Can anyone "spare" some advice on spares ... tires, that is.

Looking for some advice on what to do about spares.

Here is the background: I have a 2005 Tacoma. It is in good shape and has low miles (I just cracked 55,000). The truck has a lift kit and Nitto Grappler tires on it. I didn't do the lift and I didn't pick the tires (that's a long story) but rather bought it that way. Recently I put a rugged bumper on the back (along with a tow hitch). You can see from the picture how she looks today. And, yes, I have a bit more work to do. Don't we all?

Here is the question I am looking for advice on: I have American Racing rims and the Nitto tires (as I mentioned they were bought that way). I recently had the car under coated (another long story) and removed the spare to find a terrible rim (rusted and a bit funky) along with a tire of unknown origin.

Since I am not technical or super mechanically inclined here are my options for a sound spare:

1) Buy another American Racing rim and new Nitto tire and see if that will mount under the truck where the spare is normally stored (assuming it will fit).

2) Buy another American Racing rim and the tire I will eventually move to when the Nitto tires are past their expiration date (they are great tires but a bit overkill for me) and then store that spare where the spare is normally stored (again, assuming it will fit).

3) But a simple rim and a simple tire and store that where the spare tire normally fits.

4) Buy another rim / tire and get the tire mount adapter for my new bumper and mount the tire there.

5) Buy another rim / tire and mount the tire in another manner or location.

I should have thought about this earlier and then purchased a tire and rim that I could work into the tire rotation but ... well ... I am not that on top of things.

Looking for thoughts on which option is the best one.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

I vote option 2 or 3 or 4. Depends how much life is left on the current tires and the size.

If your to be tires are the same size as your current ones, I vote option 2 or mount it like 4.

If you just need something to get by until the swap, then 3.

Or option 6 -> Just buy 5 new tires now and a matching rim and put this all in the past.

 

I'm gonna be the odd duck here. I have 265/75-16 Duratracs on the truck. My truck see's 85% street/freeway use, 10% very light off road use, 5% snow covered streets. After I put on my high clearance bumper, I didn't like how far the spare hung down. I figured out that a 215/85-16 tire is 2" narrower than the tires on the truck. I bought a brand new 215/85-16 Duratrac. Since I put it on the factory 16X7 steel wheel, I didn't gain the full 2", but I gained most of it. Looking at the back of the truck, what does show, matches the tread of the tires on the ground. On paper, the 215/85-16 is 1 1/4" smaller diameter than the 265/75-16 tires. However, the tires on the truck are used and the spare is new, so the actual difference is less than 1". I had the factory steel wheel powdercoated. I wish I hadn't done that since I recently found out that 16X6, 6 lug trailer wheels are around all over the place and that would make the tire just slightly narrower.

There are 2 situations where doing this would not be a good idea.
1. If you have a 05-08 TRD sport with LSD
2. You wheel in pretty serious territory where you need every last bit of traction and a lesser spare may not get you away from hungry bears.