Do you/should you rotate in your spare?

I never rotated my spare. My 2010 when I had it still had the original spare tire when I got rid of it for the 2020 and I had like 130k miles and I dont plan on rotating this spare either

 

It's all about UV Ray's lol. Keep it in the dark and you'll be fine.

 

Guys -- this is a great conversation. Thank you for sharing -- and all of the different inputs. I understand that there are some folks who have much more robust needs and unique situations so they rotate all five tires in. Good to hear their perspective. Very valuable background info, for sure ! I knew a guy who rotated in six tires -- always carried two spares but he was in Northern Quebec, had a Tundra with some crazy tires and said it would take him a week or more to get a replacement. Funny thing is that he never needed it, though.

In any case, am I crazy (very possible) that the Tacoma manual only shows a diagram of rotating the four tires -- and does not address the spare? For me, I may go that route but this whole discussion has me really rethinking that. This is why Tacomaworld is so value ...

 

The first Gambler500 some friends and I did was with an old volvo 850 wagon. We had two full sets but only brought two spares, for reasons.

The driver didn't get the point of FS road wheeling versus a timed road rally. Other than almost destroying the underside, they went through both spares and another bought in an emergency. They only got through a few checkpoints.

It is all in the approach!

A couple other folks and I were on bikes with our own challenges. Hahaha!

 

I love stories like this -- when you did things that if you did them now you would probably be arrested or committed. Or both !

 

If that was under the truck for 15 years i would have no problem putting it on "if needed" / and worse case / very worn set with a back flat you just need to move the "new" spare to the front.

By the time you buy a new rim to match and TPS for it, you need to be going thru a new set every 2 years or so to ever get close to a pay off, and don't forget your time to add the 5Th in /get the tool out /use it put it back /crank it up and down/crall under the truck/ blah blah blah... 10~ min or so, every 5k like you should. 4 1/2 years in and 45K on the first set and might make 50K, so i will just stick with the 4 swap. have 2 other cars i have to keep track of..

Do 4 and dont look back "unless" your in the 5% special case.

 

If the spare were meant to be rotated in regularly, it wouldn’t be called a spare. It’s like insurance, hopefully you’ll never need it, but it’s there just in case.

 

I have only mounted my own bike tires. I have done some for friends also.

Only one small problem once when a bead didn't full seat.

Saved a ton of $$.

 

They say 10 years from cure date max for replacement. The spare may not get much if any UV exposure but they get tons of weather exposure. I know in our plant we had some tires that were 3-5 years old from back when it was ran by Goodyear. They cut them up and scrap them. Obviously that’s a completely different thing and most tires don’t sit long in a manufacturers warehouse. However they could sit for a while in a distributors warehouse. So always go by the DOT numbers.

 

I rotated all 5 on my old Jeep liberty for over 10 Years and 3 sets of tires on my dime. I can say it does wear them nice and even and you probably get a few more miles out of them by having that 5th tire that's not always on the road. The first set of tires I changed to a larger size. With that also the spare was on the back always exposed to the sun. It also had a full size wheel and tire the same as the others with a Tpms sensor.

I don't plan on doing that with the Tacoma since it's a steel wheel spare and no tpms sensor in it.
8 years is about the shelf life for tires. I learned that the hard way with trailer tires over 8-10 years old. No fun when they blow on the interstate in the middle of nowhere Virginia. I'd replace your spare even if never used if you keep the truck past 8 years. It's not just UV light that degrades the tire its heat, the air and oxidation, they dry rot.

 

I have Ray 10s on all 5 tires.

 

I bought an extra OR rim when I upsized to 265/75/16. Trade in on the spare tire almost covered the cost of the rim and now I do a 5 tire rotation. An extra 25% miles between tire purchases... but of course it costs 25% more too.

 

I don't rotate the spare in.

Doesn't make sense to me to go thru all the hassle of dropping the spare every 5k, plus buying 5 new tires instead of 4 at a time.

A decent used tire is fine for my spare on a stock wheel.

 

my spare has been under the truck since i bought truck in 2015. i have never needed to use it.

 

Yes

 

Not only this, but my local Toyota dealer wanted to charge extra for 5th wheel rotation. I don't have a 5th alloy so I'd either have to buy one or mount &unmount every time. Would have been a net loss for me.

 

I think it made sense back in the old days to rotate the spare in, but given the cost and complexity to do it nowadays, it seems to outweigh the benefits in my mind.

I have 33's on my truck now and 3rd set of tires and still carry the stock spare. I just need it to get me back to a tire shop and with where I live and travel, that's about 30 miles max. If I lived in a more desolate area, or was wheeling in a more hazardous area I would probably do things a bit different.