Spare Tire Question

["Thomas J. Harais" <tharais@domain.elided>]

Guys:

I think were preaching a false economy here.

When I bought my Scout it had 4 old LT tires on it. The spare was a
completely different tire. It had been a studded snow tire that someone
pulled the studs out of. The fact that it was a different size than the
four on the Scout made it useless and me nervous.

Then, I bought four new Goodyear Wrangler 31 X 10.50. To economize, I
kept that stupid spare. It was considerably smaller than the Wranglers,
and that made me nervous.

I knew it did not matter if I had the spare on the front (open diff) or
the back (Track-Lok). A differential is a differential, open or locked.
It still must "differentiate" between individual wheel rotational
distances and a smaller tire diameter would always be going around
faster than the larger one. Hence, my only salvation would be to put the
spare on the front axle, and hope it wouldn't make my steering any worse
than it already was.

Then, while on a trip from WA to ID, I had a rear Wrangler explode while
pulling a horse trailer and almost died. (Wrote long story on this to
digest before.) I immediately dumped the Wranglers that I no longer
trusted for a set of Bridgestones. BUT, this time I bought five and
dumped that useless spare.

Yes, I paid 20% more or an extra $100 for the fifth tire. But, I am
using all five tires in my rotation. That means I should also get about
20% longer life on the set of five vs four. 20% more money, 20% longer
life - no loss there. And, most of all, I bought piece of mind. Now what
is that worth?

Food for thought.

Tom Harais
'76 Terra/304/727