No need for a spare

[TouringDan]

My 66 Tradewind weighs 4,800 lbs ready to camp with a tongue weight of 600 lbs. Therefore my tire loading is very low at 1,050 lbs. The dual tire maximum load for my new load range E Goodyear Endurance tires is 2,470 lbs. I am thinking about traveling without a spare due to the light loading. I plan to inflate to 80 psi. We don’t travel fast or in real hot weather. Do you think this is reasonable? What would you do?

Dan

[CRH]

I wouldn't leave town without a spare.

[Morgan guy]

I think you should be OK if you keep your tires up to date and regularly check the pressures. The trailer can safely be towed at 30 mph with three tires.
Don't do what I did on our first long trip in our first AS. Out in the middle of no where in Southeast Utah, 30 miles from Cortez, NM we had a tire go flat. No sweat we had four on the ground and a spare. I installed the spare and put the flat in the trailer. About five miles later, we had another tire go flat, so you see a lot of scenery at 30 mph. As we pulled into the West side of Cortez, another tire was going flat but we saw an RV dealer and pulled in. He did not have tires but aired up my failing tire and told us where a tire store was on the East side of Cortez. Just as we pulled in to the store, two tires went flat. Fortunately, the tire store had five of the size we needed. Needless to say, I now check pressures regularly and carry a infrared heat sensor to also check the tires.
A TPMS is next on my purchase list.

[TG Twinkie]

Carry a spare.

[ROBERT CROSS]

“Its better to have what you don't need when you need it, than not to have it when you don’t.”
RLC


Bob

[OTRA15]

Can’t believe there is any need to discuss this. Tires can fail for a host of reasons including road hazards, curb impact, debris in road, large potholes, and vandalism.

The cost/benefit ratio favors carrying a spare IMO, by orders of magnitude.

Carry a spare!

[Tinbox]

Even with roadside assistance I would't leave home without a spare. A lot of figuring, I'm impressed.

[2dabeach]

Originally Posted by TouringDan

My 66 Tradewind weighs 4,800 lbs ready to camp with a tongue weight of 600 lbs. Therefore my tire loading is very low at 1,050 lbs. The dual tire maximum load for my new load range E Goodyear Endurance tires is 2,470 lbs. I am thinking about traveling without a spare due to the light loading. I plan to inflate to 80 psi. We don’t travel fast or in real hot weather. Do you think this is reasonable? What would you do?

Dan

TouringDan....As long as you don't leave home there is no problem not having a spare tire. Have you ever had a blowout on Rte 95 in Georgia? I did. I put on my spare and tried to locate a replacement spare tire in Georgia which required me to drive 50 miles in the opposite direction. Finding replacement tires for a trailer or your tow vehicle on a trip is not fun. I now travel with two spares for my trailer and two spares for my tow vehicle. Since I started carrying the extra spares I have not had any tire problems on the road.

[J-K Georgia]

We all make choices.

[gecko]

Ditto. Although we’ve towed fine on 3 legs when we didn’t know we had a flat, we’ve used the spare twice in 8 seasons. Although we’ve switched to Michelin 16’s and added a TPMS, I can’t imagine going anywhere without a spare.

[HeltzelEricE]

Two months ago I needed my spare. We have Good Sam, but it would’ve been hours to get help. We were on a remote highway where it wasn’t possible to pull off the road completely. It was getting dark. Even with the triangles out, I was glad I got my trailer off the road before nightfall. I suggest you have a spare if you have the means and are capable of changing it yourself.

[TouringDan]

Originally Posted by OTRA15

Can’t believe there is any need to discuss this. Tires can fail for a host of reasons including road hazards, curb impact, debris in road, large potholes, and vandalism.



The cost/benefit ratio favors carrying a spare IMO, by orders of magnitude.



Carry a spare!

OTRA15

I thank you and others for your comments.

I am considering traveling without a spare for the following reasons:

1. Although my Tradewind has dual axles, lots of Tradewinds were built with only single axles.

2. If I have a flat tire or blowout, regardless of the cause, I can operate my Tradewind in the single axis mode and do so safely since I still have a 35% margin between the tire loading of 2,100 lbs and the maximum allowable single axle tire load of 2,830 lbs. I suspect this maybe more margin than most dual axle 30 or 31’ Airstreams have.

My plan would be, in the event of tire failure, to remove the defective tire and the front good tire from the other side, make sure that both operating tires are on the rear most axle and continue my trip until I can repair/replace the defective tire.

Dan

[Adventure.AS]

Originally Posted by TouringDan

...
My plan would be, in the event of tire failure, to remove the defective tire and the front good tire from the other side, make sure that both operating tires are on the rear most axle and continue my trip until I can repair/replace the defective tire.

Dan

Hopefully my TPMS will let me know if I have a slow leak. I carry an air pump and a tire repair kit which includes valve cores + tool, and plugs + tools to repair a tire that is loosing air from a nail puncture etc. Often this can be done with the tire still on the vehicle. However, I also carry a spare in case of a blow out. The spare is only for emergencies because it doesn't match my Michelin tires as it is still a GY Endurance tire.

[OTRA15]

Originally Posted by 2dabeach

. . .
As long as you don't leave home there is no problem not having a spare tire.
. . .

That about covers it!

Any additional discussion about leaving home without a spare tire, is . . .

. . . well . . .

. . . not worth my time and effort IMO.

[ . . . off to look for some quotes about certain people being parted from their money . . . ]

Good luck.

[nwclassic]

What twin axle trailers offer over singles is some protection from tire failure (and it's consequences) in all the travel scenarios that can be conjured up. To whit:
Imagine you've had the flat, removed the wheel and are trundling along below 35mph. Now the remaining one goes - just for mental fun, let's say you're on a steep incline/decline, add some banked curves, how about no shoulder and it's raining... ok, dark, foggy too. You'll be real busy, but look in the rearview as you attempt to stop safely. What's it look like back there? Ready for what's next?
I'm not. RVing can not be done w/o some risk. Why would you choose to give up your safety margin and inflict those consequences on loved ones (let alone those you share the road with)? That's not a spare under consideration... that's essential equipment. Be safe.

[GM Airstream]

Originally Posted by TouringDan

My 66 Tradewind weighs 4,800 lbs ready to camp with a tongue weight of 600 lbs. Therefore my tire loading is very low at 1,050 lbs. The dual tire maximum load for my new load range E Goodyear Endurance tires is 2,470 lbs. I am thinking about traveling without a spare due to the light loading. I plan to inflate to 80 psi. We don’t travel fast or in real hot weather. Do you think this is reasonable? What would you do?

Dan

Dan.... never ever leave home without it... if you have to have it repaired on the road... hold on to your wallet... as some of the autoclubs don't include trailers.. and will tell you so ... when they get their... WITH THE BILL... Most of the time for trailers they promote it as road hazzard... (potholes are killers) and some don't cover that or something attached to the tV

Also.. blowing the tires up to 80 lbs... without taking into account for the load... is foolish... and extreamly hard on the trailer... and axles... the tires are cheap and flexing is part of their life... etc...

That issue has been beat to death.. and so will your trailer if you elect to just blow 'em up to 80 lbs...

Also... you need to weigh the trailer.. tire for tire... side for side.. kinda thing as you will find that some wheels are higher weight than the other... and not necess'rly due to your loading... AS is known for making one side heavier than the other with the appliances... and yet owners go off blindly blaming the tires for failurs... go figure...

Speaking of tires... I wouldn't go across the street with a set of Goodyear loosers... go Mitchlin... if you can...

As to dual axle.. vs single... you get a lot of sidewall action as they scrub along...more so than a single axle... when you think about it...

Have fun on your trip...

[Milo1952]

Why would you not carry a spare ?????????????????

[OTRA15]

Originally Posted by Milo1952

Why would you not carry a spare ?????????????????

Analysis paralysis?

[uncle_bob]

Hi

Ok, this is a risk / benefit tradeoff analysis. I don't have any problem with those sort of things. What's the benefit in this case? We've gone over the risk it pretty exhaustive detail. How big a payoff is there? I'm assuming the spare tire mount is already there. I'm also guessing that a wheel for the tire is present already. So:

You don't need to buy another tire

You don't need to haul the weight

There is indeed some benefit. A lot of people haul cheap spares. Let's call it $120 or so. That spreads over 6 years, so it would be $20 a year. Weight wise, you are talking about < 100 pounds(?) Trailer + TV are in the 10,000 pound range. You save < 1% of the total weight. That *might* improve your gas miles by 0.5%. Say you tow 20,000 miles at 10 MPG and $3 fuel. You have 0.5% of $6,000 or about $30 a year. Total benefit would be $50 a year.

Maybe I'm missing some other benefit. So far that does not seem like a lot. At least in my case, I make a lot of "lead foot" decisions in 20,000 miles of towing that impact the numbers by more than $50 or so.

What am I missing?

Bob

[Adventure.AS]

Originally Posted by uncle_bob

...
What am I missing?

If the tongue weight is 500 lbs then reducing it by the weight of the spare (~50 lbs) would be about 10%. Removing the spare weight might be important to the OP.