Replacement Spare Question

Hey Everyone,

I have a 2019 SR5 that is in the middle of several upgrades in anticipation of some trips my wife and I have planned for later in the year.

I upgraded to 265/75/16 KO2s about 15,000 miles ago. At the time, I just left the spare with the factory 245 on there since the truck was originally just going to be crawling the malls of the Memphis area. Now that we have some more ambitious, long distance trips planned I am wanting to pick up an actual spare(lol). I’m also hesitant to buy another 265 KO2 since we will be upgrading to 285/70/17s after another 20,000 miles or so.

does it make any sense to just pick up a cheaper 265 AT to mount on the current spare wheel and stuff in the factory location? That way I have a full size spare in the very unlikely case I need it but am not buying another KO2 that will probably never be needed. I’d also like to point out that I carry a good tire repair kit and know how to use it.

good idea or am I being cheap and stupid? It’s really a coin toss at this point.

 

You dont need it until you need it. I always keep a matching spare, just sell the older spares when no longer needed.

 

I picked up a half used tire from a tire shop for my spare, it holds air so really I don't care if it matches.

 

Perfect, as long as they are the same size you are good for temporary use, different tread patterns can add different driving characteristics but its just a stop gap anyway.

 

yeah that's pretty much all its for, to get me off the trail if need be.

 

I still have the original spare mounted that came on my '96 24 years and 414,000 miles ago. Never had a flat to need it. So I don't put much value on a spare considering I have AAA.
Guess that may change in a hurry if I ever have a flat in the middle of no where.

 

Yeah that would be the purpose of this if I had a bad enough flat to require a change instead of a plug. Get me off the trail and to a tire shop to buy 285s lol.

 

Personally, i would never cheap out on somethimg important such as a spare tire. In summer i go to pretty remote places, no reception for at least couple hours drive. Dont want to get stranded there, could get ugly real fast.

Currently im running stocks size BFGs with the stock spare. When my set wears out i will get 5x 265/70/17s. Its no more than few hundred bucks for a peace of mind. Just my .05c (can)

Good luck man.

 

Never a flat in 414k miles?! You are a one lucky man!

 

Will a 285 on the stock spare rim fit? It looked to me like much wider than my 255s it would hit the UCA.

 

no I don’t believe so. I’m looking to add a 265 to it as a just in case until I upgrade to 285s and new wheels at a later date. I’ll just buy 5 next time.

 

I wouldn't want a nice rim under there. You could go with a 255 on a normal spare rim and you should be pretty close to 285s diameter if you ever needed it.

 

yeah I’m going to buy 5 of everything and use that as an excuse to do a rear bumper with a carrier. Unless I rip the stock bumper off before then lol. Either way I’ll have a way to relocate the spare lol

 

I did that. A bumper was in my future, but a tree decided it would be moved up a bit.

 

Well never a flat on that vehicle. I keep good tires on her.

 

Nice. I had pirelli scorpions in e load a while ago. I ended up using tire plugs on all 4 tires on different ocasions. Will never ever buy pirelli product again, they werent cheap also. Lasted me for 60k miles though.

Never had issues with BFGs or duratracs. So far

Picture from like 10 years ago of those shitty tires.

 

I have always had a matching set of 5 on my jeep so that if I was off road somewhere I could get out using 4wheel drive even I got a flat. Also I rotated all 5 since I had 5 matched wheels.
Not sure what I will do with the truck when that time comes. If I change tire size then I'd change the spare. The other thing you need to worry about is tires over 8-10 years old aren't safe any more. You can't go drive and highway speeds on old dried out tires, the potential to fail is high.
I'd probably get a new spare every other set I think just to be safe.
I was behind a Jeep like mine the other day with the original Goodyear wrangler tire on the back they came from the factory with. The tread was pealing off in chunks... I'm not joking either. So they basically had no usable spare. That's not good.

 

Get one of these man, they're awesome

 

I'm OCD about my spares. I always buy five rims and five tires. Even if I never have to use my spare, I still want it to match. I also do rotate my spare in my tire rotations so there's never a question on if my spare is good or not.

 

You're running a 4WD. Tire width and tread are unimportant until you upgrade. Just make sure your spare is the same diameter. With the new fangled 4WD systems an odd sized spare can put some strain on the drive train.