You have equipped your BOV with everything you have learnt in this forum. You bug out and have a flat. You DO have a spare tire off course, but then you practically have to continue you bug out trip with NO spare.

It seems prudent that next time your tire wears out and you replace it, maybe it is just the wise thing not to throw it. You buy a used wheel of the right size, fit it in and keep it as a BOV backup-spare. You dont carry it all the time just when you know you are bugging out and start loading the truck. You add that second spare.

Good idea. I hate those little donut spares, every time I buy a vehicle with one of them I get a full sized rim and a good (not necessarily brand new) tire mounted on it and carry that as my spare. But I save the donut, and often throw it in when leaving on a long trip. More than once I have seen people have two flats on the same day...

The idea is not bad. There might be one catch though. Tires age and it´s especially bad when they are not in use. So it would be prudent to watch for the age of the tire too. At least the used tire should be replaced every time you buy new tires. Otherwise you might end up with an unuseable spare. After the first exchange you would have a spare that´s not worn out.

I like to buy a wheel which matches the others on the truck, then buy 5 tires and do the 5 tire rotation. I'll usually keep the factory spare as a spare spare then for long trips. Having the 5 matching wheels makes the 5 tires last 20% longer since each one is not being used 1/5th of the time. I usually replace them after a few years before they reach the maximum mileage that way so that way I'm not driving on worn out tires right before buying new ones.
I keep the old tires and give to my father for farm equipment.

I bought a spare for my jeep for $20. I have 31x10.5's on there, and didnt want to dump another $80 on a tire. So, I hunted around, and found a decent used BFG AT tire for sale. Actually, 2...so, I have a spare for my spare.

Good thread. I'd like to add that if you've ever used "Fix-A-Flat" on your tire, you will never get anyone willing to replace said tire <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I'm not saying that a can-o-slime isn't something you should use, but be aware...

As Max mentioned, the tires age and can be of little use after being the spare for years. I presently have a tire in my garage that was brand new, came with my old Blazer and was not once used. When the car was 9 year old I had a flat and had to put on the spare. Drove for 1000 miles and when I was within 20 miles of home, late at night at 75mph, I hear a terrible noise that sounded like the whole vehicle exploded. Then it got quiet again and I never stopped. When I pulled into my garage I looked at my tires, the used once spare had no tread on it, the entire tread area had peeled off the tire and left the steel belts. The reason I kept it was to remind me to check my tires and because it got me home alive, never lost air. The original tires, just like the spare, had gone 85,000 miles with only one flat, so it was an excellent tire, it simply dried out over those 9 year in the back of the car.

A sub-subject of this thread can be : What ideas can you think of to utilize a spare-spare tire ?

One thing that comes to mind if you are in a bad situation, you can deflate the secondary spare and set it on fire to signal where you are.

Sounds good, but Mr. Kim reportedly burned all five of his tires and no one spotted them...

Working hurricane recovery efforts in 2004, I was amazed at the number of flat tires, even on the highways and other well-travelled areas. A little debris goes a long way. In one parking lot I worked from, there were a half-dozen cars stranded with flats, either having no spare or having already used it. We all carried cans of Fix-a-flat after the first day and handed out plenty. Having any larger relief vehicle stuck with a flat was a nightmare. Using an outside tire service company meant a 3-12 hour wait once you got in touch with one.

If you are buying "fix a flat" look on the label for warnings of flammability. Some of the brands use a flammable propellant which means for the tire installer that the tire is now something that will go boom.

There is a product called slime http://www.slime.com/ They have a smart spare that has a can of goop and an 12 volt air compressor to go with it. I have used slime on a wide variety of off road tires and have had good results with it. It is a little more difficult to use than "fix a flat" because it requires unscrewing the valve core, squeezing the contents of a plastic bottle into into the tire, reinstalling the valve core, and re-inflating the tire.

Something else i have used with good results is the Safety Seal brand tire plugs http://www.safetyseal.com/store/autokits.htm
These require even more effort but it makes a very durable repair.

How does one go about telling if it is dead or not? I run all weathers in late spring and summer, and put winters on in late October, so the real spare gets swapped at the same time. I also don't put a lot of miles on my car, my commute is fairly short- should I be worrying about tire age as well as road miles?

I'll look to see if I have any pictures scanned of my Grandfather's "bush truck" when he worked in Liberia- he had a rack of four spares, with jerry cans of fuel and water under it on his pickup. Although those roads were only barely worthy of the name.

The local automobile club recommends changing the tires after five or six years. With a really short commute that may be an issue.
I know some people who use winter tires all the year because they still have to change when the time is up. Be aware that they require more room for stopping in summer (about 10%).