Spare tire, new or reused?

[danmyersmn]

So I took a late trip this fall to Mille Lacs. I decided to pick up a spare tire 1/2 way on the trip because I new a place - Milaca unclaimed freight - had a acceptable price and one of my tires was already pretty well worn down. So I have a brand new never used spare. I am planning to replace both of my tires but I was thinking if I should use an old one as the spare and just purchase one new one and use my current spare with the other new one.

One part of me says to have a new spare. That way if I should get a flat and need to change tires i only have to do it once since I will be putting a new one on. Another part of me says I should save the $40 and use an old one.

Thoughts?

On a similar note. It appears that its only a few dollars cheaper to buy a tire then take it to a place for mounting. If I am going to place close to the same amount I can buy a rim/tire and have shiny new wheels. Local tires are $25 and its going to be at least $10 for mounting I think. I can get a wheel/rim for $40-45ish. That's close enough to pay more for the shiny new wheels instead of old junky wheels.

 

[lckstckn2smknbrls]

I went with 2 shiny new wheels and tires and 2 spares

 

[Captain Ahab]

For 40.00 I would keep a new spare and get 2 new tires. Having a bad spare in an emergency would suck

 

[Hydrilla]

I went through the same thing when rebuilding my trailer, it had 4 lug wheels, one of them was bent and both had dry rotted tires that still held air. I was tempted to buy 2 new 4 lug wheels and use the old one that had a decent (not good but decent) rim as a spare. I decided against it, and since I needed new hubs anyway, I bought 5 lug hubs and 2 new wheels, and will be buying another new one as a spare. Not a lot of money to spend for a little peace of mind.

 

[Doug]

I agree with Hydrilla. Buy new for the price and peace of mind.

 

[bassboy1]

Get a new one, unless your old ones merely have tread wear, and no other issue. Back in 2008, on our family vacation, in a 1994 Suburban, we had a flat in a Michelin. Okay, put the spare on, and keep going. Well, the spare was a brand new Uniroyal. However, it was brand new 14 yrs. ago when the truck was new, and while unused, it was still a 14 yr old tire. About 100 miles further, it flung the tread.

Even though a flat is a rather uncommon occurrence, when putting a bad tire on, you are very likely to encounter problems on. If you wouldn't put it on the trailer to run it, don't keep it as the spare. Now, you can put a used tire as a spare, but keep it within date, and not completely worn out. If the reason for replacement is merely tread wear, and not age/weather cracking, it can be used as a spare just fine, provided you didn't wear the tread too far.