No need for a spare

[MelGoddard]

Originally Posted by tg twinkie

carry a spare.

absolutely!

"good judgement is the result of experience.
Experience is the result of bad judgement."

"look after your equipement, it will look after you."

'trailer trash, with a rolling tin can shed'.

[Bill M.]

"What would you do?"

Unless there was a good reason not to I would carry a spare.

What you are saying is that you can run on 2 and you have 4. Might work. But I think you would be overloading the axle. Is the rated capacity of one axle high enough to carry the weight for both?

Might depend upon where you are going. I would rather take a tire off and put a spare on than mess with several wheels. If I had a flat and no spare I would run 3 wheels. Can not see the point of taking another off.

What it really comes down to is how useful not carrying a spare will be. I drive a 2500 and carry the spare in the truck bed. I have room and weight capacity enough to do that. Are you pulling this with a MGB or something where space and weight is really tight? Where are you traveling? How important would taking a day or two out to buy a tire be?

I do not think I would run 80 psi either. I do not run 80psi in my truck rear axle with the trailer attached. My 88 model trailer came from the factory with load range C tires and a placard that says 45 psi. But I am really conflicted and confused on the current tire market and pressures. And the more I read about tires and pressure the less I seem to know. Let us know how it works out for you.

[davidz71]

Originally Posted by GM Airstream

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...

I'm glad someone stepped up to the plate and mentioned that these tires don't need to be inflated to their max. I run D rated Maxxis tires on an '86 Sovereign 25 foot corner bed unit and run the tires 60-62 psi while their max is 65 psi. I think you would see a number of rivets popping or cracks developing on your end caps on the inside at 80 psi max.

[TouringDan]

Originally Posted by Bill M.

"What would you do?"

Unless there was a good reason not to I would carry a spare.

What you are saying is that you can run on 2 and you have 4. Might work. But I think you would be overloading the axle. Is the rated capacity of one axle high enough to carry the weight for both?

Might depend upon where you are going. I would rather take a tire off and put a spare on than mess with several wheels. If I had a flat and no spare I would run 3 wheels. Can not see the point of taking another off.

What it really comes down to is how useful not carrying a spare will be. I drive a 2500 and carry the spare in the truck bed. I have room and weight capacity enough to do that. Are you pulling this with a MGB or something where space and weight is really tight? Where are you traveling? How important would taking a day or two out to buy a tire be?

I do not think I would run 80 psi either. I do not run 80psi in my truck rear axle with the trailer attached. My 88 model trailer came from the factory with load range C tires and a placard that says 45 psi. But I am really conflicted and confused on the current tire market and pressures. And the more I read about tires and pressure the less I seem to know. Let us know how it works out for you.

Ok, Ok I will carry a spare. There was a preponderance of responses that said that is what I should do. But, bingo! Bill M nailed it. My axles are designed to carry 2,500 lbs., so I can’t really run on two axles.

I was looking at this, as uncle_bob and others pointed out, as a risk, benefit decision, but I never thought about the axle loading problem.

To fill in some of the blanks, I have always carried a spare and carry it in the back of my truck. However, I just completed axle replacement and am upgrading to disc brakes. This required that I purchase new 5 lug wheels because that is what comes with the Dexter 3,500 lb axle. As such, I will now plan on buying a spare wheel and will travel with it in the back of my truck. I will probably install one of my Goodyear Marathan tires on it.

I am also confused about what pressure to go with. Other threads indicate to start with 80 psi. This seems incredibly high considering the light loading on my tires.

I want to thank all those who responded. I will travel with a spare.

Dan

[ROBERT CROSS]

Another AS Riddle....whats rong with this picture?

Bob

[OTRA15]

2x3500 < 7300?

[azflycaster]

The spare was a pain to carry, took too much space on the bed of the truck. Installed the spare carrier under the front of the trailer a few years back. No longer a problem.

[ROBERT CROSS]

Originally Posted by OTRA15

2x3500 < 7300?

Yep....thats Airstream math.

Just think....with two 3500's I have a CCC of 676# (my Honey Brown alone cuts that in half.)

How nice it would have been if JC had seen fit to use two 4.5k axles....dream on you silly man.

Bob

[m.hony]

What if you run over a screw, a nail, a file, a piece of angle iron....

[Capt Dave]

Nah, spares are over rated ( and many times flat too), but then again I have a tow business and kids in college. Also those last fuel for 76 miles signs- they don't actually mean that- you can make it.

[SSquared]

Originally Posted by ROBERT CROSS

Another AS Riddle....whats rong with this picture?

Bob

I don't consider that an OOPS. Taking into consideration 800-1200 pounds of tongue weight, you have some spare axle capacity.

But AS does make "improvements". My 2013 25FB has the same 7300 pound GVWR as your trailer, and it came with 3800 pound axles.

[Wayne&Sam]

Originally Posted by 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

You want to try that again?

[perryg114]

Carry a spare. I would not run 80 psi in a tire unless you are right at the load limit. I would say anything over 50 psi on such a light trailer will be like riding on solid wheels. Tires absorb a lot of small stuff that the springs won't even respond to. I would also run car type speed rated tires that are more reliable than the dedicated trailer tires. If you have to run without a spare add more air to the tire that is left on that side but don't run 80psi otherwise.

Perry

[GMFL]

Stupid is as stupid does.

[ROBERT CROSS]

Originally Posted by SSquared

I don't consider that an OOPS. Taking into consideration 800-1200 pounds of tongue weight, you have some spare axle capacity.
But AS does make "improvements". My 2013 25FB has the same 7300 pound GVWR as your trailer, and it came with 3800 pound axles.

^
I do consider it a bit of an OOP's, as I have 7640 on the axles with WD set, TW has nothing to add or subtract from that.


That along with the outstanding CCC of 676*= a pretty good OOP's for us.

Originally Posted by Wayne&Sam

You want to try that again?

No, I always say what I meen,

Bob

[Countryboy59]

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

I wish my AS and truck had the same bolt pattern. Then I could use one spare for both.

I have the new Endurance on my 2018 Serenity 27. Stopped by Jackson Center and got 4 16" Michelins on Sendel rims. So now my spare is a 15" and my tires are 16". No worries, probably will never need the spare.

[GMFL]

Originally Posted by Countryboy59

I wish my AS and truck had the same bolt pattern. Then I could use one spare for both.

I have the new Endurance on my 2018 Serenity 27. Stopped by Jackson Center and got 4 16" Michelins on Sendel rims. So now my spare is a 15" and my tires are 16". No worries, probably will never need the spare.

When I bought mine I bought 5 rims and tires. Spare is matching tire and rim. Took the more expensive route.

[PKI]

[QUOTE=GMFL;2026845]When I bought mine I bought 5 rims and tires. Spare is matching tire and rim. Too

Did same - thought we would never use the spare - installed spare on our Fall trip. Screw found it's way into tire. Air found it's way out of the tire. Convinced there are folks who don't need a spare, but our analysis is that we travel too far not to have one. Pat

[Andrew T]

If you like I can give a little history on spare tires.

Once Airstream started installing Torsion axles in 1963 one of the benefits was not needing a spare unless traveling to Mexico or Alaska. So few of the trailers in 60's and 70's had spare tires or carriers, in the 80's spares were still and option and though more common many did not bother with them. If we had a customer want to order the spare we would suggest they put the money in Michelin Radials and then the spare would not be needed anyway. In those days people did not get alarmed about things nearly as easily as some do today so it was not a big deal. I have towed Airstreams many miles on 3 wheels without and real problem. When on three don't exceed 50 MPH and you won't have any trouble. When you get to the next exit or service station pump the remaining tire up to its max pressure and continue on until you can get a replacement tire. Just about any used 15" tire will work as a stop gap until you can get the proper tire.

So why run without a spare? On some of the new trailers and a few older ones such as slide-out models the hitch weights are rather high, transferring this much hitch weight becomes quite challenging especially on long tow vehicles like Pick Ups so getting rid of the weight of the tire and carrier can help a little.

Usually when we do this we change the trailer tires to 15" Michelins so that the odds of getting a flat become extremely low.

Hope this helps.

Andy

[J. Morgan]

I always carry a spare for my tow vehicle, but in four years of Airstreaming I have never carried a trailer spare.