Born Free Leap'n Lions RV Club Info & Discussion Forum

I just purchased a 1999 Born Free mini built for two and there is no spare tire and there seems to be no place to put one. Any ideas?
Thank you

Our Born Free 21 was the same way. We considered a rear bumper mount but finally decided on inside storage. We store our spare under the jack knife couch. We had to cut one of the supports to get it in. Of course we never hope to use it but our experience is that it will get used over the years.

We also carry a tire repair kit, a compressor, a tire torque wrench, a breaker bar, a hydraulic jack and subscribe to a road repair service. The road service will not bring a spare but will install it. We did have one occasion where we had to install a tire ourselves.

Ginny's experience requires a spare. Most times we've found it's an inside rear tire.

We have a 2002 26' RSB coach and carry a spare on a rim in the compartment underneath the jack knife sofa slide clear up towards the driver's seat. Have a TPMS and never had to use the spare in all thee years but that is OK, it is there if I never need it,

Thank you for your reply. Hoping I won't need a spare. I have roadside assistance and will carry tire patch kit. I guess this will be the best option.

What kind of roadside assistance do you have? I also don't have a spare either and have Good Sam's but it is getting really expensive. I had a blow out last fall but was fortunate that I was going slow approaching a turn in a small town so I could pull over easily and it was a front truck tire. i store so many of my supplies under my couch and am not able to five up that space!

I have a spare but I leave it home. Should I get a flat I have the necessary tools to jockey wheels around. If a front tire goes flat I can pull off one of the rear duals and put it on the front. If a rear goes flat I can remove it or if I'm close to civilization just proceed slowly to town. I have emergency roadside coverage on my insurance. It's quite cheap. I've had to use it once in the 10 years I've owned my coach. If needed, I pay for the tow or service and then insurance reimburses me.

Road side Assistance.

My recollection is that roadside assistance does not supply replacement tires, just installation.

That was the case with my GS roadside. They arranged for a service agent from an hour away to come and replace the tire. It cost me about $380 to get a lower branded tire.

Roadside assistance can't help you with a blown tire if you don't have your own spare to install. Best they can do is tow you to a tire shop of your choice but even then they most likely won't have the correct size replacement tire in stock.

In my case the purchase and install of the new tire was what I paid the $380 for. I had called in the town I had the blow out in and neither of the tire shops in that town had a tire to fit. There was the peace of mind that someone was on the line that was helping me to get it all arranged.

IMO traveling without a spare is an invitation to a series of problems besides the direct implications of the blow or the flat. Our roads are not getting better; speeds are increasing even though we try to manage them in our poorly engineered (speed-wise) rigs; extreme either conditions of hot and cold; and our inability to establish the true condition of a tire even after the event. So its going to happen. One of the down sides of small(er) RVs is the lack of storage but I argue (mostly with myself) that the other stuff that a tire would displace would be gladly sacrificed to avoid a possible 2 day sojourn somewhere awaiting a replacement.

Ready to Leave.
We have our spare stored under the couch and still have empty space.

We started in a 32 foot Class A. When we sold it after 8 years we were shocked by the amount of stuff we had in the motorhomee . We downsized to a 15.5 foot, 7'2" wide trailer with none of the under floor compartments the motorhome had.

We have learned to live very happily in a small space and rarely feel lacking.

We are tire conscious, our motorhome had a number of blowouts. Our routine is to leave early before the heat of the day reducing tire exposure to the hotter parts of the day. We usually drive about 150 miles. We don't drive fast. Our trailer rarely exceeded 60 miles per hour. I suspect the Born Free will rarely be above 60. We typically are in the right hand lane.

You have all motivated me to look at all my storage areas and see if I can rearrange things to get a tire in. I think people have said they push it up toward the front to get close to the drivers seat.

http://www.roadmasterinc.com/products/s ... index.html I use one of these

As many have done, our spare is stored under the jack knife sofa pushed all the way forward toward the driver seat. I purchased a heavy duty canvas tire bag with handles that makes it easier to manage and allows cleaner storage of the damaged tire. I carry a 20 ton bottle jack and all necessary tools for tire changing.

We had a valve stem failure this summer on the driver side inner dual. I ended up changing the tire in the parking lot of the Archway Museum on IH80. As a former shop owner and automotive enthusiasts I like to be as self reliant as possible. I practiced and refined my load out so I was confident getting on the road. For the long trips I also carry my cordless 1/2 inch impact.