Carrying two spares on the camper - ever need them?

[CQCraig]

Hi all,
I’m wondering who carries two spares on their camper and who has ever needed to use them? I’m forward planning for a trip from Central Qld to Alice, the rock and a loop home via who knows where. Current tyres are the usual trailer effort of 99% tread, spare never been on the road but 10 years old!

I’ve got two spares for the car, and it’s saved me on more occasions than I care to remember. In a perfect world I’d match the camper wheels and tyres to the car but the expense is unreal compared to a second 16” rim with a 265/75R16! Carrying it is a pain but I think I can get it on the drawbar and a weekend welding up new drawbar mounts for excess gear is on the cards anyway.

Happy to hear any thoughts and recommendations.
Cheers
Craig

[Craig Tomkinson]

Hi Craig, On our big trips I always take two spares for the 4wd or the boat trailer but I am lucky they both take the same size tire and rims, And when I do take our van I will take two for both, I have never used them but you never know, Craig

[petrolburner]

Are all the tyres 10 years old??

I would be considering replacing the 10year old spare and rotating one of the 99% tyres as a spare.
10 years is too old to be taking away on a big trip even if it’s only the spare.

[Nomad]

If you take it you wont need it and if you dont take it..........well you know how it goes.

I have done the same trip and not had a flat till we got about half an hour from home. One guy we met on the trip had three flats on his BT50 but he was running grand treks at road pressure and didnt believe in lowering them........

Keep your pressures sensible and you should be fine.

[rockrat]

Perhaps one full spare and a can of that tyre repair gel could be a suitable compromise? Of course, Mr Murphy might have other ideas.

[weeds]

On my camper I ran the same rims and tyres s the tug

Started with two spares on the trailer and one on the tug

Than dropped one trailer spare

Than dropped the other trailer spare.....

Only carried the one spare for tug and trailer....by this stage we weren’t taking it remote, weekend trips around south east Queensland.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[Hookie]

2 is 1 and 1 is none. It only gets more true the more remote you go. I wouldn't fancy doing that trip with only 1 spare.

[Spada]

I doubt you would need two spares on the camper. They are not a driven wheel, so aren't subjected to the sort of punishment as the car tyres.

[Charlie Brown]

..

[chester ver2.0]

I doubt you would need two spares on the camper. They are not a driven wheel, so aren't subjected to the sort of punishment as the car tyres.

I agree and if it really came to it and you could not plug it up to limp to the next town you could always remove the wheel then leave the trailer to go get the tyre repaired or replaced

[CQCraig]

Thanks everyone,
Yep, all three camper tyres are around 10 years old. Who wears out trailer tyres!

Will probably end up carrying two spares.

Cheers
Craig

[petrolburner]

I would be replacing all tyres if they are 10years old and your planning to head properly off the blacktop or at least the two on the axle.

Lost 2 tyres (catastrophic failures ) on a tandem axle boat  trailer that were about 6 years old in the space of 6 months, they had great tread depth, pressures were fine the rubber was just old, replaced the rest of them with new after that. 

While there is no used by date for tyres, 5 to 6 years is a number that is thrown about as a reliable useful life span. Beyond that the rubber degrades/perishes and becomes more prone to failure.

I would be happy to do a big trip with only one trailer spare and a good puncture repair kit provided the tyres were in good nick. I did my central Aus trip including some pretty gnarly tracks and roads last year with only a single spare.
Good tyres, adjust pressure and speed to conditions and you’ll be sweet👍

[Beachman]

I recently went through a similar process of with our pending trip to the Cape. Trailer tyres were a no name import going on 9 years old. In the past 9 years they would have been lucky to have travelled 10 000 kms as we do a lot of short trips and looked like new. But decided not to take the gamble and replaced them the new Bridgestone’s as if one let go I’m sure it would have cost more to repair the trailer guard then what the new tyres cost.

[Bird]

I would be replacing all tyres if they are 10years old
Good tyres, adjust pressure and speed to conditions and you’ll be sweet👍

what he said.... I think 4yrs old are as old as you can have for a roadworthy check.

[chester ver2.0]

Replace them

Unless tyres are all but constantly used the Carbon Black compound goes hard, leading to cracking and eventually failure.

[Symon]

I doubt you would need two spares on the camper. They are not a driven wheel, so aren't subjected to the sort of punishment as the car tyres.

In all of my remote area driving, I've only ever had flats on the camper.

This is likely because I run my tyres down to about 20% on the tug and then put them on the camper.  I only replace the camper tyres when they fail or I get a new set for the tug.

Personally I carry three spares - two on the tug and one on the camper when going remote.  All tyres and rims are the same on the tug and the camper.

[HKB Electronics]

I carry one spare for the car and one for the camper, all tires are the same size. We have covered most of the worst roads
in oz and never had a flat, however I replace the tires when they get to around 50% wear or show any server cracking. New
tires generally go on the Vista if only changing replacing a couple as they are the hardest to change.

Do also carry tire repair gear and a couple of tubes for emergencies should plugs not work.