Check your RV spare tire to be sure it fits the axle!

Al F · October 4, 2016

If you have a spare tire, be sure to check to insure it is the correct wheel (rim) and tire for your rig. In the quote below the guy had a blowout and found out the wheel the spare tire was mounted on would not fit on the lugs on the axle.

Please don't start replying about the age of the tires, that is not the purpose of this topic.

Just throwing out a little advice. Check your spare tire (if you have one)! I have a 2008 Itasca 26P on a Workhorse Chassis. And, after 8 years and 55,000 miles I finally needed the spare tire. Last weekend, 6pm on Sunday night, I had a blowout of my left front Michelin. After getting safely to the side of the road (and by the way the coach handled excellently in the blowout) I started working on changing the tire. I jacked up the coach, pulled the bad tire and started to install my spare. I was amazed how much I was struggling to get the spare on. Whatever I did I could not get it onto the lugs. That is when I realize that the spare tire that I had been carrying around for 8 years and 55,000 miles (including 3 trips from WA state to FL) was the wrong size tire and was mounted on a Ford wheel! This tire/wheel is the original one from the factory! My coach came with 6 Michelin 225/70R19.5 tires on Maxion W0007492 wheels. My spare was a Goodyear 245/70R19.5 on a Ford (yes, it was stamped "FORD"

) Accuride wheel. And while the Maxion and Ford wheels look similar (hub size, lug pattern and hand holds) the Ford wheel uses a smaller lug than the Maxion and won't fit on the workhorse axle.

As it was Sunday night and nothing was open I managed to swap out one of my rear duals with the blown tire and limped off the freeway and into a Les Schwab parking lot for the night. Not a fun way to end a good, relaxing weekend. The next morning I purchased a new tire and had it installed on the blown tire wheel. I am now working to see if I can get Winnebago to help out with swapping my unused Ford wheel (the incorrect spare) for the correct Maxion wheel.

This is all just a cautionary tale. Please, if you carry a spare, take a look at it and make sure it is the right wheel and tire for your coach. Especially if your coach had an option of chassis. I never thought to look at the actual numbers on my spare. I made sure it was there, made sure it had air, but I never thought the factory would have given me one that would not fit my coach!

Safe travels,

gjhunter01 · October 5, 2016

My Chevy spare tire is 8 years old, but it's only purpose is to get me 10 miles down the road to the next tire repair shop. This does bring up a good point, is a spare necessary to be carried for a vehicle with duals. Running loaded temporary on one tire can cause a overload situation, but going 10 miles at slow speed can't be very damaging to a tire.

Greg

DuneElliot · October 5, 2016

Since the person who was helping me put a sub-frame under my fiver ran off with my spare tire I had to buy a new rim. I measured to make sure it was one that would fit before I dropped the $10 on a new used rim.

Al F · October 5, 2016

My Chevy spare tire is 8 years old, but it's only purpose is to get me 10 miles down the road to the next tire repair shop. This does bring up a good point, is a spare necessary to be carried for a vehicle with duals. Running loaded temporary on one tire can cause a overload situation, but going 10 miles at slow speed can't be very damaging to a tire.

Greg

According to what I remember reading from this tire expert, he says not to drive a motorhome even 10 miles on a single dually. It has been a couple of years since I saw that statement.

If you have a MH with 16" tires it is pretty doable to change the tire. With 19.5" tires it can be a challenge. My 19.5" tire and wheel weights over 125 pounds. If you have a 22.5" tire, you are getting closer to 200 pounds. How may people can handle a 175-200 pound tire???

ronmon · October 5, 2016

I came close....as I was leaving the factory after having hydraulic disc brakes installed one of the

workers chased me down, saying that they needed to change out my spare. The 5er came with 4 polished aluminum wheels but the spare was on a steel wheel. The steel wheel wouldn't clear the rotor so I got a polished aluminum spare. Glad that they caught me before finding it didnt fit along a roadside!

Ron

Ray,IN · October 6, 2016

My Chevy spare tire is 8 years old, but it's only purpose is to get me 10 miles down the road to the next tire repair shop. This does bring up a good point, is a spare necessary to be carried for a vehicle with duals. Running loaded temporary on one tire can cause a overload situation, but going 10 miles at slow speed can't be very damaging to a tire.

Greg

If a front tire fails, it's rather easy to run an inside dual up on a board, jack up the front, then just switch wheel positions(outside dual to front) until you can reach safety. The caveat is: carrying a large enough lug wrench to handle the nut torque, and being strong enough to handle the wheels.

I had to do that once with my old 1976 Allegro while somewhere in Nebraska. No way I could do it now.