Not two weeks ago I got a call from a buddy who lives in VA and he went through this very ordeal.

He uses his personally owned truck for work. Driving home from the job site he hears a bang, notices heavy steering and pulling, continues a short ways to find a safe place to pull off the highway, and finds the driver side front tire blown. First flat in years, and he's never had one on this work truck. He had replaced the tires the year before, and had them recently rotated.

He cranks the spare part way down and the mechanism locks up, can't crank it up or down.

His brother is not far behind him so he calls and his brother shows up to help. Virginia has had recent snows so they crawl under the truck with a flashlight while laying in the snow, and the two of them slowly get the spare to crank down...only to find it flat. They change the tires and spend @ 45 minutes pumping it up with a portable electric compressor before it barely has enough air to run right.

They limp his truck into the local tire center, but it's near closing time and he drops the truck off. The blown tire was insured and replaced no charge, but they had to source a replacement winch mechanism and find time to install it and the spare, so he was without his truck for a couple days and spent a hundred bucks or so on the replacement.

Definitely best to be proactive and regularly check truck spare tires and maintain the winch mechanism, rather than deal with it on the side of a dark cold highway.

I too drop the spare every other oil change. I coat the whole mechanism and chain in Eezox.
I also clean out the wheel and coat it with Eezox.
My spare was bought with my last set of tires because I went with bigger tires and wanted the size to match.

Just checked to make sure I was remembering correctly, and despite the fact there’s no TPMS in the spare of my 2013 Tundra, there was one in my 2006. I suppose I could install one in lieu of or in addition to the valve extension as long as the ECU has an open channel. Hummm…

quote:

Originally posted by 220-9er:
If it's possible, flip the tire over so the valve side faces down. Depending on your cars mounting system, you may or may not have that option.
To keep from investing in a tire you may never use, next time you replace your tires, take the best of the old tires and make it the spare, replacing the really old one. As long as it has some tread it should be ok for a spare and much newer than the original. Do that each time your tires are replaced.

Same here

 
I am unable to flip my full sized spare, but I did add a hard right angle fitting and a short hose so I can easily check the pressure.
 
And then one day when I was bored, I made up a steel rod with one end having a notched piece welded on that fits the tire lowering mechanism way back in there. On the near end I welded a 1/2" 8 point socket, so now I can raise/lower the tire using a drill/driver.

quote:

Originally posted by jigray3:
I half expected there to be a TPMS sensor in the spare, as I had read somewhere that Toyota does that. I’m also not sure about the sensors only working when the tires are spinning as I have seen TPMS lights on when the vehicle is first started and not moving yet.

Some cars don't use pressure sensors in the tires any longer. They use the wheel speed sensors, somehow. Apparently, an underinflated tire spins slower or something.

I make a vehicle maintenance spreadsheet. And one of the things to check twice a year, is the tire pressure in the spare tire.

Also a good idea to keep a full size breaker bar and appropriate size socket in the car. Harbor Freight sells a breaker bar for $14. Socket for $4. The little tools in the car are inadequate and in one case, was impossibly tight. I couldn't remove the tire at all with the tools that were included with the car.

Also, add a high volume 12V air pump to your trunk. Harbor freight sells a decent one for $40. Its a basic clone of the expensive VIAIR pumps. It will fill a tire in a just a few minutes. Not 20-30 minutes like the cheap air inflators.

https://www.harborfreight.com/...-inflator-63745.html

https://www.harborfreight.com/...eaker-bar-60818.html