares? Just use some common sense the next time you're out wheeling, what happens if XYZ breaks here, what is my plan? Planning on things not breaking is foolish in my opinion.

Edit: reading my own post it occurs to me a big part of this is, you aren't just carrying a spare tire, no patch kit is going to fix a busted wheel

JEEPCJTJ said:

And guns.

Click to expand...

I'm in Cali, I lost all my guns in a...boating accident. Yeah, that's it, a boating accident.

Kon said:

I have been watching this channel lately and just bumped into this video.

My understanding from what I have seen and discussed so far is that carryon a spare even if it’s heavy and causes other sorts of trouble is necessary.

Thought on the video and the channel in general for those that have watched it…

Click to expand...

New to the site. Built this to mount my spare and gear. Works great and also locks the good stuff inside the tailgate.

329art said:

New to the site. Built this to mount my spare and gear. Works great and also locks the good stuff inside the tailgate.

View attachment 301469

View attachment 301470

Click to expand...

Nice looking fab job. I thouights about something similar but wanted the tire a little lower in the tub for CG. That looks GREAT though, and very functional. Congrats.

So far, pretty happy with it. Have a big cable lock also going through wheel and to floor seat mount just in case. REALLY like being able to stow gear under there. Used existing hard top mounting holes so no drilling either. I can pop the rear window and side curtains and stuff them under there too.

The 100 lb weight penalty and space in the tub is worth the piece of mind if I ever need it and the hike out of the woods. I don’t trailer my Jeep so it’s worth carrying a spare so I can make it home.