An expansion of Les's spare tire thread- A poll

[RandyA]

I drove from Cincinnati to Louisville and back today. I paid attention to how many of the "real" trucks were carrying spares. I saw exactly one. That said, I likely missed a few, but I looked at perhaps 100 trucks.

I am accustomed to seeing them in a carrier under the semi trailer. Not sure if that can be a truck spare or if it is just for the trailer. On rare occasion, I have seen them in a vertical carrier at the back of the cab (not mounted to the cab) or just chained on. My take is a professional driver is more concerned with time lost than what it costs to call a road service and get a new tire. Also liability on the part of a fleet company if their driver gets hurt changing a tire on their truck - doubt that is in the driver's job description.

 

The stretch wrap would work OK if there was not a need to loop through the tire. The "idea" I had been rolling around in my head is to cut two pieces of 1/2" marine or PT plywood to the same diameter as the tire and make a sandwich with the tire in the middle. Either use a threaded rod through the center or a couple of ratchet straps around the the sandwich. Maybe use one of those winches like I have under my fiver or LGT to crank a tire up under the rear frame rails. Still thinkin' on it after six years with still no need for a spare (knock on wood). But, from the looks of the poll, just thinkin' about it is the right way to go.

[Ronbo]

Mine is on top of the cab protected from the elements.

[Big5er]

Hmm, 42 no's to 10 yes's with 1 other.

I wonder how many of the yes's will ever use their spare.....and how many no's will someday wish they had one?

[Alie&Jim's Carrilite]

If we were to make a trip to the upper Canadian territories, say to the arctic circle. I would carry at least 1 spare for the truck and several for the RV. I figure myself and several others might be able to change a truck tire without looking like complete idiots..... as long as we had the right tools.

[les_garten]

If we were to make a trip to the upper Canadian territories, say to the arctic circle. I would carry at least 1 spare for the truck and several for the RV. I figure myself and several others might be able to change a truck tire without looking like complete idiots..... as long as we had the right tools.

 

That's one of the reasons I originally asked this question.

 

I could see 3 main sceanrios for me at least.

 

1) Lower 48 truckin' around

2) Canada >> Alaska >> and back again

3) The crazy question -- The Dalton in just a VNL 780, no Trailer

[SIBERNUT]

Well, at one point someone had a great idea. Let's make the tires on the fiver the same size as a dually pickup, since that's what most people pull with, one spare for the whole rig. And we'll put it on a roll out tray behind the rear bumper with the house batteries & some other stuff.

Damn shame Newmar no longer makes fivers.

[rickeieio]

<<Damn shame Newmar no longer makes fivers.>>

 

Rumor has it, that's about to change. I heard it from folks who supply some of their furniture.

 

Both of our 5ers came with the same size tires as a pick-up. But now we don't pull with one.

 

[Dollytrolley]

Hmm, 42 no's to 10 yes's with 1 other.

I wonder how many of the yes's will ever use their spare.....and how many no's will someday wish they had one?

Pretty good points to ponder...recently while escaping South from Oregon I had the Dollytrolley cranked up to warp 9 (62mph) on cruise in the middle nowhere between Reno and Vegas when all of a sudden someone dropped a 2 ft length of jagged 4" angle iron crosswise in the road just right to be wrong....the grey color blended with the pavement so I had to steer over it....I got lucky....had I hit the angle iron I'm not sure how many 24.5 spares I might have needed....gulp.

 

Well you might think that I dodged the bullet....sorta....oh no.... Dollyomma towing a tandem cargo trailer two hundred yards behind was able to shred a trailer tire so I had to pull the Dollytrolley and Dolly-the-paint-horse into a steep ditch and run to do a NASCAR tire change in record time in the same steep ditch... traffic was fairly heavy on the two lane stretch and I would be REALLY Harry to wait a few hours for any kind of road service IF we could have gotten them out for the too many hundred drive to the service call....gulp.

 

Having a large selection of spares saved the afternoon....

 

Of course having TWENTY-TWO tires rolling down the road makes one a target rich environment for road rash....

 

Drive on....(how many spares?)