New sized spare wheel?

I recently switched from my stock 15" to a FN 16" wheel. I love the look of the truck, but it occured to me that my spare is a 15" wheel, with a much smaller diameter tire than my new tires. If I wind up having to drive on the spare for any significant amount of time, I'm more than a little concerned that I might hurt my differential.

1) Would that hurt my differential/anything else?
2) If I need to, I can pick up a 16" spare wheel and similar sized tire to what I have on the rest of the truck. How do I know the specs of the bolt pattern I'll need for the spare wheel?

Thanks in advance,

 

1) best to try and keep the spare up front if you can get away with that if the time comes.

2) you could keep the wheel and get a tire with a larger sidewall to match the diameter of your other tires. Or you can get a different wheel and tire to match.

 

Someone from 1st gen will probably chime in, but you need to find your lug pattern for your truck. 2nd gens are 6 on 5.5". 6 lug with 5.5" between opposing lugs.

 

1st and 2nd gens do have the same lug pattern

 

Tire diameter size matters, not rim size nor tire width.

 

But 1st Gens have 4.5" BS (Back Spacing).
You can run 1st Gen wheels on a 2nd Gen (I do) without a problem.
But you can't run 2nd Gen wheels on a 1st Gen without spacers.

 

"But 1st Gens have 4.5" BS (Back Spacing).
You can run 1st Gen wheels on a 2nd Gen (I do) without a problem.
But you can't run 2nd Gen wheels on a 1st Gen without spacers. "

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

All true except for the last statement, 2nd gen wheels work wonderfully on 1st gens without spacers as long as you stay within tire specs(talking 6 lug setups)....only when I stepped up tire size +1 was the tire rubbing, and only at full lock left, easily solved with 1.25" HC spacers, could easily have lived with the slight rubbing...

BTW, BS on 2nd gens (at least the 17" alloys) is 5", so the extra 1/2" goes to inside..

I like the slightly wider look too..

just sayin'....

 

OK it was just what I had heard here. I had said it would probably cause problems because it moves the tire & wheel in closer to the UCAs & frame in another thread. Two members said you could run them as long as you used spacers.