Finally replaced my spare tire.

[z71bill]

My 2007 Tahoe was built in 11/2006 still had the original Goodyear spare. It was looking pretty bad with sidewall cracks all the way around, cracks in between the tread blocks and the tread was hard as a rock.

I have cranked the spare tire down a few times to make sure the crank works but this is the first time it touched the ground since the truck was built. Date code put it at the end of September 2006 - so would be 19 next week!

I just put 4 new Goodyear tires on the Tahoe and figured if I didn't get a new spare it would jinx me into multiple flat tires - and if I did get a new spare I would never need it.

I went to Discount Tire looking for something inexpensive - a little negotiation and I ended up with a Mohave Highway Terrain - made in India.

https://www.discounttire.com/buy-tires/mohave-highway-terrain/p/169531

$132 out the door and it literally took the guy 10 minutes to install the tire on the wheel and balance it.

It actually looks like a decent tire. I doubt I would buy them to use on all 4 corners - but as a spare they fit the bill.

My OEM spare was load index 113 this one is 115 so that is good right?

I hope I live to replace it again in 19 years - that would make me 86!

 

[ecotourist]

My 2007 Tahoe was built in 11/2006 still had the original Goodyear spare. It was looking pretty bad with sidewall cracks all the way around, cracks in between the tread blocks and the tread was hard as a rock.

I have cranked the spare tire down a few times to make sure the crank works but this is the first time it touched the ground since the truck was built. Date code put it at the end of September 2006 - so would be 19 next week!

I just put 4 new Goodyear tires on the Tahoe and figured if I didn't get a new spare it would jinx me into multiple flat tires - and if I did get a new spare I would never need it.

I went to Discount Tire looking for something inexpensive - a little negotiation and I ended up with a Mohave Highway Terrain - made in India.

https://www.discounttire.com/buy-tires/mohave-highway-terrain/p/169531

$132 out the door and it literally took the guy 10 minutes to install the tire on the wheel and balance it.

It actually looks like a decent tire. I doubt I would buy them to use on all 4 corners - but as a spare they fit the bill.

My OEM spare was load index 113 this one is 115 so that is good right?



View attachment 300615View attachment 300616View attachment 300617


I hope I live to replace it again in 19 years - that would make me 86!

And then again at 105.

 

[nealberke]

Is this a full sized spare? If so, have you considered 5 tire rotation? I've learned that the hard way when a factory tire was too old to use. On the other hand, so many cars come with a space saver spare if the come with a spare at all that we forget about it and maybe the space savers need replaced, too?

 

[barkingspider]

You did good on replacing the spare tire. Hopefully you won’t have to use it

 

[AZjeff]

Is this a full sized spare? If so, have you considered 5 tire rotation?

Good idea if the spare wheel is what's on the Tahoe. Who wants to run 3 alloy wheels and a steelie? Yeah you could get a wheel to match.

 

[rubberchicken]

I had a 1997 Chevy Suburban K2500 w/7.4l, and it still had the OEM full size spare when I sold it in 2020. It was pristine, always covered in the cargo area, and I occasionally used it just to validate it was still good. 23 years give or take, and the Sub had 140k with lots of towing. I recall it was a Firestone LT tire of some sort.

 

[CharBaby]

Ultimately, I prefer to do a 5 tire rotation and to have a full size spare tire that is the same as what is on the other 4 corners of the vehicle. Should we be on a long driving vacation and we experience a flat, I want to be able to throw on the fifth tire and finish our journey. I’ll look at the damaged tire once we we get to our destination and settled in.

If I can plug the tire, I’ll do it one of the mornings that are suitable to do so. Depending on where the tires are in their rotation cycle, I may put the plugged tire back on the vehicle or keep it as the spare til the next rotation cycle.

I have recently replaced the OE tires on our ‘23 VENZA with Pirelli Scorpion’s at 20K miles and I am currently looking for a decent 18” CUV wheel that will fit our vehicle so that I can use the best OE tires as our spare. In this case I won’t be doing that 5 tire rotation. I just want to have a better spare tire than the limited use spare that came with the our vehicle. The spare tire area allows for a full size tire to fit nicely and HOPEFULLY, will most often spend its time in the spare tire well.

 

[eljefino]

Why not rotate your best used tire to the steel rim/ spare position? It was "good enough"-- you drove on it last week!

 

[SonofaBoomer]

Why not rotate your best used tire to the steel rim/ spare position? It was "good enough"-- you drove on it last week!

I did this one time at Costco and specifically marked the old best tired I wanted. Sure enough they just threw any random tire on there so when I picked it up I made them change it to the one I marked lol.

 

[z71bill]

Is this a full sized spare? If so, have you considered 5 tire rotation? I've learned that the hard way when a factory tire was too old to use. On the other hand, so many cars come with a space saver spare if the come with a spare at all that we forget about it and maybe the space savers need replaced, too?

It is "full size" but a different size.

265 65 18 on the vehicle stock.
Spare is 265 70 17.

I considered finding a wheel that matched - but the only ones I could find were $$$$.

Wheel cost + new tire was going to be > $450.

$132 VS $450 wasn't a hard call.

The last vehicle that I had that came with a full size spare and matching wheel was a 1986.5 Nissan Hardbody 4x4 pick up.

 

[z71bill]

Why not rotate your best used tire to the steel rim/ spare position? It was "good enough"-- you drove on it last week!

265 65 18 on the vehicle stock.
Spare is 265 70 17.

 

[z71bill]

You did good on replacing the spare tire. Hopefully you won’t have to use it

Me too - I am getting to the point that if I could just call road side assistance I would - would only change it if I had no other choice.

Far as tire quality - safety - I would not have a problem or worry if I did need to use the spare.

Two people I talked with at Discount Tire told me they sell a lot of Mohave tires and they don't see any problems.

Both Mohave and Rocky Mountain are DT exclusive - I think they would be a little better than a random Chinese tire from Walmart.

I pulled the valve stem core to let the air out before I went to DT - mostly air from 2006 - tire still had the red paint line all the way around the tread. It was nothing more than 19 years of dead weight.

New vehicles with their tire repair kit or donut spare - I will take the dead weight of a spare over this any day.

 

[supton]

I replaced the 2003 spare on our CRV this time around, and planned to do 5 tire rotations going forward, with hopes of this being the last set of tires that I buy for the thing. I'm not sure how sensitive this AWD is to tire size, but keeping all 5 at the same depth means that if I lose one tire, I'm ok for at least a bit, no worries about finding a matching replacement.

 

[z71bill]

I replaced the 2003 spare on our CRV this time around, and planned to do 5 tire rotations going forward, with hopes of this being the last set of tires that I buy for the thing. I'm not sure how sensitive this AWD is to tire size, but keeping all 5 at the same depth means that if I lose one tire, I'm ok for at least a bit, no worries about finding a matching replacement.

Does it stay in front wheel drive unless vehicle starts to lose traction?

That is the way our old Santa Fe worked.

I would guess a small difference in tire wear would not matter.

 

[supton]

Does it stay in front wheel drive unless vehicle starts to lose traction?

That is the way our old Santa Fe worked.

I would guess a small difference in tire wear would not matter.

That is what I am thinking, it's so FWD biased that it really would not matter--the only times I've gotten the rear to do anything, I've had to have quite a bit of front slippage. Still, I wanted this to be the last set of tires for this vehicle, and doing 5 tire rotations might help.

 

[50yr Street Mech]

My 03' Solara has a full size original spare in the trunk. Friggin thing looks brand new ! Was never on the car. No cracks, no fading, no nothing. I think that it never sees water or exposed to circulating air has preserved this thing. I would not hesitate putting it on the car in case of a flat. It looks that good !!!!!

 

[CharBaby]

Our 1st LEXUS, an ‘01 RX300 had a full size spare tire OE, on the exact same aluminum wheel as the other 4.
I did a 5 tire rotation and bought 5 tires every time that we needed new tires(lots of road trips out of state)in 15 years of ownership except for the last time, about 18 months prior to selling her.

Then I just bought 4 le$$er tires. The General AltiMAX RT43, on the cheap, knowing we wouldn’t be keeping the RX much longer. However, the RT43s were quite a nice tire for the money and as good IMO, as tires that I was previously spending more money on…live & learn.

 

[nwjones18]

I put a set of 5 on my 88 F-150 10 years ago and just replaced the 4 that’d been on the ground due to age, but decided to let the ‘new’ spare go another 10..

 

[z71bill]

Ultimately, I prefer to do a 5 tire rotation and to have a full size spare tire that is the same as what is on the other 4 corners of the vehicle. Should we be on a long driving vacation and we experience a flat, I want to be able to throw on the fifth tire and finish our journey. I’ll look at the damaged tire once we we get to our destination and settled in.

If I can plug the tire, I’ll do it one of the mornings that are suitable to do so. Depending on where the tires are in their rotation cycle, I may put the plugged tire back on the vehicle or keep it as the spare til the next rotation cycle.

I have recently replaced the OE tires on our ‘23 VENZA with Pirelli Scorpion’s at 20K miles and I am currently looking for a decent 18” CUV wheel that will fit our vehicle so that I can use the best OE tires as our spare. In this case I won’t be doing that 5 tire rotation. I just want to have a better spare tire than the limited use spare that came with the our vehicle. The spare tire area allows for a full size tire to fit nicely and HOPEFULLY, will most often spend its time in the spare tire well.

That was my plan with my wide's RDX - I soon discovered the place where the temp spare would go - was not deep enough to hold a full size tire. So I ended up with a temp spare. The vehicle came without a spare or jack/tools.

I knew this when I bought the vehicle but did not realize how big of a PITA it was going to be to get the stuff later. I ended up taking the easy way out and ordered it from a dealership. The local dealers wanted like $550 but one in Florida had it for $300. I then had to add the tire myself.

I will not buy another vehicle that doesn't at least have a temp spare.............

 

[50yr Street Mech]

General's are not that bad of a tire. Good middle of the road choice. I've used plenty of General's and had no issues with them.