Years ago, most RVs came with a spare tire. But not anymore. The thinking is that it’s too much of a chore to change by yourself on many of today’s big RVs, so get someone more qualified to help (or maybe the manufacturer is simply trying to save a buck!).
What about you? Do you carry a spare?
Carrying a spare for a trailer or fiver is strongly advised. Carrying a spare for a class A is inconvenient and not as advisable. My class A uses 3 different wheel designs, fronts, rear inner and rear outer. so a mounted spare is impracticable. There is no place available to store an unmounted spare tire. Also, 99% of RVers would be unable to remove and replace the lug nuts on a class A and torque them properly to over 200 lb/ft. Better to leave it to a roadside service.
We have a 42′ diesel pusher. After a front passenger blowout in 2013, we now carry a spare tire. We sat on the CA 210 freeway for 9 hours waiting for a tow truck to locate a used tire just to enable us to be pulled up onto the wrecker for a tow. (The tire had blown all the way to the rim!)
After this incident, we purchased a spare tire carrier through Roadmaster. We can’t change the tire ourselves, but at least we’re equipped for our roadside assistance to do so!
Regarding the point about more blowouts than motorhomes; I addressed this by upgrading the load range that came on the unit to a higher range. Went from 65 LB to 80 lb, higher load range runs cooler.On my last 5th wheel purchase I sought a unit with the optional upgrade from 15 inch to 16 inch tires.
I carry two spares for my travel trailer. One mounted to the back bumper and the other one inside my camper shell on my pickup. You just never know?????
Two blowouts-one on a busy highway and one in the Mojave desert. Yes, we carry a spare and a 12 ton bottle jack!!! A tire man said RV tires are not that well made-sidewalls blow out!!! We bought five brand new tires for a 2 year old fifth wheel.
My motorhome’s wheels are so large and heavy that there would be no place to fit a spare. One would occupy all the room in my one pass-through bin. I also have been advised that it is not safe for one man to lug one of those around by himself.
MH came with a spare tire. I’d hate to have to get it out myself. Bolted up and under. Guess it beats not having.
If we go on a long trip, I carry 2. If you don’t carry a good spare, your glutton for punishment. If you don’t take care of your tires and watch them carefully….your glutton for punishment.
I have a true Super-C Class RV (a 2015 Dynamax DX3-37RB built on a Freightliner Class 7 Heavy Duty Truck) that uses 22.5″ COMMERCIAL TRUCK TIRES. Way too heavy (even when unmounted) to carry. Commercial truck road service can generally supply common truck tires as well as mount, balance and install a replacement tire on a disabled truck. My AAA RV Premier membership, covers RV road service.
I do carry a tire patch kit for our 2016 DX3. It may or may not be used but why not carry one if the op time becomes necessary.
When I had trailers, I always had a spare with me. But the weight and space requirement of a spare for my motorhome would be wasteful. Why use up valuable storage space and CCC for a spare when I have a good roadside assistance policy? If I was planning to go somewhere far from civilization I might consider it.
You should re-ask the question and make the difference between a Motor home and a 5th wheel/travel trailer. 5th Wheel and TT come form the factory with a spare tire and many MH do not.
I will open a can of worm, it seems to me TT and 5 Wheel do have more blow out than MH. Remember, trailer tire have a lower rating for speed….
I’m actually looking at carrying two spares. I also carry a spare set of bearings and races because I’m able to do the work myself. Got caught in Colorado in an area where they did not have my tire size available without ordering. It’s not an unusual size 16” tire. I had a person on another forum tried to compare carrying a spare tire to carrying an extra refrigerator. He didn’t understand a bad refrigerator won’t leave you stranded on the side of the road.
I always carry a spare, and needed it twice in the last couple years. I got caught without my spare, and “pros” took many hours to find/mount a spare, bring it to me roadside and change the tire at huge cost. When I did have my spare with me, it took me and wife about 10 minutes to tagteam change the tire for only rubber cost. I swear I’ll never forget to bring the spare again!
I carry a spare for my F350 tow vehicle plus a spare for my 34′ fifth wheel. I’ve had 2 blowouts on my truck & 2 blowouts on my fifth wheel over 9 years of fulltiming. Twice I called Good Sam roadside assistance to change the tires, but both times they took many hours to get there. One of those times I got tired of waiting & changed it myself & finished just as they showed up. The other times I just changed it myself. It takes about 30-45 minutes to change a tire. And my blowouts seem to happen in the middle of nowhere. On our two trips to Alaska, I’ve taken a second spare for each vehicle, which I ended up not needing, but it gave me peace of mind, since we were frequently in areas where it was 75-100 miles from the nearest road service & getting replacement tires can be lengthy & expensive.
My Class B has a new spare tire. I carry a 12v compressor that is capable of 120 pounds of air pressure. Slowly, but will do the job. The spare that I replaced aged out, having never been on the ground.
Compressor has been used more on the toad. Very slow leak that cannot be found.
Had two flats on my first travel trailer [in 13 years], two on my first 5th wheel [in 7 years, none on my next 5-er [7 years] and now 5 on my travel trailer in four years. I now have Goodyear Endurance and in over 10,000 miles haven’t had any problem.
My ’04 Vacationer Class A did not come with a spare nor a place to carry one. However, there was ample space under the bedroom in front of the rear bumper. So I got a heavy duty pickup spare tire hoist and mounted it to the frame with 4×4 square steel tubing. I can raise it with an electric drill and it is secured underneath with 2×2 tubing. Other than a little less ground clearance going up some driveways I have the security of not being without a proper size spare. A 3/4″ drive ratchet and 3″x 5′ cheater pipe lets me do it myself. This is after I had a flat in my own driveway and “Good Sam” Road Service told me they couldn’t help even though I had a tire but it wasn’t mounted.
This is kind of crazy. I stumbled on to this web site and read a story about warranties and the now shuttered Roadtrek factory. I found that story to be somewhat inaccurate in my opinion, and now I find this story.
What’s this about RVs no longer coming with a spare tire? When I visit an RV sales lot, almost every towable unit, trailers of all sizes, fifth wheel trailers, almost every one of them come with a spare. Most are mounted on the rear bumper, some mounted underneath the trailer.
You can even check the online listings at the dealerships, the pictures of the back of these units all seem to show a spare.
Van conversions, most Class C motorhomes, and a lot of smaller class A’s also seem to have a spare.
Where I don’t see a spare tire, is on the bigger class A’s and diesel pushers. But that makes sense.
Could you imagine having a tire blow out on the side of the road, on a single lane highway, or a high speed freeway, and then jacking up a several ton motorhome, on the side of the road, attempting to loosen wheel nuts that are torqued to what, 200-300-400 foot pounds, and then removing and replacing a tire and wheel that weighs what, 100-150 lbs, and then trying to re-torque that wheel?
Even if you had a small compressor and impact gun, they probably do not have the power to loosen or tighten large motorhome wheel nuts.
I don’t mean to nitpick, these stories seem interesting, but also don’t seem very accurate.
Actually, there are some who use and don’t replace or take it off/out to save weight. Large motorhomes, if they carry a spare, also carry a wrench large enough to get the lug nuts loose. It is all about being prepared.
FYI, I just purchased a 2022 class B Ram Tellaro…and no spare tire. It never occurred to me to ask.😡🤷♀️
Yes, and it’s a good thing too! While “lot-docking” in Indio, CA, after going to get fresh water and dumping, after 9 days of sitting I noticed a tire going flat! Good thing we had a spare! Got it put on and fixed the other, put it back on and the spare is back..as a spare! 🙂
This survey is highly skewed and needs to be separated between trailers and motorhomes. Trailers normally have a spare (or two) where diesel motorhomes rarely have any.