Re: Spare Tire Question

[jlandry@domain.elided (John A. Landry)]

On Thu, 4 Dec 1997 06:46:15 -0800, John.Townley@domain.elided (John Townley)
wrote:

>To all of those Scout owners out there who run 31" (or
>larger) tires....

Well mine are actually 30.8" diameter...does that count?

>What do you use (in size terms) for a spare???

Great question!

In a cold sweat, I've laid in bed many a night wondering about this age old
question... Do I blow money on an expensive spare tire and wheel I may
never use, or do I live dangerously?

I too confess to having a smaller metric tire (I forget the exact size) as
my spare, but I'd feel a heck of a lot better if I had a spare of the same
size as my other Dunlop Radial Mud Rover tires.  My goal early next year is
to buy another matching wheel and go ahead and spend the money on another
Dunlop tire of the exact same size.

>My Scout 80 is pearched on 10.5 X 31's, but I don't
>necessarily *want* to keep that large of a spare.

Luckily I have a Traveler, so I have a few more cubic feet of storage room
in back.  But I can sure see how a large tire might be objectionable in a
regular wheelbase Scout.

>Would a smaller diameter spare cause problems in
>the diff when mated to a 31 on the other side????
>
>My 80 has a dana 27 in the front (stock) and a dana
>44 in the rear (a prior owner must have swapped it in).

The only way I can think it would be temporarily *tolerable* to your
vehicle (to have one tire smaller in diameter than the others) is to make
sure you put it on an axle that doesn't have any sort of locker or
limited-slip differential.  In my case, I have a Trash-Slop limited-slip
differential in the rear and an open front.  If I had a flat on the rear
(not yet thank God), my current tire changing plan calls for moving a good
tire from the front axle back to the rear and then putting the smaller
spare on the front axle.  I'd then carefully limp to a place where I could
fix the larger tire.

If you had lockers front and rear, I don't see how you'd get away with such
shenanigans without breaking something!  I guess if you like living a
dangerous and difficult life, you could drive sans spare and simply carry a
bead breaker, tire irons, patch kit and on board air compressor... and
repair your tire right on the spot.  Too bad someone doesn't make an
inflatable spare in off road tire sizes.  Hey... maybe Dick Cepek could
have a new sales opportunity... an 35" diameter inflatable spare mud tire
in a bag. <grin>

Happy holidays,

John
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