Anyone replaced their unused spare tire due to age?

[Sparksalot]

The original spare and its replacement when I took it off thethirdtwin 2 years ago. It “might” have been okay to get home from the mall. It certainly wouldn’t get back to pavement from 30 miles off grid. YMMV.

 

[mountie]

A well used spare.

 

[vcode]

19YO and no intention of replacing it, looks fine holds air. All these so called "facts" about how long a tire lasts all come from someone who sells tires. My wife and I go through this with the best by date on food. She starts to throw them out and I'm "hold up does it smell bad, look bad?" If not then it's still good to eat.

Yeah replacing after 5 years is a bit extreme......

 

[RoosterTX]

as several have already mentioned, i also keep the "best" tire as the spare when getting new tires put on. That being said, i recently bought an 01 dually that had the original spare tire. The tires on the truck had tons of tread left, but they were getting up there in years, the truck had not been driven much by previous owner. Plus the tires that were on it were POS to start with! it does cause some confusion when you tell the guy you need to purchase 7 new michelins, it takes a second for them to figure out what you're trying to do!

 

[bobby2175]

I will probably do the exact same thing, when I get around to lower my spare.

I actually hadn't touched that spare in 13 years and believe it or not that hoist still worked without issues (a little rusty now) with just a very light kick to the tire to lower it. I was expecting much worse!

 

[wilcfr]

Curious what the opinions are.

Yes. At 50K I bought 5 new tires for my Express AWD van. The spare was original so it was 13 years old (I'm retired and don't drive much). The other tires had 35K on them. They still had decent tread, but one was having issues holding air and they were all again 11 years old. I think tires can age and reliability can become an issue. Most of driving is highway so I wanted good tires. Probably the last set I'll buy.

 

[Tonyrodz]

Yes. At 50K I bought 5 new tires for my Express AWD van. The spare was original so it was 13 years old (I'm retired and don't drive much). The other tires had 35K on them. They still had decent tread, but one was having issues holding air and they were all again 11 years old. I think tires can age and reliability can become an issue. Most of driving is highway so I wanted good tires. Probably the last set I'll buy.

Quigley edition?

 

[houstontaylor]

Whenever I've replaced my regular tires I used one of the old ones to replace the spare also. Virtually cost-free.

 

[steve45]

About 5 years ago I pulled my Suburban into the backyard to hook up my boat for a lake trip. When I started to leave, I found my spare tire laying in the grass. Thank God it didn't come off while on the highway! Those spare tire cable hoists are garbage--and my vehicle has spent it's entire live in the west Texas desert!

That said, I've purchased 3 sets of tires in the last 4 months . On the first set, I asked them to use the best for the spare, and they said they were too old, so I bought a new spare, but it was a cheaper tire. On the second vehicle, ALL 4 tires were throwing pieces of rubber (Michelin LTX) so I didn't want them. I kept the old spare. On my newest (2016) Tahoe, I asked to keep the best tire for the spare, but they told me that it was a different size (17" vs 20"). I kept the old spare. Can't win!

 

[S33k3r]

as several have already mentioned, i also keep the "best" tire as the spare when getting new tires put on. That being said, i recently bought an 01 dually that had the original spare tire. The tires on the truck had tons of tread left, but they were getting up there in years, the truck had not been driven much by previous owner. Plus the tires that were on it were POS to start with! it does cause some confusion when you tell the guy you need to purchase 7 new michelins, it takes a second for them to figure out what you're trying to do!

I bought 9 Bridgestones, myself...