New OEM Spare Tire

[BillyL]

There have been lots of postings over the past years about our spare tires. After the most recent discussion, I posted the following last Monday; I just ordered a new replacement OEM 185/60/R17 spare tire directly from Maxxis USA.com. My local tire dealer could not get one through his tire wholesaler, who wanted to sale me a smaller size "comparable" replacement tire. The lady at Maxxis assured me the new tire is a 2019 manufactured tire and will be delivered within five days. Cost is $159 plus shipping and taxes, so my cost will be about $200.00 when mounted. If you are interested in a new OEM spare you can go to the Maxxis USA website or call directly. The contact I dealt with was Allision at phone # 678-407-6712.
Anyone out there want a free 16 year old spare that was never on the ground? Just kidding, I would not want anyone else to risk this tire failure in the making.
My new tire was delivered today. The total costs including shipping and mounting was $190.00. The production date stamped on the tire is 2919. More than I wanted to pay, but one more issue behind me.

[merlot4]

Thanks for sharing this, Billy, it's always useful to know the status of these things!

[007Cruiser]

So I shouldn’t use the one in the trunk of my 1975? It has never seen the road either.

[5bird7]

Probably not Gene. lol, though those old tires seemed to last longer than the 21st Century ones. Sounds like you don't travel much.

[BirdsAndBugs]

Whenever I've had to use a spare, it's always been for relatively short distances to get me to a tire shop or dealership to repair or replace. As long as it holds air, I'll keep using the one in my trunk. For longer trips I also carry a can of Fix A Flat which I've used on occasion too over the years. I'm not one of these owners that will run for days or weeks on a donut spare.

[007Cruiser]

Probably not Gene. lol, though those old tires seemed to last longer than the 21st Century ones. Sounds like you don't travel much.

You found me out. At 44 years the car has a whopping 18,000 miles on the clock.

[BillyL]

Greg, What drove me to replace my original spare was those reports of the tires becoming dry rotted in the trunk and exploding due to the higher ( 60PSI ) air pressure. Not about knowing I would only use it for minimum emergency road service. When removed from the rim, the old tire did not show any signs of imminent failure, but was noticeably less plyable than the new tire. My tire dealer was of the opinion "the old tire would probably have delaminated and failed if put into service". He also replaced the air stem, noting it too was subject to failure due to age. The stems are not mentioned as an issue in previous posts. I always have replaced the stems when buying new tires anyway.

[BirdsAndBugs]

Greg, What drove me to replace my original spare was those reports of the tires becoming dry rotted in the trunk and exploding due to the higher ( 60PSI ) air pressure. Not about knowing I would only use it for minimum emergency road service. When removed from the rim, the old tire did not show any signs of imminent failure, but was noticeably less plyable than the new tire. My tire dealer was of the opinion "the old tire would probably have delaminated and failed if put into service". He also replaced the air stem, noting it too was subject to failure due to age. The stems are not mentioned as an issue in previous posts. I always have replaced the stems when buying new tires anyway.

From what I've read here over the years, it seems that it was the 2002's that seemed to have the exploding spare issue. I don't recall here so much of that issue with the 03-05 OEM spares. But no harm in replacing for sure.

[5bird7]

We've had a report or two of the Maxxis exploding but it just took them longer.

[tomw1618]

I've had to replace mine to in both Rbirds I've owned. I now feel it should be a Buyer Beware thing to look at before you buy an older than 10 year old car, Shame on me I did it twice. But this time I didn't look at the tires on the ground. All 5 took some cash to replace. I must be getting old. LOL!