replacing spare tire with fix a flat.

Bad idea. FaF fills your tire with goo making it hard to unmount and even balance in the future and can often screw up your $80 a pop TPMS sensor. Also FaF can't save your tire from anything a plug kit wouldn't fix anyway. (minus airing back up.) A plug is a longer lasting and more permanent solution.

As someone else mentioned when you really do need a spare is when you blow a bead or tear a hole in the side wall, either event FaF will do nothing for.

Fix a Flat isn't the wonder project it's marketed as. It's really a last ditch emergency quick fix.

That said I do keep a can in my trail kit. I also carry a full size spare and once I get a matching rim for it I want to include my spare in my tire rotation.

 

you're right, FaF sucks. I just had no idea tire plugs even existed until a few minutes ago.

 

As mentioned above, many new cars don't come with a spare. So, if you blow a sidewall out at midnight on Sunday night, 30 miles from civilization, and no cell service, you're screwed.

My motto is if you have a spare, your chances of getting a flat are very, very slim. Leave the spare home and you can expect trouble.

 

You must be joking, it's a truck not an F-1 race car, besides, do you know how much air pressure and volume it takes to get a tubeless tire to seal?

 

Yep, a squirt of either and a match. Seats the bead quite nice

 

I guess I have done over 60 plugs on various vehicles of mine and friends over the past 25 years. Never had one fail. I've never even jacked a vehicle up to do so, and I often lose less than 8 PSI if I am working efficiently. Average time including re-pressure with a 12v mini-compressor is about 5 minutes, about 2 just for the prep/plug/trim. I won't plug past the last row of tread on either side because of the danger of flex failure, but plugs are the way to go for screws, nails, and minor punctures. Half of these were done without the vulcanizing cement because the stuff dries out so quickly even in a sealed tube. Creep your vehicle to get the most efficient angle on the job, and if the puncture is in the front, turn the wheel out to make it easier to bear down. Use a rock or crayon or similar to circle your puncture; sometimes it's hard to pinpoint it after the object is removed. Needle nose pliers remove the object, then ream it (cement helps here), insert the plug awl to about half the folded length of your plug, and exhale. I trim with either diagonal cutters or a very sharp blade, but you don't really have to- road wear will take care of it pretty quickly. I have one plug in the Taco; it is much tougher to plug these tires than lighter passenger vehicles, but it's do-able. Faster, cheaper, better than Fix-A-Flat and beats wrestling a spare, BUT I CARRY A SPARE!

 

I can say that in 32 years of driving I've never put a spare on in place of a tire I could have fixed with a plug or FAF. They have all been plop-plop-plopping or bulged and about to pop. You need a spare.

I'll use plugs on an older tire but take in a newer one to have patched. I've found quite a few slow leaks thru the fibers of plugs after the tar wears off of them.

 

Ordered the kit in post #7. I'm going to consider a spare alloy wheel. For now, the truck seems to handle the same without the heavy spare attached.

 

My Mustang gave up the spare tire because it came with front brakes that were too big to fit the standard spare, and the well for spares couldn't be enlarged. Oh well.

 

You can always put the Spare on the Rear and Swap that one to the Front.

 

Yeah, you can, but I don't think Ford wanted to explain that to people.

 

can anyone recommend a good and accurate tire inflator or gauge. thanks!

 

If the rims are the same width/diameter/back-spacing/offset you'd have to carry a jackstand too. Unless you use the bottle jack from the center of the vehicle lol! Kind of like a highlift on sliders!

 

I've been plenty happy with my walmart slime digital gauge.

ARB makes a really nice one if you like spending money.

 

After enduring eleven flat tires in 17k with the P-rated Goodyear Adventure Kevlars, I am swinging the other direction and adding a second spare tire. Sure, I was able to repair most of those flats, but being 50 or a 100 miles from nowhere is no time to screw around with un-repairable tires.

 

Goodyear... Goodgreif. Only Goodrich. BFGoodrich.

 

I agree! But admittedly, I replaced my Goodgreifs with Goodyear Adventure LT rated TrailMarks. I would have found a different replacement but I HAD to have replacements and the TrailMarks were the only game in town. Here's my story:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/ode-to-a-tire.494159/

 

Keep your stock spare Toyota designed your rear springs to hold the weight of your spare and more

 

I one had to change a flat in the middle of winter in South Dakota and the wind chill was -20F. If I'm going to miserable I'm changing the tire. It's conditions like that where you don't want to find out fix a flat or plugs don't work.

 

I had a spare too small in my Mustang for awhile and got a flat in the front. Did not require a jack stand, just jacked up the rear and took the wheel off and stuck the spare there, then went up front jacked it up and stuck the rear wheel up there. It was a pain to do that and have got a larger spare that clears the brakes now.