Spare?

[jhawkwest]

I have a Precept 31ul - 2016 and assume I have a spare somewhere. Unfortunately, it continues to hide on me. Can someone tell me where I can find it?

[Jagiven]

No spare! They are really to big for the average person handle. Often people will buy and carry a tire, along with road side assistance membership to mount and change the tire.

[NickM]

Just used Good Sam Roadside Assistance to repair a flat on my right rear outer tire. Cost was 93 and change, plus the cost to purchase the program from Good Sam, $59 annual renewal fee.

Tire guy told me normal cost is over $300. So there was a significant amount of savings and wait time was less than 90 minutes from initial call to finish. I would never expect to try and change a 22.5" tire anywhere because one needs a very large jack and really really big tools with power assist to remove the lug nuts. Then you need to remove and replace an extremely heavy tire and wheel. Even if you have the smaller 19.5" tire this is still a difficult job for the unprepared camper.

Or if you are mechanically inclined and have the right tools you can break the tire bead seal, pull the outside tire bead off the rim, prep the hole and install a patch on the inside. Reinstall the tire and air it up to 100 psi or there about. This is how ours was repaired in a campground recently.

Much easier to let someone else do it when the costs are not prohibitive.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

In the distant past, I mounted six 8x22.5 tires for a school bus onto their rims with hand tools (actually, short automotive leaf springs) and used a stout rope and a length of pipe as a bead seater and a homemade gas powered air compressor to inflate them. Back then, I could handle it but now? No way, no how! I'm too darned old!

By carefully jacking the vehicle to the correct height, it isn't too difficult to scoot a tire standing up on the ground onto the lug bolts. The hard part is lifting the flat tire and rim back onto the carrier, unless you have an under mount that uses winch to haul up the spare into place. Then hardest part is just standing up the tire so it can be scooted onto the lug bolts. It's more about knowing how to do it and less about strength (some strength is still needed, though).

Lug nuts can be broken loose and retorqued easily as long as you have long enough wrenches (heck, I carry a 40" 3/4" drive breaker bar and 13/16" impact socket for my little F-150). Jacks can be placed on skids to make them easier to get under a vehicle or trailer. Aluminum floor jacks are much lighter than steel jacks.

Having an Roadside Assistance plan is a good idea, especially if it will pay to mount a tire onto a rim while on the road. Then you could carry just a spare tire only (no rim) to save weight. It's a good idea to have the spare since one can't always find a replacement in a reasonable amount of time when broken down on the side of the road.

[jimp]

I worked at a full service gas stationed during my high school days (long time ago), and this thread brought back memories (nightmares??) of changing tires on a F450 DW or larger truck with full mechanics body on, (owner worked for the railroad). The regular tire changer would not handle those rims & tires, so it was the old school method of flat ended tire bars and something similar to a mattock, and had tubes in the tires as well. Even the safety clamping ring.

All of this was before the safety cages they have now. We just turned the rim upside down (clamping ring down) and aired 'em up. Every once in a while one would bounce about 6" off the ground if the clamping ring didn't seat good.

It's much easier to make a call for road service than deal with a flat on a Class A, even a Class C