Spare Tire

[mdriggan]

Does anyone carry the spare tire under the truck or take it off and leave it off. I was wondering if this would help gas milage any?

 

[Jason_25]

Not significantly. It's best to just keep it under the truck in case you need it.

 

[mdriggan]

Yeah, thats what I was thinking. As soon as I take it off, Ill have a flat in the middle of nowhere.

 

[Soundguy01tx]

I took mine off to use it, and then i just threw it in the cargo area... and then removed it to carry some stuff... oh crap, i need to put it back now in case i need it... but.. ugh, the smell of tire inside the car... oh well... thanks for the reminder.
--Bryan

 

[STANN]

I have often considered removing the spare (and some other stuff) in hopes of a small weight removal. I was figuring on just sticking a can of fix-a-flat stuff to get me home or to a shop- but then I remember the way my luck goes is that i will have a complete blowout and then have no tire to fix anybody have any opinions on fix-a-flat?

 

[Alec]

It's ok if you have no other option, but if you have a spare just use the spare until you can get the tire fixed. Most tire shops charge more to remount and/or fix a tire if you've used gunk.

I carry a tire patch kit with the special tools and tar plugs instead.

As for weight savings, removing my spare and some tools was worth about .1 seconds at the track, not much difference in everyday driving and everyone should carry a spare.

 

[tenikiwon]

My buddy used fix-a-flat on this Trans-AM like gas or oil. He drove so crappy that he was always poping tires.

I've used it once on my X because of a slow leak.

I wouldn't go w/o a spare, but when I with 33's I'm not going to get a bigger spare until I can find a place to mount it. I doubt it will fit underneath.

 

[Robert]

OK, let's see a 50 lb. spare tire is worth 1.25% in weight reduction on a 4000 lb. vehicle. If it were an equal tradeoff (which it's not) if you average 20 MPG (which I doubt) you might see an improvement of .2 MPG. I see a variance of +/- 1 MPG from tank to tank so .2 MPG isn't something that is easily detected. I would just leave the spare on and remove any excess junk that you don't need.

 

[clarkkent]

i kno rolling without a spare is dumb unless...

1. ur tires u got on ur x are way bigger tires
( i got 32's)
2. U have dual exhaust which means U have to take off ur spare...

 

[Alec]

Originally posted by clarkkent
i kno rolling without a spare is dumb unless...

1. ur tires u got on ur x are way bigger tires
( i got 32's)
2. U have dual exhaust which means U have to take off ur spare...

Driving without a spare is still dumb. If you don't have room for it underneath, run it somewhere else. You can get away with a 31" spare running 32s on the truck, but anything larger and you need a full-sized spare.

IMO the only times you should feel comfy not running a spare is if you either never go more than 10 miles from home and can easily walk home, or you have run-flat tires.

 

[Exp-Wi.]

About fix-a-flat...

I had a cousin who was an alignment tech at Tire America before they went out, and he said that fix a flat voids the warrenty on many if not all tires. In fact I seem to recall him telling me that, they weren't even allowed to repair or do any service on a tire that it had been used on. Just a little tid-bit of info.