To have a spare tire, or NOT?
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To have a spare tire, or NOT?

Gladiator Max

Gladiator Max

Well-known member
I've been on the fence about going larger than 38" for my rig, but as you may know that tire will no longer fit on the spare tire spot. I'm sure other offroad rigs face this same problem. So to be able to have the large wheels, do you say screw it and go for it with no spare? Or do you keep the smaller wheels and keep the spare safety net?
 
Where do you drive, can you easily call for a tow truck, do you mind driving home on a rim and can you fix a huge gash in a sidewall?

My answers are No, No, Maybe.
Last fall I tore the sidewall out on one of my new KO3's. I was pissed. I never found what did it but the gash looked like a large chunk of metal did it. Narrow perfect graded dirt road and I was vehicle number six. The gash was way bigger then i could fix. I also found out that the new jack I got wouldn't go high enough.
UGH.

If I had to, I would rather have a slightly undersized tire then none at all. If you have a rear limited slip, you better not drive far with mismatched tires on an axle. Burns them right out. The mismatched one is going on the front.
 
Have you tried deflating the spare tire? Also there are some side wall tire repair kits out there that you might want to consider.
 
GunRunner said:
Have you tried deflating the spare tire?
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Yeah, needed several more inchs. The issue with deflating was, the spare had a new stiff sidewall. Deflated it still kept its size.
As for sidewall repairs, I can fix most but this one was easily six inch long. Even if it was small, I would fix it only to get home to replace the tire. Any repair you make, especially the sidewall is now a weak spot.
 
There is spare tire holder that bolts onto your rear bumper. It swings out and that should solve your problem.
 
smritte said:
Yeah, needed several more inchs. The issue with deflating was, the spare had a new stiff sidewall. Deflated it still kept its size.
As for sidewall repairs, I can fix most but this one was easily six inch long. Even if it was small, I would fix it only to get home to replace the tire. Any repair you make, especially the sidewall is now a weak spot.
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True, but that patch should only be designed (which I assume) to get you back to pavement where you can get help. Or if close to home, creep home.
 
Carlos said:
True, but that patch should only be designed (which I assume) to get you back to pavement where you can get help. Or if close to home, creep home.
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Absolutely.
Unfortunately, I've seen people driving on those with the attitude "its holding air so its good". Cant fix stupid.
In my early rock crawl days, it wasn't uncommon to tear six to eight tires between 4 vehicles. We would have to fix the sidewall to keep going. Our record was one of my buddies, 8 tires in two days.
 
Yea, early rock crawl days. Poor tires and learning lines. Most of us were running BFG mud terrains. It was so bad that Americas tires were road hazarding hundreds of tires. They ended up voiding warranties on tires if you claimed too many. The stores weren't linked so you went to a diffrent store each time. Rocks out here have sharp edges.
 
smritte said:
Where do you drive, can you easily call for a tow truck, do you mind driving home on a rim and can you fix a huge gash in a sidewall?

My answers are No, No, Maybe.
Last fall I tore the sidewall out on one of my new KO3's. I was pissed. I never found what did it but the gash looked like a large chunk of metal did it. Narrow perfect graded dirt road and I was vehicle number six. The gash was way bigger then i could fix. I also found out that the new jack I got wouldn't go high enough.
UGH.

If I had to, I would rather have a slightly undersized tire then none at all. If you have a rear limited slip, you better not drive far with mismatched tires on an axle. Burns them right out. The mismatched one is going on the front.
Click to expand...
My concern is for the days when I’m not on the pavement or close to pavement. I can’t imagine having to call for tow when I’m 15 miles on a two lane sketchy back country road. The cost would be enormous!
 
Most of the tow companies out here wont go much past pavement. At least without adding zero's to the price tag
 
I would be scared going into offgrid without a spare, especially when there is no cell coverage.
 
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