Question about light weight spare on JK

jacobconroy

Hillbilly of Leisure
I don't have a matching spare on my 2-door JK. It's the same size, but doesn't match. The issue is that my main tires are north of $300.00 a pop, and I just can't make myself buy another one for a spare. I don't include my spare into rotation, and every matching spare tire I've ever bought winds up being given away a couple of years later.

So, I'm thinking about buying a cheap retread to mount on the spare. Should be half the cost. I'm also thinking about getting the lightest (thinnest) tire that I can find with a matching diameter.

I'm running 12 plys on the JK, so a flat isn't likely. I also have air onboard, so limping home is a possibility (with multiple fill stops). But, in the event of a catastrophic tire failure I'd like to have a real spare to limp home on.

Good idea or bad one?
 

jacobconroy

Hillbilly of Leisure
My tires are at 60% tread. A new tire is going to be a larger diameter. Would that matter on the rears?
 

dreadlocks

Well-known member
yeah you want OD to match on both sides of your drive axle or diff is never going to get a chance to rest.. it'd be okay short term rolling on a spare, but not for tens of thousands of miles.

Tirerack will shave tires down to match OD of the rest, its the only way to fix a single tire on an AWD w/out buying a whole new set of tires.
 

jacobconroy

Hillbilly of Leisure
When I get 5 new tires someday I plan to match all 5 and rotate all 5 (every 3K at oil changes)...but for now, I thought a cheapo would be best for the spare.
 

dreadlocks

Well-known member
how far off is your current spare from your existing OD? did you go from like 33s to 37's or something? I guess a cheapo would be be better than one way off but you'll be discarding a new tire anyhow.. if its a short limp you can get by with mismatching sizes, I mean very few vehicles have full size spares.. but if your needing to limp 100's of miles back to a tire shop that can fix you up, the piece of mind of a cheap matching size is probably worth it.

Best part about rotating your spare in, is it'll work when you really need it.. id say at least 50% of people when they finally go to use their spare, they find its in worse shape than the tire they just messed up.. forces you to air it up and wear it out before it ages out and rots away.. Ive driven plenty of beater cars to know that a 20yro donut sitting in the trunk is going to be fuckign lucky to even hold air.
 
Just search tire shops, Craigslist, Offer Up, and ect for a used tire for a spare? You might be able to find an exact match and save even more $$$ than what a retread costs.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Tapatalk
 

Tswhit15

Member
I also have a full sized spare and I do a 5 tire rotation. It gets you a little more life out of a set of tires. I probably rotate every 7k miles or so but I drive a lot so it's a couple times a year. If you're at 60% might as well wait then I suppose until you need new ones. Check craigslist, there's tons of single spares for sale for cheap money.
 

MOguy

Explorer
I don't have a matching spare on my 2-door JK. It's the same size, but doesn't match. The issue is that my main tires are north of $300.00 a pop, and I just can't make myself buy another one for a spare. I don't include my spare into rotation, and every matching spare tire I've ever bought winds up being given away a couple of years later.

So, I'm thinking about buying a cheap retread to mount on the spare. Should be half the cost. I'm also thinking about getting the lightest (thinnest) tire that I can find with a matching diameter.

I'm running 12 plys on the JK, so a flat isn't likely. I also have air onboard, so limping home is a possibility (with multiple fill stops). But, in the event of a catastrophic tire failure I'd like to have a real spare to limp home on.

Good idea or bad one?


I carry a 33X9.5 BFG for a spare. My other tires are also 33's. My reasoning was weight. A narrower tire is lighter. BFGs are lighter than some other tires. A light tire can sit on the stock tire carrier and you don't have to have the extra weight of the heavier bumper as well as the tire

The ply or rating is for carrying weight and higher air pressure, not for side wall strength. If you want a tire with side wall strength buy a tire that has a strong side wall. If you want to carry allot of weight buy a tire designed to carry weight. I heavy ply tire on a light vehicle will not perform or tire as well as getting the right tire for the vehicle designed for what you want it to do. I have never gotten a flat in my jeep and I buy C rated tires built for off roading. I have gotten flats in my 1 ton with E rated tires driving over less rough terrain.
 
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jacobconroy

Hillbilly of Leisure
I'll reply to a couple of posts above at once. :)

I'm running Toyo M/T Open Country 185/70/r17s on the Jeep (I found them on CL for a very good price). They are E-rated, but my Jeep is so top-heavy that the stiff tires greatly improved road manners.

The same guy sold me a set of Toyo A/T 185/70/r17s for cheap with about 30% thread. One of these is my spare and the other three might go on my Chaser when I can buy matching wheels for it. The M/Ts and A/Ts are pretty much the same size. The problem is my "inner hillbilly" is embarrassed to have A/Ts anywhere on my rig, lol.

I will probably just deal with it until I need new tires for the Jeep. But, I've been thinking about getting a tire of the same diameter (but much thinner and lighter) in M/T for the spare and the trailer tires. In all this will require four new tires, so cheap would be good. The Toyos are very pricey IMO.

I keep checking C/L for matching Toyos but it seems like everyone else buys 185/75/r17s. Another issue is that these tires are a whole lot heavier than stock. Adding four more is not going to be a good thing for my gross weight.

Not that it matters too much. I'm 600 over on the Jeep (not including the trailer). Don't want to make it any worse.
 
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MOguy

Explorer
I'll reply to a couple of posts above at once. :)

I'm running Toyo M/T Open Country 185/70/r17s on the Jeep (I found them on CL for a very good price). They are E-rated, but my Jeep is so top-heavy that the stiff tires greatly improved road manners.

The same guy sold me a set of Toyo A/T 185/70/r17s for cheap with about 30% thread. One of these is my spare and the other three might go on my Chaser when I can buy matching wheels for it. The M/Ts and A/Ts are pretty much the same size. The problem is my "inner hillbilly" is embarrassed to have A/Ts anywhere on my rig, lol.

I will probably just deal with it until I need new tires for the Jeep. But, I've been thinking about getting a tire of the same diameter (but much thinner and lighter) in M/T for the spare and the trailer tires. In all this will require four new tires, so cheap would be good. The Toyos are very pricey IMO.

I keep checking C/L for matching Toyos but it seems like everyone else buys 185/75/r17s. Another issue is that these tires are a whole lot heavier than stock. Adding four more is not going to be a good thing for my gross weight.

Not that it matters too much. I'm 600 over on the Jeep (not including the trailer). Don't want to make it any worse though.

So you bought the wrong tries to try to compensate for a dangerous vehicle?
 

Justincredible

Adventurer
If you're not doing a 5 tire rotation, then get the cheapest spare of the same size in good condition that you can.
It's only there to limp you off the trail and/or get you to the tire shop in the event that one of your tires fails.

Just inspect it regularly for age and sun damage/wear. You don't want to get to the point where you do need it and have it fail.
 

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