Input for coach absent of Spare tire

[bfadmin]

Russ,

The other important thing about posting photos is that each photo file name must have one of the following four extensions on the end of the file name for the forum to recognize that it is a photo and therefore knows what to do with it:

.gif, .jpeg, .jpg or .png

[randallrae]

spare_tire_overview.png (315.54 KiB) Viewed 14266 times

[tevz32]

Another roadside tire story. Last year near Gallup New Mexico the tread on the right front tire flew off. No spare, no roadside assistance insurance. I called a couple of tire dealers but none had road service. I asked for suggestions. Was told call "Bill's Roadside Service". Called "Bill's", gave the tire size, 30 min. later a beat up pickup truck rolled in. A young man proceeded to change the tire without any power tools. One hour after the blow out we were back on the road. Total cost including the new tire" $155.00. There are good people out there!

[Mike Jean Bandfield]

UPDATE:It has been a year since I dumped dumped Progressive's Roadside Ins for GoodSam. Since then We've driven ~6000 trouble free miles in Canada and Alaska on a new set of Michelins - thank God. Before leaving on this trip I also bought a new spare tire and mounted it on a rim (still no jack). And, on this trip, I talked to several people with Good Sam experiences that were not good - including a BF owner who was charged $1000 for an emergency tire replacement and some who were denied service in Canada.

Today I added an 8 ton bottled jack to my tool box, canceled the remainder of my GS contract and went back to USAA/Progressive roadside service. The inflated spare wheel/tire and bottle jack are a lot of weight to carry around but I'm now in compliance with Progressive's requirements - plus I can help myself in the case of a simple flat. I've never felt comfortable not carrying a spare wheel and jack. -Mike

[stevek]

I am still not carrying a spare and it bothers me.
Thanks for the ideas.
I wish my Born Free had a designated place to carry a spare.
When you pay this much for a Class C, it should have a place.
I have thought about under the couch, but have found my storage space is a premium and I use this space for other things. Beer and stuff.. ..just kidding.
I bought a tire carrier from Dallas, but am not happy with that either.
Thus.. I travel w/o a spare, but I do carry a jack and lug wrench.
Plus I have AAA.
I have a brand new spare tire, but no rim. I need to find a rim.
I have thought of carrying this spare tire w/o a rim, but do not. Maybe I should.

[Vlamgat]

[quote="stevek"]I am still not carrying a spare and it bothers me.
Thanks for the ideas.
I wish my Born Free had a designated place to carry a spare.
When you pay this much for a Class C, it should have a place.
I have thought about under the couch, but have found my storage space is a premium and I use this space for other things. Beer and stuff.. ..just kidding.
I bought a tire carrier from Dallas, but am not happy with that either.
Thus.. I travel w/o a spare, but I do carry a jack and lug wrench.
Plus I have AAA.
I have a brand new spare tire, but no rim. I need to find a rim.
I have thought of carrying this spare tire w/o a rim, but do not. Maybe I should.[/quote]

I have used both GS and AAA with tire problems on my Sportsmobile. Both services have problems because they depend on the local service providers whose quality they seem to neither check nor specify. In one GS case the wait was 6 hours on a toll way only 8 miles from an I-35 intersection. But when the pick-up arrived it had all the good for an 18 wheeler wheel and tire change. Cost with the tire (double blow on a trailer) was $500. On another occasion, again GS, near an I 35 interchange again but only a few miles North of Dallas, the wait was 3 hours and the pick up was equipped with a Walmart (guess) car jack. The problem this time was a coach rear blow out (the first of 3 prior to the Michelin recall) and I actually needed a second jack to augment mine as the trailer which could not be unhitched had to be jacked up some way before its jack would operate. I ended up doing most of the work and eventually got going only after AAA and the Police arrived. I was blocking the left lane of the freeway and had been hit by a sleeping/on-the-phone pick up driver before the Police closed the lane.

So bottom line you MUST carry a spare and a jack at least. You also need to practice using them assuming you have to change a traffic facing tire. So that means carrying cones or warning beacons to wake up the on-coming traffic. I have a pipe extension that allows me to jack the coach by lying behind it rather than alongside where my legs and butt would be hanging out in the traffic.

When I bough my BF I made them invent and construct a spare carrier mounted to the rear wall as I needed the hitch for towing and pass through hitches reduce the hitch capacity by as much as 50%. I am happy with the result but in my practice run I discovered that while I could unload the spare, it was beyond my strength to lift the dead weight of a badly damaged tire onto the mountings. So I have rigged up a block and tackle which I can mount to the luggage carrier on the roof to hoist the wheel onto the mounting points if I cannot get help. However I will probably never attempt that on a highway so I also carry a large wheel bag into which I can stuff the shredded tire and wheel to prevent damage to my interior when I roll that tire up the stairs and into my coach. My experience from the numerous trailer and Van fails has taught me that the shredded steel bands in the tire are dangerous to both me and the interior.

But nothing beats prevention, so a tire pressure monitor, correct inflation, tire covers at every stop of more than one day and replacement every 4 years should help. BTW the 16 tire failures on the trailer were a result of using the now exclusively Chinese made trailer tires and despite meticulous inflation care and tire pressure monitors. After switching to G rated Michelin Ribs the problem seems to have been overcome. I still have the SMBs that run on 12 ply 17.5" wheels and H rated tires that seem overkill now that the Michelin problem is known. But I made the change before Michelin went public with their disclosure. In any event the SMB was at the maximum load for the E rating of the LTX anyway and everyone knows that those maximums loads are only for brand new perfectly stored tires.

[bigdipper]

In 20+ years with RVs and Good Sam or Coachnet, both have been OK on 2-3 occasions total. While it may no longer be correct, AAA is organized by state and your agreement is not necessarily binding in another state. Learned that TX would not move 5th wheel when truck expired, only the truck. AZ where I had my membership would have moved 5th wheel.
Ralph

[Rich Flaugh]

A very interesting thread. I have carried an inflated tire/rim on the roof of my BF for years and have never had to use it. Tire sits on the back right corner of the roof and is strapped down. I would like to have that weight further forward but can't find a good place on the roof. I try to minimize the weight on the back axle and a hitch mounted carrier compounds the weight issue. The more weight we can put on the front axle of a BF the better the handling.
I pulled the tire up the ladder with a strap and would lower it the same way. I can't see carrying a big lug wrench as the lug nuts are tightened with an air impact tool and most individuals would have a tough time breaking them loose without proper equipment.

[whemme]

I have kept a spare tire on a rim in both my original 1999 BF 24' RB coach and now my current 2002 BF 26' RSB coach all the way to the front in the compartment under the sofa. I have never had to use this spare and that is just OK with me but it is there if I even need it. If you have a blown tire and no spare, there is not much GS or AAA can do for you except tow you to a tire shop who most likely won't have a replacement in stock.

In my opinion prevention is best. I replace the tires on my BF every 5 years (Firestone Transforce HT tires), keep them properly inflated and use a tire pressure monitoring system. In my approximately 160,000 miles of BF travels, I have never had a flat or blown tire. Maybe I just have been lucky so far.

[cmeadows]

The lug nuts on the E-450 should be torqued to 126-170 ft lbs. I torque them to 150 pounds. If properly torqued, they can be removed with a lug wrench.

We carry a mounted spare, 12 ton air/hydraulic bottle jack, air compressor and torque wrench. The jack can be operated manually with a handle or by compressed air. The compressor we use is a Viair 300P and will operate the air motor on the jack using the coach batteries.

I'm not a fan of lying under the coach to pump the handle of a bottle jack. I'll craw under there to put the jack in position to lift the coach, but my preference is to not be under the coach while it’s being lifted. The jack will easily lift the coach on shop air at home while I stand beside the coach. The 12 volt compressor will operate the air motor on the jack (much slower than shop air, but it works).

The jack weighs 28 pounds and the compressor kit weighs 11 pounds. I carry the jack and compressor behind the cab seats and the spare tire in the forward area under the sofa.

Torin TA91206 Hydraulic Air Jack - 12 Ton
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00026Z3HM

VIAIR 300P Portable Compressor
http://www.amazon.com/Viair-30033-VIAIR ... B000X90YUO

[stevek]

All good ideas.
Looks like my best option is under the sofa too.

At least just carry a spare with no rim. Maybe a waist of time.

Also no one has talked about the option of taking the flat tire off and driving a short distance slowly on 5 tires. Wonder if the various roadside service contracts would do this option?
For example...if you had a front tire flat, taking one of the rears off and putting in front.

I sure wish the BF factory would get with the program and mount a spare.
I keep hoping someone from the factory would read our comments.
The spare tire topic comes up over and over.
A spare like this would sure be nice..

[randallrae]

The new coaches do come with a spare option , but the roadmaster allows you to tow and also has a system to lower and raise the tire to and off the ground .

[Vlamgat]

Some BF models have the provision for a spare but in the case of the F-Triumph it was nominally only available using a hitch mount which was not an option for me. The resulting job has worked well in my practice run but its a weight challenge in mounting and dismounting a 19.5" wheel/tire. Especially as I wrote earlier after its been shredded.

I like the idea of an air/hydraulic combo and have ordered one. I have used the Ford supplied bottle jack and while it has a nice low profile to get under the axle you do have to lie under the coach on the driver side (traffic) but can activate it from the side of the coach. However I have the HWH leveling system and I suspect that in the event of a front or single rear blow out, all I need to do to create clearance is use the leveling jack to lift the vehicle on its springs the inch or two I may need.

Another thing: inevitably when these challenges hit, the stopping point of the coach does not correspond to flat firm ground upon which to seat the jack. So I also carry 3 pieces of wood I borrowed from a building site so that I can limit the opportunities for the jack to tople. BTDT and its hard to deal with in Summer temps at 100 plus humidity on the side of the tank track sometimes known as I-35. The double rear wheel will let you roll to a better stopping place but I would be very wary of driving another 30 miles or so to the next town for a pro to work on the problem.

[randallrae]

New coaches have spare option

[stevek]

Thanks for posting that pic.
Only spare tires I had seen on the newer BF was the hitch mount.
Anyway, gave me an idea that maybe I can do something similar on mine by modifying the ladder.
Or even cutting off the bottom half of the ladder off and letting my spare rest on the bumper.
And put my license plate in the center of the spare. Would look OK I think.

I wonder if a person was to go back to the factory, they would do something similar.
And add a new ladder as shown in your pic.

If I cut off bottom of ladder for spare, could use this.