How many of you carry a spare tire?

[Evil Morty]

I've had to change tires on my old rollback, an 71 L7000 on Daytons. I originally had 9.00/20 and I swapped to 11r22.5 I took some advice from the local medium duty truck scrapper and NEVER put your hands on top of the tire while it's on the jack. Always block the tires in both directions, the ground you are on might not be as level as it seems and big vehicles may not balance the way they look they will. They can twist. Good call on wood under the bottle jack. Personally I'd never use a wheeled jack on a bus unless it was one of the ones made for heavy trucks. I know lots of people have never had a problem with a 3 ton but I've had a 5 year old jack weep down once. That was enough.
I have one of those torque multipliers like in the first link, for my M500 dodge with those budd lugs. Works great, very slow if the nut has to be turned off the whole way due to rust. Quality looks meh, but it holds up under use as intended. I intend to carry a spare. When I changed on the rollback, I used an old jack handle for leverage on a 1/2" breaker, wishing I had a 1" breaker. It looked awfully springy. Learned something doing that.
I plan on bringing a spare.

[Iceni John]

Originally Posted by TheArgobus

I'm looking at picking up one of these: https://www.amazon.com/Pro-Lift-B-00...dp/B00DGXVUY8/


My bus is rated for a GVWR of 9600 pounds, so I figured that's around 2,400 per wheel and a two ton jack should be plenty fine to replace a single tire.



But how do you use the steel plates in conjunction with the jack? Put one on the ground to support it, and one under the frame for the same thing? Is there any slippage?

I suggest you get a jack of more than just 2 tons capacity! If that were my bus I would use 5-ton jacks at a minimum.

The steel plates are for if the ground were soft. I also have lots of scraps of plywood, but they're not going to support any real weight. I only put the jacks under the axles' lifting pads, never anywhere else. If I'm raising the bus a lot, the 6" x 8" timbers go under the tires.

John

[Ronnie]

steel plate is good but then put a piece of plywood on it for slip resistance.

20 ton jack for me. I know oversized, but at least it will not be straining.

[Native]

I'm with you on the 20-ton jack!

[HazMatt]

I was fortunate that my bus came with a mounted, brand new drive tire. If, Dawg forbid, she ever pulls up lame I'll have to call Good Sam roadside to do the swap out.

Would like to mount it up under the back bumper. I've kept it lashed down behind the driver's seat & fridge thus far, and it's worked well. 🤞

Wish there was some way to mount it up on the nose, like I did way back when with my VW Westphalias. I'd never be able to single-handedly close the hood again, tho...

[Kubla]

Only reason I have a spare tire on the bus is that it had one when I bought it, mounted under the back of the bus on a rim. If I were to start taking long multi week trips I would carry another tire with me because of the price of new tires on the road

[Sharee100]

I have 100 miles free towing 4 times per year. And I have new tires (all 6) with less than 250 miles on them.

[Roberta's Man]

Is there something like AAA for RV's/Busses?

[Elliot Naess]

The trucking industry now relies heavily on "road service" -- that is, roadside repair. This costs hecka less than towing!
And it avoids losing a second tire by trying to make it to the next town on a single where there should be a pair to support the weight.

Pretty much any truck stop, any Les Schwab tire store, and many other commercial tires stores will come out on short notice.
And if your tire size is common, they can probably bring the tire you need -- though you may not be impressed with the price.

So.... Many truckers carry a spare TIRE.
Only the tire -- no rim.
This saves weight, and makes it easier for the driver to move the spare by hand if he needs to.
Also, without a rim, the tire is presumably less attractive to thieves.
Keep an eye behind the cab of 18-wheelers and you will see them. They are often wrapped in plastic, for two reasons:
To keep dirt out of the inside.
And to signal that the tire is a good tire, ready to use. (Not a defective tire that was forgotten.)

Regarding tread patterns....
Few of us use full-size tires on a trailer, but in trucking the system is:
Brand new rib tread on the steering, replace often, and move the old ones to the trailer.
Recap block tread on the drive axles.
When the trailer tires -- former steer tires -- reach their wear limit, they are recapped as block tread drive tires.

Finally, an unimportant anecdote:
At the trucking company, when we bought new trailers, we ordered them with steer tires. As soon as the trailers arrived at our shop, we took these tires off and used them on steer axles, and installed "whatever" tires on the trailers. It was the cheapest way to buy new steer tires!

[Patlandy]

Originally Posted by Roberta's Man

Is there something like AAA for RV's/Busses?

Yeah... AAA
Cheap ad-on to your regular AAA

[Sharee100]

Yes. I have what they call Premium RV service. It was just a few dollars more per year. They classified my bus as an RV. I told them I was in the process of converting it and would be spending a lot of time in it. For roadside service they didn't care. I have a combined plan with my son as a 2nd member. He gets 4 roadside services for free, too.

[s2mikon]

I bought one of the torque multiplier sets like the one on amazon, I got mine on flea-bay, and I have to admit it works very good. It will remove the lug nuts after the tire shop hammers them on with a 1" drive impact. I just installed 6 new tires and wheels on mine 11r 24.5 and it worked like a dream. Worth every penny I paid.

[Dirtdoctor]

On big truck tires- only on my fire truck so I carry a spare rubber only no rim. On my bus I have the phone number for Les Schwab tires. They drive to my flat tire and swap it out.

In a pinch your dual tire can be your spare.
Cheers

[Sleddgracer]

both duals on my 31,000 GVW loaded truck blew out with a loud BANG sounding like one loud explosion - ( perhaps ran over something on the road - it was at night ) - I called OK Tire ( because I had an account with them ) and explained that I really didn't want to buy new tires because the truck was on the way to the auction to be sold - I was on the highway, quite a way from the town where the store was and thought I'd be in for a long wait - a young guy showed up long before I expected he would - he must have left the shop moments after I phoned - he brought 2 decent used tires, and changed them both quickly and had my truck ready to roll in no time - charged me $50 each for the two tires and $100 for the call - I was very pleased with the service and the cost

[HazMatt]

Fortunate no one was alongside of you: one of those beauties blowing out creates an impressive concussive force. Not sure how much worse coupling that with the inboard hand-grenading simultaneously woulda been...

[o1marc]

Originally Posted by haz.matt.1960

Fortunate no one was alongside of you: one of those beauties blowing out creates an impressive concussive force. Not sure how much worse coupling that with the inboard hand-grenading simultaneously woulda been...

I was cruising the interstate on my motorcycle when the big rig to my right and ahead of me decided to release a complete section of retread about 6" x 3'. Hit me in the knee and damn near spun me right off the bike. Ruined my day.

[HazMatt]

You were VERY lucky! (Like ya need me to inform you of that) When I still had a bike, I made a point of dropping the hammer when passing big rigs. Partially due the astronomically miniscule probability of a tire choosing that instant to detonate, mainly to get the heck outta Dodge &/or driver's blind spot.

I'll take a Japanese beetle or a bumble bee between the headlights at 70 over that experience, thankya very much!

Originally Posted by o1marc

I was cruising the interstate on my motorcycle when the big rig to my right and ahead of me decided to release a complete section of retread about 6" x 3'. Hit me in the knee and damn near spun me right off the bike. Ruined my day.

Buddy of mine who logged considerable mileage driving OTR stated to me the sudden release of that much pressure equals a considerable quantity of a single stick of TNT, at close range, natch.

[Sleddgracer]

Originally Posted by haz.matt.1960

Fortunate no one was alongside of you: one of those beauties blowing out creates an impressive concussive force. Not sure how much worse coupling that with the inboard hand-grenading simultaneously woulda been...

it could have been a lot worse - if l remember, the sidewalls facing each other were what blew - who knows, maybe l had picked up a rock

[HazMatt]

Originally Posted by Sleddgracer

it could have been a lot worse - if l remember, the sidewalls facing each other were what blew - who knows, maybe l had picked up a rock

I don't doubt your veracity in the least, but I gotta wonder:

What're the odds..?

[Sleddgracer]

Originally Posted by o1marc

I was cruising the interstate on my motorcycle when the big rig to my right and ahead of me decided to release a complete section of retread about 6" x 3'. Hit me in the knee and damn near spun me right off the bike. Ruined my day.

a lot of pressure and a lot of air in those tires - was working next door to a tire shop ( same building, side by side with just a wall between us ) when we heard a 'cannon' go off - we rushed next door to see what had happened - the tire guys were standing there, wide eyes, mouths open, and the heavy duty safety rack used while inflating tires was reshaped in the form of a basket ball - lol - the snap ring had blown off the rim as the tire was being inflated hard enough to set the ring, I was told