New Comer

[BillR]

Hi, We recently purchased a 2022 31W Thor Class C motor home. I have a question. I want to purchase a spare tire and rim, Are the front and rear rims the same?

Bill Rotundo

[The Gritz Carlton]

Yes....but it's a heavy option. Quite a few people just purchase the tire alone and use roadside assistance to change it over for you on the rare occasion you may need that. But yes, same size.

[Ottosails]

Congratulations on the new purchase of the 31W "C" Bill, welcome!

[coachray]

Congrats and welcome to the forum

[Chateau_Nomad]

My brother in law has a similar coach. When he was in town visiting, two of his tires were leaking... verified by the factory TPMS. Turns out he had hit road debris a couple states away.

While his coach was at our house, he had a mobile service come and replace both tires on site. The guy had everything in the back of a 3/4 ton pickup... everything but balancing.

Witnessing that... I would recommend skipping the rim mounting and just get a tire. Less weight. While it's possible to change your own RV tires, it's quite a bit more of a project than with the family sedan.

Just my opinion...

[Mr Sunshine]

Welcome to the forum! Suggest you look for tons of comments about this by using the Search tab.

Some wouldn't dream of running without a spare, and many (me included) have never carried or needed a spare. I did have road service replace 2 tires on a set I should have replaced.

If you go without, having RV road service will give you some peace of mind. A tire pressure monitoring system is good too. Most of our coaches use tires common to many uses. If you tend to travel where there are no tire shops, a spare makes more sense.

[Bobdees]

We did the same thing this past year. The rims work on both the front and the back. I could only find a rim from Ford at a cost of $1K. None of the other rims offered by other parties would fit. I hope the situation has changed in the 10 months. For me, having a spare tire is peace-of-mind insurance.

Bob Dees

[Homer3]

Spare tire and roadside assistance are both good ideas. Happy and safe travels in your new RV!

[caution]

I have a 2018 31W with 22,000 miles that I purchased new. No tire problems. BUT be sure to keep 80#'s of air in the tires. I check them every trip to ensure that they are at 80 PSI. Tires after almost 5 years still look new.

[Wiley1]

I bought a spare a couple of years ago. I decided to go with the full mounted spare because I don't have any confidence that roadside assistance will have the capability to mount a tire to a rim. Besides, who wants to wait around for that guy.

To answer your question, yes, that one tire/wheel can be installed in any of the six positions on the MH, although the back tires will normally be inflated to a higher pressure.

At the same time I bought a 3-ton barrel jack, an extra-long 4-way wrench, a torque wrench, and a couple of 2" PVC pipes to add mechanical advantage to the wrenches.

If I blow a tire, I expect to be back on the road in under 40 minutes. Half of that time will be spent unloading and reloading all the crap in the basement.

[JetDoc]

You've received some good advice so far, but if you still want to buy a spare already mounted on a rim, make certain the new rim matches the ones already on your coach...

If your coach has aluminum rims, you need a spare with an aluminum rim. If your coach has steel rims, buy a steel rim for your spare.

The reason is that steel and aluminum don't play well together, and if you were to mount a steel spare on a rear dual alongside an aluminum rim, you could have problems with dissimilar metals corrosion.

[The Gritz Carlton]

Originally Posted by JetDoc

You've received some good advice so far, but if you still want to buy a spare already mounted on a rim, make certain the new rim matches the ones already on your coach...

If your coach has aluminum rims, you need a spare with an aluminum rim. If your coach has steel rims, buy a steel rim for your spare.

The reason is that steel and aluminum don't play well together, and if you were to mount a steel spare on a rear dual alongside an aluminum rim, you could have problems with dissimilar metals corrosion.

Most of the RV's with aluminum wheels, mine included, have a steel wheel on the inside rear. It's very common with commercial trucks also unless the application (dump trucks) call for as light a chassis as possible so as to increase pay load. Most of the uncommon issues with aluminum and other metals involve galvanized or other pot metal blends. All lug nuts on all aluminum wheels are steel.

[JimEasTexas]

We bought a spare time with new tire, not going to change but have roadside service change. Carry spare in toad.