Spare Tire Replacement

Took our MH in to get brakes done and screw removed from tire, which turned out to be totally fine as are all the tires, and they are less than 2 years old too. But they said the spare was in BAD shape, and we should replace it. So...do we just buy a new one of the same brand and flavor? (Hercules 225 70R 19.5 H902 L126/128). Or should we look for a used one of the same age, or just the same size and not worry about brand, etc? I've never had to replace a spare before, did some searching and I haven't found much on the subject. Forgive me if this is a stupid question. I don't want to spend full price on this if most people pick up something cheaper. Have to take it back in to the same guys to get ball joints and airbags done, they could provide it and/or mount it for us.

I have the same problem!

I took my van in to Pep Boys to have the tires checked for pressure and damage, and they refused to put air in the spare underneath the van, stating that it was too old, full of cracks, and pealing. How does a tire manage to go bad, just sitting in the shade under a van for 24 years?

Then I discovered I do not have the strength to loosen the nuts on the running tires anyway, even if I did have a flat. Using the original jack and tire iron, I was unable to turn a nut at all. So having a functional spare tire wouldn't matter in my case anyway. I just need to keep good "roadside assistance" paid up.

Its still better to replace the spare so you don't have to buy it from the tire service when they come out to change it for you.

You might be able to purchase a decent used tire from your tire place, to replace that spare.

When I buy new tires, the best of the old set is rotated to the spare.

I’m with Rose here... great answer!

It is really a question of money, time, where you travel and if you are feeling lucky! Lol!!! If you do as recommended by most manufactures you will treat the spare as the other tires on the ground and rotate it with them to attempt to keep wear equalized as much as possible and insure all systems are working at their best. A good battery operated impact will loosen any functioning nut or bolt if components are maintained and torqued. There are tools that allow almost anyone to do the job but they can be expensive and take up space as well. Years ago while young and time mattered, after having two cut sidewalls at the same time I started carrying two spares, a floor jack, safety stands, impact, and a good sized air compressor. I was ready for most tire problems. After not having any problems for several years and running out of space and getting poor fuel economy due to the weight I was carrying I took out everything but a good tire repair kit and a 12 volt air compressor. I immediately cut two tires in a remote location but was able to fix them well enough to limp to a location with cell service and eventually replace the tires. It took time and money but it worked out well enough for me as I have the time and money I didn't have when I was younger and remote locations are not as remote as they used to be. After all I do live in the vehicle I travel in so if it is disabled by tire problems I just visit that location longer. With today's communication systems it works better for me. A good emergency fund takes up a lot less space and weighs less than tools and tires. A good emergency fund along with staying where communication service works is the best.

CosmickGold said:

I have the same problem!

I took my van in to Pep Boys to have the tires checked for pressure and damage, and they refused to put air in the spare underneath the van, stating that it was too old, full of cracks, and pealing. How does a tire manage to go bad, just sitting in the shade under a van for 24 years?

Then I discovered I do not have the strength to loosen the nuts on the running tires anyway, even if I did have a flat. Using the original jack and tire iron, I was unable to turn a nut at all. So having a functional spare tire wouldn't matter in my case anyway. I just need to keep good "roadside assistance" paid up.

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First: The rubber compounds in a tire deteriorate with time, regardless of the condition of the tread. A tire that's inflated and mounted under a vehicle is considered "in use" and subject to heat/cold, dirt, etc., as well as the ordinary aging of the compounds. See this article for the rundown: https://www.edmunds.com/car-maintenance/how-old-and-dangerous-are-your-tires.html. I would NEVER want to ride in a vehicle with even one 24 year old tire on it. Assuming it would hold air long enough to drive anywhere anyway.

Next: Even if you have roadside assistance, you WILL need to have a "functional spare" tire in order to drive away from the breakdown location instead of being towed or leaving your vehicle there for the time it takes for someone to take the wheel/tire into a tire shop and return with a usable tire mounted on that wheel. I don't know what you think a "roadside assistance" person can do for you if you don't have a functional spare tire/wheel on the vehicle. I suppose they could sell you a spare tire on the spot but that sounds costly, assuming they were carrying something that would work.

Just a few months ago on a road trip, my minivan had a tire blowout. I pulled onto the shoulder of the interstate, not a fun place to hang out, BTW, and called AAA. I assumed I'd need a tow, but when the driver arrived he was able to inflate the "doughnut" spare tire in my 2008 minivan which allowed me to drive slowly to the nearest tire store. (The doughnut spare lives in an enclosed space inside the back of the vehicle but it's getting a little long in the tooth for reliability, sigh.) Oh, as to the tow. It happened that due to a boom in COVID cases, the tow company was NOT allowing passengers in their tow vehicles so if the van had to be towed I'd have been SOL on the side of the road. If you're happy to have a tow, that's your choice. It wouldn't be mine.

We often tend not to think about what we can’t see, whether inside or outside of our rigs, and then issues that could have been prevented become “emergencies” at the least opportune times and places.

Like spare tires, our roofs, and what’s underneath.

I have a trusted mechanic who does all routine service for me, and when he has my rig over the pit he takes a flashlight and checks what I cannot see.

Then reporting back anything he notes that needs attention.

We learn from our experiences, and from others.

Ideally you want the spare to be of at least the same size, but also same brand/type. This way you can rotate it in to the cycle of tire replacement/rotations so this does not happen and you get more life out of all tires.

Spare tires can look pretty bad when mounted under the vehicle. Maybe drop it down and inspect it.

I usually Armorall my spare under there to help protect it.

TooFarGone said:

First: The rubber compounds in a tire deteriorate with time, regardless of the condition of the tread. A tire that's inflated and mounted under a vehicle is considered "in use" and subject to heat/cold, dirt, etc., as well as the ordinary aging of the compounds. See this article for the rundown: https://www.edmunds.com/car-maintenance/how-old-and-dangerous-are-your-tires.html. I would NEVER want to ride in a vehicle with even one 24 year old tire on it. Assuming it would hold air long enough to drive anywhere anyway.

Next: Even if you have roadside assistance, the person who shows up to change out the tire will need to have a usable tire/wheel to replace the flat - or you'll have to have the van towed. In my case, just a few months ago on a road trip, my minivan had a tire blowout. I pulled onto the shoulder of the interstate, not a fun place to hang out, BTW, and called AAA. I assumed I'd need a tow, but when the driver arrived he was able to inflate the "doughnut" spare tire in my 2008 minivan which allowed me to drive slowly to the nearest tire store. (The doughnut spare lives in an enclosed space inside the back of the vehicle but it's getting a little long in the tooth for reliability, sigh.) Oh, as to the tow. It happened that due to a boom in COVID cases, the tow company was NOT allowing passengers in their tow vehicles so if the van had to be towed I'd have been SOL on the side of the road. If you're happy to have a tow, that's your choice. It wouldn't be mine.

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Thanks for all that really valuable information! And I did have to be towed once already, for what turned out to be water in the gas tank, fixable with a $10 bottle of additive to evaporate the water. But that one tow -- which was only about two miles end-to-end -- cost $175.00. Sheeesh! Thanks to your advice, I'm going to get a spare tire before heading out again.

@CosmickGold - I'm glad you'll have a safe spare tire in case it's needed!

Edited to add: We never know when a flat tire or blowout might happen. In the situation I mentioned above, all four tires on the minivan were low-mileage tires and only about a year old. The blowout happened because somewhere along the interstate the tire ran over some nasty foreign object that punctured it. I was fortunate that it happened not far from a city, where the tire store/chain I'd bought the tires had a store. They looked up my records and replaced the blown tire with no fuss or cost. Whew!

Thanks for all the responses and info!

I am aware that the BEST solution is another tire of the same brand/type/exact age, kept in rotation. Also, less ideal but workable, that a lot of people keep the best one of the tires they replace as a spare. But this MH is new to us, so the tires are from August 2020 and the current spare appears to be ancient and decrepit - it may have been "the best" from the tires that were replaced, but it's not safe looking to us, and it's not according to the shop. And I do understand about tires aging out. I 100% don't trust it and will replace it. And yeah, you really ought to have one so that Roadside Assistance can just get you back on the road, rather than a long tow or waiting hours or days for a replacement tire.

Since these tires are a bit shy of 2 years with little tread wear and my guys say they're good...is it okay to buy a NEW tire of the same flavor/brand and just rotate it in? Or would we be better served getting a used one with about the same wear/age, and maybe a different brand? What would you guys do in this particular situation?

Shop just got back to me this morning about getting the ball joints and airbags done, looks like Monday or Tuesday. I'll ask them about what they could do about a new spare in the meantime.

WanderingRose said:

. . . . I have a trusted mechanic who does all routine service for me, and when he has my rig over the pit he takes a flashlight and checks what I cannot see. . . .

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Having "a trusted mechanic" is so important. I've been to three mechanics these past two years:

(1) Mechanic #1 left the starter relay off the engine, so after some driving, I turned the key and it would not start again. Not even go "Click-Ka". After a tow to another garage, a different mechanic quickly found the problem and sold me a new relay. When I told the first mechanic what he'd done, he just looked at me strangely and said nothing, not even an apology. For that reason, I never went back to him.
(2) Mechanic #2 was frustrating because my vehicle was doing all kinds of strange things intermittently for months. But each time I took it to him, it ran perfectly. So each time he only told me "Bring it back when you can show me the problem."
(3) Finally, I took it to Mechanic #3 -- of course, showing no problem at all when I presented it to him -- but he chose to get behind the wheel and take down the road himself. BINGO! He easily discovered the motor was overheating because two hoses were leaking, a belt was stretched, and a sensor was bad. Then once back in the shop, HE ACTUALLY FIXED IT! I've used him several times now, and he always does a great job at both diagnosing and fixing.

My conclusion is that the first two mechanics were honest but not very bright. They both had some of their own screws missing upstairs. And the third mechanic was just as honest as the first two, but in addition to honesty, he also had a working brain! Honesty alone is not enough; intelligence is also required.

So does anyone know a reliable method to find a mechanic with both honesty and intelligence? Counting stars on a google search and reading the reviews didn't help me. ALL THREE of the above mechanics had 5 stars and 100% glowing reviews! So how can I discover the truth about any new mechanic in the future?

CosmickGold said:

So does anyone know a reliable method to find a mechanic with both honesty and intelligence? Counting stars on a google search and reading the reviews didn't help me.

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And that may best be addressed in a separate thread, if I might suggest that, and I’ll post how I found mine.

I hate to say it, but the only way we've found good mechanics has been trial and error/word of mouth.

I ask on forums, friends and family. A shop who normally works on my mom's cars said they don't do MHs but recommended another to us. That shop recently lost their experienced diesel guys, slowly figured out they couldn't do the work we asked them to do and eventually recommended another shop (charging us nothing!) That next shop said they were too busy (booked up for MONTHS), so they recommended ANOTHER shop. This is how we found the guy we've been working with in Prescott, who has been both honest and smart, though he is still getting his shop established so he doesn't have much help and it's taken some time to get the work done. He and his tech writer also have grown to become our friends. The work has been high quality and they've gone above and beyond for us.

But he isn't set up to do some of the work needed, so we have now gone on to a THIRD shop for tires/front suspension/airbags, which was suggested by someone in this forum doing a Google search. I looked into it, they are a well-established diesel shop and I knew they could do the work, though I wasn't sure if they were honest. But they seem to be pretty great so far.

Once we start talking to the mechanics about our vehicles and they understand that we're reasonable people and have a clue (we're both seasoned diesel owners, though new to having an RV), we tend to hit it off with them and get a feeling for whether they're cool, competent and honest, and they tend to treat us right.

CosmickGold said:

I have the same problem!

I took my van in to Pep Boys to have the tires checked for pressure and damage, and they refused to put air in the spare underneath the van, stating that it was too old, full of cracks, and pealing. How does a tire manage to go bad, just sitting in the shade under a van for 24 years?

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That is a liability issue. Most tire places will not touch a tire more than 10 years old.

CosmickGold said:

Then I discovered I do not have the strength to loosen the nuts on the running tires anyway, even if I did have a flat. Using the original jack and tire iron, I was unable to turn a nut at all. So having a functional spare tire wouldn't matter in my case anyway. I just need to keep good "roadside assistance" paid up.

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I carry a socket that fits my lugs, a breaker bar, and a 2 foot extension; I can jump on the bar to loosen the lugs.
A lot of us probably do not have the strength any more to lift a wheel/tire combination but having the tools to do it if you can find some help is an advantage. A lot of 'roadside assistance' will not go off paved roads.

As for spares:
- If used only for emergencies the tire only needs to be the same diameter and load rating as the other 4.
- If you are going to rotate it along with the other four it should be the same manufacturer and model (not necessary but less possible problems).

For anyone curious about the codes on their tires:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tire_code

The average car has a donut for a spare, since a long while ago.

AmargosaWayne said:

The average car has a donut for a spare, since a long while ago.

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Agreed, but the average car isn't 26' long and 11' tall, and doesn't have a GAWR of 14,800 pounds, and this thing drives like a wallowing elephant (hope it gets a LITTLE better with the suspension work we're doing. It's a pretty beast, but it's a beast! Pretty much the size of your average bus, but heavier.

My 2011 town and country didn't come with a spare.its not underthere-found out the hard way!

A honest mechanic in Phoenix that will help out an RVer is Massey’s. They did a repair that was quoted as a 20 hour job by top rated big name corporate shops in 4 FOUR hours. Plus I was allowed to park for two nights.

For tires also in Phoenix Is Rocco wholesale. They have a fleet of service trucks that come to you and done!

A tire is a silly thing to let ruin all your plans by ignoring it.