How many of you carry a spare tire?

I plan on it, I have a extra steer tire. Making a mount and lift system for behind the fuel tank. I will carry a high torque Milwaukee M18 1/2” drive impact and a 12 ton bottle Jack.
 
Dually and spare tire issues

Im a commercial trucker, with a fleet of trucks 26,000gvw and greater.
Under inflated tires will develop heat and explode. Even a tire 10 pounds under the listed psi will cause extra heat and wear. Soft tires (under-Inflated) tend to hold on to things between the duals. Rocks that are fist size etc. Those get wedged and wear out the side wall. OLD tires are the worse. They look great until you start to drive along and then they fail. After all WHOO goes and checks their bus tires every time they turn the key to go somewhere? ITS A CHECKLIST pre TRIP checklist item for commercial trucks. A good thing to learn.

Getting the right tire for the job PARAMOUNT to a good trip.
I have never carried a spare tire and RIM, My fire trucks have a spare Tire because when you are out in the boondocks and tear a tire you have to make sure you have the same size with you. Not all tires shops carry the right size for your vehicle.

Les Schwab is my go to when I'm away from my hometown tire shop. Ive never waited more than a couple hours to get back on the road.

Cheers and remember to chain and lock your spare. Tires are speedy and folks often steal them. If you are in the sticks and blow a tire. Pull one off the duals and put it where the flat steer tire was. SURE I know its a very temporary thing unless you run virgin rubber all the way around. But in a pinch it will get you to the next town. Double check the torque for your lug nuts. Its easy to screw that up by hand.
Cheers to keeping the Buses going.
Jack
 
With the back and dirt roads we are driving I doubt that we could expect to much service. We have Sams . When we bought dory I got a pretty nice set of used bridgestone tires and a spare for $600. Bought a torque multiplier and low 20 ton bottle jack and removed all wheels one by one. Good experience.
 
Hey Marc, I was on GA400 two days ago, cruisin' along when the BOOM happened, and my car shook. I though it was my car! The car next to me started swerving, then I noticed the box truck 200 feet way in front of him blew an outer rear tire. It was GONE.:eek: Dust on the road, one small strip of rubber in my lane. The inner was blown also, and still hanging on the rim, steel wheels rolling on blacktop. The heavy-duty rear steel bumper was on the ground sending sparks in the air. He steered it at 70MPH from the center lane (4 lanes plus the on-ramp lane) to the shoulder quickly and safely. Wow!

My rear tires on one side are retreads, and the seam is splitting, though the tread looks great. They are getting replaced with new ones. Especially after seeing that! I'm either gonna get 4 new ones and use the other rear tires as spares, or if the others have enough tread left to be the same height as new ones, only get 2 new ones (I'm broke, yea!). I don't want to stress out my rear diff.
 

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For tire removal and instillation, I'm thinking of a 3/4" or 1" pneumatic impact wrench (I'm going to set it up with a tool-hose fitting and valve anyway). No 1/2" impact wrench I've ever seen will remove the lugs nuts on my bus at 450+ ft-lbs. A Honda crank pulley bolt is about that, if I remember, and, yes it takes a 3/4" drive "sliding-T" breaker bar with a 5' floor-jack tubular handle from a 4-ton floor jack slid over to extend it, for me to break loose that nut. And AAA does not come out to BLM lands in the middle of no-wheres. But you better believe I'll call them on the road (I have the RV upgrade)!

And a 20 ton bottle jack, if not too high for my axle. How many 2 ton floor jacks have I blown out on simple Hondas and WVs?
 
When a big rig tire lets loose, it sometimes takes out the axle oil seal. The sudden increase in pressure tears the seal, going into the axle housing, and increasing the pressure inside the housing. An instant later... that excess air comes back out -- bringing with it a pint or two of oil to spread all over the brakes. All in a day's work. lol
 
My Milwaukee 1/2” M18 has the max torque of 1000ft lbs forward and 1400ft lbs In reverse. I use one to change tires on service calls. The Milwaukee tool number is 2767-22, that is for a kit with 2 batteries.
Also if you have air brakes, you can install an air coupler and use air tools.
 
I dont carry a spare... I dont have the body strength to put it on if I did.. im not sure if mobile rigs will put on a customer tire or not.. I know shops are more touchy about it these days than they used to be..

does anyone hav e experience with that? mobile rigs installing customer-provided tires?
-Christopher
 
I got an outside dually flat in the Shenandoah mountains about a hour+ outside of Front Royal, the local city, with no spare. No cell coverage and a long bike ride to get it. Turned around and drove slowly until I could call AAA, with whom I had to argue about whether a small school bus was covered under the RV policy. At last and some people later a tow truck was on the way. Tow only, no chance of bringing a tire.

Never used the tow truck as after some hours I decided to keep driving at a slow speed. First garage didn't have the right weight limit, second did. I was charged $120 or so for a cheapie and we headed out.

Since then, I had a winch mounted, bought another rim and that tire is now my spare. Still, I don't plan on jacking the 6 ton bus and managing the lug nuts, etc; the tire is for the tow truck driver to either swap out or be used by the garage to which I am eventually towed.

I didn't think through just how low the tire sits though and I wonder if it'll scrape and explode on a backwoods road. In retrospect, I would have put the spare in a storage area - for me under the bed - and saved the money spent on the welder.
 
cadillackid said:
I dont carry a spare... I dont have the body strength to put it on if I did.. im not sure if mobile rigs will put on a customer tire or not.. I know shops are more touchy about it these days than they used to be..

does anyone hav e experience with that? mobile rigs installing customer-provided tires?
-Christopher
Click to expand...

I am in the same boat. I cannot manhandle an 11r22.5 or 24.5 wheel and tire.

My roadside tire tools are from Verizon and Visa.....

Great question about customer provided tires. I have been having more issues with shops telling me no out of liability concerns.

Last time I went to. Schwab they made me sign a liability release before they would fix a flat on my truck.
 
Spare Tire.

I carry a Spare Tire and keep a makita 1" electric impact to loosen the lug nuts.
I use the generator to run it, it is a good plan to have a way to change your tire on the road.
 
cadillackid said:
I dont carry a spare... I dont have the body strength to put it on if I did.. im not sure if mobile rigs will put on a customer tire or not.. I know shops are more touchy about it these days than they used to be..

does anyone hav e experience with that? mobile rigs installing customer-provided tires?
-Christopher
Click to expand...

Hey don't feel bad. This tire/wheel rolled down the hill about 20'. I went down to roll it back up the hill. I was disappointed to find I could not get it up the hill, had to hook a chain to it and pull it up with the truck.
 

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PNW_Steve said:
I am in the same boat. I cannot manhandle an 11r22.5 or 24.5 wheel and tire.

My roadside tire tools are from Verizon and Visa.....

Great question about customer provided tires. I have been having more issues with shops telling me no out of liability concerns.

Last time I went to. Schwab they made me sign a liability release before they would fix a flat on my truck.
Click to expand...
Off-topic but I got Scheister-ized by schwabb anyway last summer.. lol. they suck in my book!!
 
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