Input for coach absent of Spare tire

[Mike Jean Bandfield]

Ray,

It took 28 hours to get a tow truck to my accident site. I was 183 miles from Dawson City. I must say that my USAA roadside assistance policy paid the entire cost which was more than $1200. The problems I encountered were unique to my unusual roadside assistance needs. USAA has notified me recently that they have made changes to their towing procedure as a result of my accident and my complaints

http://www.bornfreervclub.org/bulletin_ ... ity#p20623

Dallas, my 'Progressive' policy is also through USAA! I've been speaking of them as 'Progressive' rather than USAA; assuming that as the contracted provider they (Progressive) are calling the shots. I may be assuming too much. USAA could be dictating policy - literally.

[Dallas Baillio]

Seems to me that the bottom line is:

Carry a spare mounted on a rim and a jack if possible.

I attempted to change out a valve extension on a front tire on my BF unaware that when I had previously had a flat on that tire repaired the mechanic had removed the core of the valve stem. The only thing holding the air in the tire was the valve extension. When I removed the extension air escaped so quickly tire pressure dropped from 65 psi to 20 psi before I could stop the leak. This happened at a remote location in northern British Columbia. Because I had a bottle jack and a spare along with the help of two strong Canadians I managed to change the tire. Oh yes, I had an air compressor that failed me at that critical time. I do have really bad luck sometimes

[Vlamgat]

I ahve been the victim of multiple blow outs over the last 5 years towing a 30 foot closed trailer and have learned these lessons:
[list=]You MUST carry a spare or accept that the time taken to rectify you por problem could be as much as a couple of days. This is whether or not you have insurance or a help line
GS is helpful but there is a big difference between swapping in a spare and replacing a tire. I had a couple of double blow outs because of the poor quality Chinese trailer tires now sold in the US and no one was available through GS or AAA for 12-18 hours who could provide new tires and fit them road side.
You must have the equipment to change a tire with the axle on the ground. That means a small bottle jack; jack stand, large lug nut removal wrench preferably with a proper socket and an extension because the wheel dish buries the lug not quite far from the sidewall.
You must carry a compressor that can inflate to the maximum tire pressure for E or in my case G LR. The duty cycle on most 12V compressors is so short at the high pressures it can take an hour to air up a partially deflated spare. This means that you have to be rigorous checking tire pressures relative to wheel load. That means you must weigh the coack because the weight split is typically 30/70% F/R. This can mean that while the coach may justify E rated tires spread over 6 wheels; the 4 at the rear may be above 80% of maximum load. This is critical because as soon as you sytemically carry max loads on the tires at 60+ speeds on 100+ degree days on broken up Interstates, the tire life is being shortened. So much so that the life may not exceed 3 years if stored outside and 5 years if protected from UV.[/list]

When I read the post by the guy who took off with 10 year old tires I cringed because this is a recipe for a disaster. And while I noted that there was some remorse because the grandkids were aboard - what about the people aboard the vehicle that could have been hit when those tire let go. There is a lot of luck in the tire sustainment business but there is no need to be casual with any aspect as I have learned to my cost. The damage from a blow out usually exceeds the cost of replacing the tires.

[tomzleapin]

After the factory rally this summer, I stopped to visit my sister in Clear Lake, IA, about 60 miles from Humboldt. While there I noticed my right outside dual was flat. I don't know how far I drove on it. I don't carry a spare, but I do carry a 12 ton jack and a good lug wrench. I jacked it up, removed the wheel, and took it to Fleet Farm and bought a new tire.

The sidewall got really tore up. I'm lucky the tire didn't through the tread.

[whemme]

Tom,

If you would, could you tell those on this forum what brand and model of tire you show in your two photos? And how old was the tire and how many miles were on it?

Thanks,

[tomzleapin]

The tire is a Michelin LTX. Year is 2005 with 47,000 miles. When I got home I bought new tires. Unfortunately the tires did not fall into the date range for the recall.

[tomzleapin]

No.

Edit June 20, 2015
I think someone's post got deleted between my response and the previous post. Perhaps Sam Ryan. He has vanished from the forum.

[WardPAW]

Randy,

We traveled from FL to Alaska in 2013. Our coach was purchased in 2011 and did not have a spare tire. I found a rim on the Internet. The coach needed new tires, so we purchased 7 new Michelins, which were later recalled and replaced in December 2013.

We did not want to be helpless on the road, so we carried a 12 ton-2 stage hydraulic jack, a 12V air compressor, sockets to remove the wheel cover nuts & lug bolt, rubber wheel choks and a piece of plywood to put under the jack. The coach has the Ford provided tire wrench.

Links to the jack and air compressor on Northern Tool.

http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/ ... _200442866

http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/ ... _200305495

I had a custom bracket made for the top of the jack so the jack is less likely to slip off of the axle. The air compressor always filled the tires to the desired pressure, up to 80 lbs. Also used the compressor to top off the suspension air bags, when needed.

Our insurance carrier is State Farm and we have Good Sam Roadside Assistance. After traveling to Alaska and back to the lower 48 states, we had the passenger side inside dual fail in Sheridan, WY in mid-September. The Good Sam vendor arrived in 30 minutes. We were able to get a new Michelin in Sheridan that same day. 3 days later, the driver side inside dual failed near Huron, SD. Good Sam showed up in 5 minutes (the service truck was in route to another call on the same highway and was diverted to us first). Could not find a new Michelin, so we purchased a used tire since we had two failures in 3 days. In late October, a valve stem failed in Newburgh, NY. The Good Sam vendor took 2 hours to show up, so I changed the tire myself after 1.5 hours. The vendor did refer us to a local truck tire place (5 miles away) to fix the tire and re-mount the Michelin. Having a mounted spare tire was beneficial in every incident.

We carry the spare tire under the couch, behind the driver seat. The jack and air compressor are stored there as well. I want to keep the extra weight forward in the coach. The spare tire and tools add about 115 pounds to the payload, but proved to be worth carrying the extra weight.

I realize we have a bigger coach and have more storage space, but I thought I would share how we handle the spare tire matter. When we had tire problems, we always had cell phone service. Had we had trouble in Canada or Alaska, cell service may not have been available, so we carried a handheld CB radio. The CB radio band is monitored by truckers and the police authorities.

Happy travels!

[randallrae]

Roadmaster now has a spare tire carrier . http://www.roadmasterinc.com/products/s ... index.html

[stevek]

Thanks. Good find.
But its very pricey at $595, at etrailer.com.
The etrailer site has lots of pictures of hitch.

[sw23185]

[ deleted ]

[randallrae]

The Roadmaster is built with a receiver under the tire to accept a hitch , bike carrier etc. The tire carrier has a removable handle and a release that allows you to easily lower the tire to the ground before detaching it from the carrier .

[Tahoe]

FYI, here is a picture of the spare tire carrier the PO put on. It is all welded construction, except where it bolts to the frame. They notched the bumper cover just enough to clear the square tubing going down to the frame. The tire carrier swings away to allow access to the rear storage. It's very possible this was a Jeep spare tire carrier that was modified. It's extremely sturdy and has the bonus feature of the basket which swings down. I weigh 220 lbs and I stood on the basket and it's solid.

Okay, I tried to download pictures of it but I get one of 2 messages. Either it can't determine the file size, or the other message is the file is to large. Never had any issues posting pictures on any other forum before. Hope you can envision what it looks like. Pictures are no too big, so unsure what's going on.

[bfadmin]

Russ,

Have you read the topic titled Photo Posting Rules & Hints? If you haven't, please do so as it explains how to attach photos in posts on our forum. You are limited to 3 photos per post and each of the photos can be no wider that 720 pixels (10.0"). What were the width of the photos you were trying to attach?

[Tahoe]

Just checked my photos and they were 600x450. Will try again tommorrow.