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Anyone Ever Use/change Their Spare Tire

mjager

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mjager Enthusiast

mjager

Posted
Posted

Took mine off today, wanted to reduce a bit of weight off the rear end. Good thing I have an owners manual, pretty complicated task if you ask me. I'd have had no idea without some directions.

 

Actually pretty slick how you ratchet it down and out, but seems like a very over engineered way of getting at a spare.

cmoore74 Enthusiast

cmoore74

Posted
Posted

According to Murphy's law when you're not carrying around the spare is when you will have a flat.

 

I've needed my spare a couple of times here and there on the last two vehicles. Usually the flat is due to garbage in the road (nails, bolts, and other various objects).

 

I would leave the spare in place. You'll be kicking yourself if you need it and it's not there.

 

My guess is they may have had law-suits from jack-a$$es dropping the tire on themselves while unbolting it under the truck.

GM Dude Enthusiast

GM Dude

Posted
Posted

I have not changed a tire using my spare but I did have to remove it to give me a little working rom when I changed out the differential gears. I know what you mean...I have owned GM trucks for many years and have never had to remove the spare until recently. Use the key to remove the lock and then insert the jack rods and turn clockwise until the ratchet unlocks and then lower. I feel sorry for anyone up north when its 0 degrees outside and that darn thing is frozen solid.

Mule Enthusiast

Mule

Posted
Posted
I I feel sorry for anyone up north when its 0 degrees outside and that darn thing is frozen solid.

 

Which is why I put it in the back of my Yukon the first week I had it. Besides, (on a Yukon), the tire hits any kind of larger exhaust (Flowmaster cat-back, Banks). Nice burn mark on the tire. I am going to make an inside side mount like the two-door Yukons fom the 90's. I did help a guy with an Avalanche change his this winter. The wheel and tire were coated with dirt, rust and the tire was flat. Not fun at negative 10.

Giant Enthusiast

Giant

Posted
Posted

If you have a full sized spare its always a good idea to rotate it with the rest of your tires, it will not only ensure that it is properly inflated and in good shape, but you will get abit more use out of all your tires as you are wearing on 5 instead of 4. Not to mention if all 5 tires are of the same type and wear percentage, it gives you a bit more time to fix the flat then if you had one tire that was 100% tread and different fromt he rest. In this case you would want to replace the spare sooner as to prempt any premature wear in the rest of the tires.

 

-Robert-

Draenor Senior Enthusiast

Draenor

Posted
Posted

Never used it yet in my '04, but I check the operation once a year and air pressure twice a year. In my '98 I have used it plenty, enough to where I have another spare. I put alot of miles on it and I am usually at home construction sites, where there is alot of debris just waiting to puncture some rubber.

kdirectorate Enthusiast

kdirectorate

Posted
Posted

I removed my spare as well as the spare bracket/mounting hardware after I went with aftermarket wheels. The sizes were all off so it was senseless to keep it. ...and while I know how to and have changed my spare in the past, after being trapped on the freeway with no room to get out of my truck (on more than one occasion), I decided I would leave the dirty work to AAA. That's what the membership dues are for right? :cool:

dietz4ibanez Senior Enthusiast

dietz4ibanez

Posted
Posted

My truck didnt have a spare tire when I got and the first thing that I did to it was put exhaust on my truck. And then when I got to thinking about it I thought that it would be a good thing to have a spare tire! Well I found out that it wouldnt fit because of the way that I ran my exhaust. I tried to keep the spare in the bed but it just got in the way!

 

So I had to redo my exhaust to make it fit! But I am sure glad that I have it!

uh6077 Enthusiast

uh6077

Posted
Posted

For all you northern guys make sure you lube you cable every year. My truck spent it's whole life in NY and NH. I boughtit here in TN and about a month later I pulled into my driveway and the spare was laying there behind my truck. The cable snapped and the cable is the only thing holding the tire up. Thankfully it fell off in my driveway and not out on the road where someone could hve been hurt. All you need to do is lower the spare and put some grease on it. WD40 is not good enough, you need something will stay on. Needless to say the wheel was rusted beyond repair. I have larger tires anyway so I went and got a nice used wheel and tire to match for a spare.

mljenkins Enthusiast

mljenkins

Posted
Posted
If you have a full sized spare its always a good idea to rotate it with the rest of your tires, it will not only ensure that it is properly inflated and in good shape, but you will get abit more use out of all your tires as you are wearing on 5 instead of 4. Not to mention if all 5 tires are of the same type and wear percentage, it gives you a bit more time to fix the flat then if you had one tire that was 100% tread and different fromt he rest. In this case you would want to replace the spare sooner as to prempt any premature wear in the rest of the tires.

 

-Robert-

 

I was always under the imression it was better to rotate the spare in with the rest of the tires. We had a 2-wheel drive 1995 Ford F150 whose owner's manual said to rotate the spare in. I asked the Chevy dealer about this, and they told me on the 4x4 they did not rotate the spare in. The guy said the tires needed to wear evenly on a 4x4. I still think it would be better, but I'm not a mechanic by no means.

 

I have taken the spare off before to put my hitch in and it was a real pain in the butt. The whole time I was thinking I hope I never have to do this on the side of the road when it's snowing out. However, I'd rather it be down there than anywhere else sucking up space.

 

Matt

Silverado4x4 Senior Enthusiast

Silverado4x4

Posted
Posted
If you have a full sized spare its always a good idea to rotate it with the rest of your tires, it will not only ensure that it is properly inflated and in good shape, but you will get abit more use out of all your tires as you are wearing on 5 instead of 4. Not to mention if all 5 tires are of the same type and wear percentage, it gives you a bit more time to fix the flat then if you had one tire that was 100% tread and different fromt he rest. In this case you would want to replace the spare sooner as to prempt any premature wear in the rest of the tires.

 

-Robert-

You cant use the spare to rotate because the rim is a differant style then the rest of the rims on the truck on just about all trucks and SUVs.
2004GMC1500CC Enthusiast

2004GMC1500CC

Posted
Posted
If you have a full sized spare its always a good idea to rotate it with the rest of your tires, it will not only ensure that it is properly inflated and in good shape, but you will get abit more use out of all your tires as you are wearing on 5 instead of 4. Not to mention if all 5 tires are of the same type and wear percentage, it gives you a bit more time to fix the flat then if you had one tire that was 100% tread and different fromt he rest. In this case you would want to replace the spare sooner as to prempt any premature wear in the rest of the tires.

 

-Robert-

You cant use the spare to rotate because the rim is a differant style then the rest of the rims on the truck on just about all trucks and SUVs.

 

 

 

Well, you can, it would just look funny.

GM Dude Enthusiast

GM Dude

Posted
Posted
If you have a full sized spare its always a good idea to rotate it with the rest of your tires, it will not only ensure that it is properly inflated and in good shape, but you will get abit more use out of all your tires as you are wearing on 5 instead of 4. Not to mention if all 5 tires are of the same type and wear percentage, it gives you a bit more time to fix the flat then if you had one tire that was 100% tread and different fromt he rest. In this case you would want to replace the spare sooner as to prempt any premature wear in the rest of the tires.

 

-Robert-

 

I was always under the imression it was better to rotate the spare in with the rest of the tires. We had a 2-wheel drive 1995 Ford F150 whose owner's manual said to rotate the spare in. I asked the Chevy dealer about this, and they told me on the 4x4 they did not rotate the spare in. The guy said the tires needed to wear evenly on a 4x4. I still think it would be better, but I'm not a mechanic by no means.

 

I have taken the spare off before to put my hitch in and it was a real pain in the butt. The whole time I was thinking I hope I never have to do this on the side of the road when it's snowing out. However, I'd rather it be down there than anywhere else sucking up space.

 

Matt

 

 

 

If your like me and you have either the factory or aftermarket 20" wheels, the rotation idea just doesn't work well at all. The spare from the factory, even with factory 20" wheels, is 17" which makes it nearly 1.4" smaller in diameter. This will make my truck very interesting to drive if I ever have to put that spare on and it would be just long enough to make it to the tire shop. :cool:

 

Ahhh, the old cable rusting causing the tire fall off. Seems like GM had a similar problem using galvanized cable (recalled to install stainless cables) on the tailgates and when they rusted and you opened the tailgate....OUCH. Man, I'd hate to be the one following when that cable snaps. :P

mjager Enthusiast

mjager

Posted
  • Author
Posted
I removed my spare as well as the spare bracket/mounting hardware after I went with aftermarket wheels. The sizes were all off so it was senseless to keep it. ...and while I know how to and have changed my spare in the past, after being trapped on the freeway with no room to get out of my truck (on more than one occasion), I decided I would leave the dirty work to AAA. That's what the membership dues are for right? :cool:

 

Yeah, I have CAA too (Canadian version of AAA). Never thought about it, but if you get a flat and have no spare with you, what will CAA (AAA) do?

Giant Enthusiast

Giant

Posted
Posted
If you have a full sized spare its always a good idea to rotate it with the rest of your tires, it will not only ensure that it is properly inflated and in good shape, but you will get abit more use out of all your tires as you are wearing on 5 instead of 4. Not to mention if all 5 tires are of the same type and wear percentage, it gives you a bit more time to fix the flat then if you had one tire that was 100% tread and different fromt he rest. In this case you would want to replace the spare sooner as to prempt any premature wear in the rest of the tires.

 

-Robert-

You cant use the spare to rotate because the rim is a differant style then the rest of the rims on the truck on just about all trucks and SUVs.

 

 

 

You are correct. Upon further inspection, I found my spare to have a steel rim rather then the alloy rims on the rest of the vehicle. I thought it was the same rim.

 

Would the same rim on the rest of the truck fit? Maybe I can get a cheap one out of a junkyard and use that instead, that way I can rotate the spare.

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