I also run a limited slip in my Dana 60 rear, which is one reason why my spare tire is the same size as all of my other tires on the truck. Besides, when I install the spare, it's likely that the spare tire will remain on the truck for quite some time. The other tire will be repaired and likely saved as the spare.

 

In this day and age of cell phones, and generally good coverage..... it just isn't as critical to have a spare as it used to be. (at least, around here...) I rarely take the truck on long trips, and am even more rarely more than 10 miles from some city or other. Not to mention that my truck is eight-lug, are on pretty tight, and it is highly likely I would not be able to change a tire on the side of the road in any event. (health issues.) I have a pretty good selection of folks I can call to bail me out, not to mention Road Service...... So, I just don't worry about it.

 

That's why you swap one from the front to the rear and put the spare up front obviously.

 

In the backwoods, I'd agree... around town, not so much.

In 37yrs of driving I have always had a spare in all the vehicles I've owned, and have benefited from it when in the bush on a few occasions... but around town I have never used a spare, even though I have had flats... either I've plugged it myself on the roadside, or AAA has done it for me if I didn't have plugs (after all, that is why you pay your dues).

A spare is an optional purchase item in many new cars now.

 

Never have one when running around town, But long distance drives I will throw one in the bed plus my one ton jack and electric impact (I have a Inverter in truck) and a small air compressor that fills my air bags if I have to plug one on truck use the air out of the bags and refill.

 

We must be the same age -- I'll be 54 in October should I live that long.

I suppose that if you have a vehicle that's reserved solely for in-town use then it's no big deal, but I've never had such a vehicle and don't want one. Out here in the West there's a lot of heavily traveled interstate that's far from the nearest town that has a putz with a wrecker and an auto club contract -- sitting there on the shoulder for two hours waiting on that putz is not my idea of a good time. I can change my own flat and be on my way before that dork lets go of his pecker long enough to check his voicemail.

When I see a non-elderly person sitting in his or her vehicle on the shoulder with a flat tire, which happens about twice a month, I continue on my way. It's against my principles to reward bad behavior -- get right, or get left.

 

Carrying a spare or not is certainly a risk management issue and is a choice each person should make based upon personal need/choice. Luckily, I'm still healthy and enjoy having what I need to deal with a flat tire on my own should the issue arises.


In addition, I've been driving legally for 41 years. I suspect that I'm a wee bit older than Spillage and UnregisteredUser

 

It is, but humans in general are really, really bad at risk assessment. People lump their drawers over things like ebola, but hurl those lumps at you if you point out that physicians are well more than an order of magnitude more likely to kill you than drunk drivers.

'Scuse me, gotta train my stock here...

 

We're in the same ballpark... I just turned 52... had a license at 15 (a yr before I should have, but we wont discuss that)... have been driving dirt roads in the bush since I could reach the peddles.

 

Same here. I drove pretty much everything with from two to 26 wheels, and even managed to bag a speeding ticket in the big rig a couple hours before the start of my 18th birthday. At least the cop was cool about it and didn't bag me for driving during darkness or being without a logbook -- the logbook was a 5th Amendment thing, since I didn't want to log all of my illegal hours. He did, though, make me pull into the next rest area to get a logbook started, and after following to make sure I pulled in he came back a little while later to see the thing, and wished me a happy birthday before he left.

He also wrote me for 65MPH, back when the national speed limit was 55MPH for everyone, rather than the 85MPH he caught me at.