Question on Spare Tires

Hi folks,

I'm getting some new tires tomorrow to go on the rims I purchased a while back and it occurred to me to check my spare. Now, I have never needed it, so it is has stayed tucked up there since the day I bought the truck (6.5 years ago now). I was planning on having the shop check the tire out to make sure it is still road-worthy. In addition to that, I am waiting for a new bumper with swing-out on it to be finished where I will be mounting my spare.

So I have two questions that I thought I would throw out there:

1) For those that have a rear bumper with a tire gate: do you keep an additional spare in the stock location?
2) Should I keep or recycle the stock spare? It is a 265/70/R16 Rugged Trail where-as I am picking up a set of 265/70/R17 Falken Wildpeaks.

Thanks!

 

Most guys will ditch the stock spare and run a full size matching spare if they mount them on a tire carrier that's exposed. I recommend you sell the stock spare and use the funds towards a correct size tire.

 

Thanks for the input, @SCSPerformance. I'm getting 5 tires for the 5 wheels I have (4 + carrier). The height and width is the same (incidentally) as my oem spare, so part of my question is whether I end up running a single or dual spare setup.

 

Your new size is 1" larger, by going to the 17" wheel. I believe that is the max size you can squeeze into the OEM spare location.

 

265/70/17 is a taller tire than a 265/70/16 size.

 

Oops! You are correct! My bad.

Got confused since I currently have 265/75/R16s on.

 

I was able to fit a 33" in the stock spare tire location (with some minor cosmetic surgery). I carry 2 spares. 255/85/16