Rotate spare every 10K?? Or let it rot?

Looking for some feedback here.

Coming up on the 10K service. Currently have the stock Dunlop's for all five tires.

Only major problem here is that the spare is on a steel rim with no TPMS. All the others are the alloy.

Do you guys bother to swap in the spare (de-rim/swap) to get the spare into the mix and extend the tire life or just leave it??

5-6 years down the road it would be time to replace all of them at a pretty good price and is the ~$20 or so (and potential rim/TPMS damage from Mr Tire min-wage worker) worth it?

 

I leave it. Just check on it from time to time.

 

I've never rotated my spare in as it's a 255 on a steel rim and I'm rolling on 275's. At every oil change I check the pressure (easy to do because I do all of my own maintenance) and twice a year I pull the spare, wash the tire and rim and lube the chain and winch.

 

There's wear symmetry involved in rotating tires, I'd leave the spare alone too but I'd check its pressure.

 

I don’t rotate the spare either.

 

I don’t think it’s really worth the hassle. Just keep checking the pressure when you rotate at least. Keep an eye on it for dry rot or cracks. Maybe buy a new one every two sets of tires. Most people don’t. Really it’s just going to be on the truck long enough to get your other tire repaired and then stuffed back underneath.

 

If it was the same tire make and size, on the same rim/wheel, I might have considered it, but if the wheel is different and you have to remount it every time you do a rotation; forget about it.
Mine are different sizes, and spare is a steel wheel, so I just leave it alone and check the pressure 2x per year.

 

You only do a 5 tire rotation if you have a full size matching wheel and tire for your spare.

 

I have thought about acquiring a matching fifth rim to do just that. Keep the spare under the back of the truck and the fifth rim in the garage, but keeping it in the tire rotation. Then bring it with me when going off road so I have two spares.

 

If you rotate it in, you will get a little longer life out of it, but you have to buy 5 tires every time you buy a new set.
If you only rotate 4 tires, you only have to buy 4 at a time. After about 4 or 5 sets if you check your unused spare and you are concerned about dry-rot you might replace it, but it does not have to be 5 tires every time. My Tacoma was 16 years old when I sold it and it had it's original spare tire. I have used it about 3 times over the life of the truck, and the last time was just about 2 months before I traded it on the Tundra. It was still in good enough shape to use for about a week until I got the flat tire fixed, and me not being concerned about dry-rot or anything like that. Even being 16 years old, it was never exposed to the sun, and never exposed to the heat from the road; from being used. When changing it out the last time I was actually well surprised by how good it looked, compared to the 3-year old flat tire that I replaced it with - the 3-year old tire had more dry rot.

 

While it is an option, I don't see the need or benefit of that.
On my Tacoma I had 3 flats in 16 years. My Tundra is now 1.5 years old, 2nd set of tires and never had a flat (yet).
If I was doing a lot of off-roading with probability of regular flats, I would certainly have 2 spares, and could then just as well rotate them in.
When I grew up (on a farm in Africa) we had really bad gravel roads that cut tires, and bad thorn trees with spikes worse than nails. We always had 2 spares. When we rotate in a spare because of a flat, we just fix the flat tire and leave that as one of the spares. We had enough flat tires - at least once a month, that the 6 wheels were rotated through on a regular basis.
It was just part of life. My mom could swap a flat tire in about 10 minutes all by herself - and she was actually very lady-like - just had to know how to do it.

 

I will leave it, when you change tires, you could buy three if the tire are same size and use a old tire as a spare, or buy four new one and use a old one for spare if they different size

 

I bought 5 of the same tire when I went with custom wheels. My plan is to buy 3 new tires when needed, bring the "spare" tire into use, and then put the best of the 4 worn tires on the spare rim. This way, I'll have a full size spare and it will be changed out every couple/few years.

 

Not a waste Ron. Atleast if you ever get a flat you don't have to rush to go get it fixed. Especially if you're out of town. I have a matching spare too. But I'm not going to do a 5 tire rotation anymore. Just too much of a hassle.

 

No but it is recommended to replace any tire 6 years or older regardless.

 

I rotate my spares in, only takes a few extra minutes & that extra "wrench time" allows me drink more beer.

 

Thanks everyone for the feedback. Always interesting to hear what others are doing!!!

 

Too many spontaneous trail days for me. I don't have a matching spare, so it chills under the truck.

 

Anyone that is running non-stock wheels with a stock spare - are you carrying around extra stock lug nuts?

 

If they’re not, they should!

 

Yes.
I have to do it for both of my trucks because they have ET lugs with the alloys and need a regular acorn lug for the steelie spare.