Drive your Ty a LOT? Think about the spare!

[DaveP]

I'm in Bend Oregon as I write this, having covered 937 miles today, about 1450 since I left Los Angeles yesterday afternoon in my Typhoon. I've driven the Ty 7,500 miles in three weeks. Utah and Idaho have a 80 MPH speed limit, and I spent hours in the 82-88 MPH range today. I noticed the Ty seemed to shake at anything above 80, so I tried to keep it down. By the end of the day, it was really bad. Traffic came to a slow-down for an incident and I noticed the steering wheel was jumping up and down at low speed. Ah-HAH! A bad tire on the front. Took me all afternoon to put 2+2 together.

I pulled into a rest stop and checked it out, and yes the LF tire had a big bulge in the tread. Knowing I was about to do 250 miles across central Oregon on 2-lane roads, I decided to put the spare on. At least I had the foresight to put air in it before I left. Anyway, I changed it out, and was on my way. The shake was gone. Cool. I was motoring along at 70-75 on this 2-lane curvy highway with lots of oncoming truck traffic and I got this sick feeling:

The spare tire, while having never been on the ground, is 25 years old. If that POS blew on the LF on the road I was just on, I wouldn't be writing this. They would have carried me off in a coroner's bus. I kept it around 60 for the remainder of the leg.

I drive lots and lots of miles. I can think of three occasions I've used the spare in the past 20 years. Not very often. It did occur to me recently that Chuck and I bought the wht/gry 20 years ago this month. But it did NOT occur to me that the spare is now 25 years old, and probably shouldn't be trusted for continuing the trip like I did today, rather than just to get to a tire shop to fix the road tire. I have 3 days here for an NCRS Regional, and I am going to try to get a used 245/50-16 to get me home on safely. When I get back, not only will I deal with the tires on the ground, but also the spares in all the vehicles I drive long distance, as they are all as old as the vehicles.

I drove to Altoona PA 3 weeks ago. 5,500 miles of crappy pavement, potholes, and un-even bridge abutments. I think all the slamming into shit (especially the bridge abutments) at 75MPH damaged the LF tire, and it didn't get bad enough to have to deal with until today. I keep good tires on my vehicles and rarely have trouble. I think 5,500 miles of shitty pavement ****ed the tire up.

Something to think about if you DRIVE a lot of miles in old cars and trucks like I do.

[Baythan]

Good advice for those who drive often and/or distance.

I'm a "good tire fanatic"...and have 2 sets (snow and all season) for all 4 of my drivers. That's a lot of wheels (32) and tires but my switching them out, storing them right, and keeping track of rotation, extends the life of the tires. I keep a full size tire and wheel on hand (but not in the car) in case of emergency and this has actually saved me (my kids) twice now. Otherwise, the drivers are on the newer side and have "donuts" in the trunk.

My wife's mini cooper has no spare tire...but rides on Run-Flats.

[Sportmachines]

So very true and often overlooked. Further thoughts as well. Those of us with big brake upgrades.... make sure your spare will clear the brakes! 15" steel spare won't do squat trying to go over a 14" brembo rotor and caliper (or other large brake set up) . We have gotten into the habit of ordering an extra front wheel, and tire as a spare.

[DaveP]

I got in tonight. 1,200 miles on that old temporary spare. Never again. Kept my speed down, slowed the trip down, and couldn't have much fun because I was worried about that stupid spare blowing out.

For the trip home, I secured the bad full-size front wheel and tire in the spare position, with the OEM clamp and wing nut. It fits well. So my long term plan is to take the other still-good front tire (I'm only going to replace two, they're still almost full tread depth) and put it on an extra front wheel I have in my stash. I'll carry a spacer so the front wheel will fit on the rear if I have to put the spare on the rear. So I'll have a full-size tire and wheel I can drive unlimited distances, at any speed, if I need to continue a trip after a tire failure.

I travel lots of miles on a fairly tight timeline that doesn't include a day or so to deal with replacing a road tire. The spare must be capable of continuing the trip safely regardless of miles left to go. This trip was an awakening. I had never considered the age of the spare thing before. I HAVE considered the spare in general. I remember asking about how to deal with DesertSy's big brakes if I had a tire failure, because the 15" spare didn't fit over either the front or rear brakes.. I never had a solution for that truck, I was lucky and never had a failure that required a spare. One of the prime factors in my decision to go with 2nd Gen brakes front and rear on this Ty was so the stock spare would fit over them. I've driven these brakes just shy of 10,000 miles since February. I smile every time I use them.

Glad to be home safely. Thanks for reading.
.

[Captain Morgan]

I used to bring a fullsize spare with me from a Syclone when I was still driving the Ty out to Nats in KC. Never really was a fan of the factory spare, for local use or obviously in an emergency sure, but for a planned trip, I'd rather have something I could put on and feel like I wouldn't need to replace at the next exit or the next day.

[DaveP]

. So my long term plan is to use an extra front wheel I have in my stash. I'll carry a spacer so the front wheel will fit on the rear if I have to put the spare on the rear. So I'll have a full-size tire and wheel I can drive unlimited distances, at any speed, if I need to continue a trip after a tire failure.
.

Well I got to try my new spare tire strategy yesterday. Ran to Vegas and back, easy 700 miles in one day. Hit something getting on the freeway after a fuel stop in Barstow, and 20 miles later the RR tire failed. Bent the rim bead, tire lost air, and then it failed.

Here's what I learned:
A:The stock jack is very fussy to use on a lowered TYPHOON. The cladding prevents being able to extend the handle out 90degrees to get the leverage necessary to rotate the jack. PARTICULARLY when the truck is lowered (mine is 1" block). I was able to augment the handle with a 19mm open end wrench and get the truck lifted. So carry a 19mm wrench in your jack kit.
B: The 1-1/4" spacer worked fine to use a stock front wheel on the rear. BUT, the stock lug wrench is too fat to tighten the lug nuts that hold the spacer to the hub. I had my road-kit with me, so I had a thin wall 3/4" socket and ratchet available. I only carry the tool kit on road trips, so I would have been calling AAA if it happened locally.
C: We know these stock wheels are made of glass. I should have gotten out and looked for damage after the hit. I would have seen the bend, and heard the air escaping. Would have saved the tire. At least the tire stayed together and didn't explode and take out $2,000 of cladding.

I know I'm one of the last guys on the planet that drives his Ty regularly, much less 700 miles in a single day, so this info isn't of much value to anyone else. Oh well. I post it for future archives as evidence that at least one peep was still driving his 25 year old POS in 2018.

[KChud]

That's good info ...I'm adding some tools to my tool bag ...just incase I have tire issues ... I'm kind of new to the SyTy world and my Ty has the same color combo as yours ...sounds like you drive allot - how many miles do you have on your Ty

[Ruddell]

This was a good read. Dave, I absolutely love to drive my Typhoon. I put 5000 miles on it in about six months last season. It had 53k on it before that. Keeping the miles down is not of concern but it's nice to start out with a semi low milage odometer. Other then the 16 hour round trip to attend the Canadian NATS in September, those miles were put on locally. My last Typhoon had the spare tire explode while mounted in its spot in the cargo area. It even happend while I was driving. I still have that spare. My new Ty did not come with a spare, and I managed to get my hands on a OEM thinking I scored since my truck is totally stock and it will stay that way.