Spare tire carrier? Flat fixed by roadside service? Spirit 31K Class C

[shemphill]

We have a Winnebago Spirit 31K. It does not have a spare tire nor a place to put one other than in the rear storage. (which is always full) We have Good Sam Roadside assistance. I have been told that if we have a flat, and we don't have a spare, they will tow the RV to the nearest service center to change the tire. If its a rear dual they send a flatbed for it. That sounds like a REALLY long day to me.

I was looking for a way to mount a spare tire either under the rear, or on a swing away mount on the bumper. My biggest concern on the swing away bumper mount is that's allot of weight and leverage working against that bumper going down the road. If I use the receiver then it blocks my storage door.

Does anyone have any experience / Advice on spare tire mount?

How do you handle a flat out on the road? Since none of these coaches have spares, how well does that process work with roadside service?

 

[Morich]

I might first suggest moving away from the RV "special" services of any sort if you can find what you want in a more general use service. I never find it a good value in price nor service when dealing with places that consider an RV as "special"!
I look for places who know an RV as a truck with a funny looking top!

When I have needed road service, which has been very few, I like to know that the service I pay for is going to have lots of places and most of the time they will be in the nearest town. I don't want to deal with folks who only have a limited number of places to do any small random breakdown like tires.
We tie our road service on as part of the normal insurance and find that opens the field much wider if they only need to look for a guy who can fix truck tires. Lots more truck places around than there are RV places!

But there are times when having a spare onboard might be good but I am NOT going to try to change it, so I'm okay with the idea that I may have to buy a tire and wait while they change it if the tradeoff is not lugging the thing around all my life!
Part of that decision may involve what tires you would need. Are your tires something that can be found in most any tire shop or are they something really special? And how often do you have flat tires?

I just no longer worry the tire issue as I have so little trouble with them.

 

[shemphill]

yeah most of the roadside assistance services say they will change the tire IF you have an inflated spare. I'm not going to change it myself either but having it towed in to a service center seams like an all day event. And if its on a Sunday... Id just like to have one handy. I like the suggestion of truck tire service. I may check with State Farm about that. I know AAA has the same policy about towing you to a service center but Good Sam is WAY better with their terms.

 

[Morich]

Maybe try Travelers as that is what we used and it was very much cheaper than others we had before.
But things do change frequently and that is one of the big things my wife did. She shopped for insurance as she had worked in offices in that field. That left her being able to spot some of the things they often tend to skip over when we speak to sales.
They don't always necessarily lie to us, just not always tell the whole story!

But doing it as an added vehicle on your other normal insurance will make the terms of that first policy matter on what and how they handle the calls.
We don't often shop only for the price but look deeper at what happens when you call. As we were going lots of different directions at times, we wanted insurance that had lots of different service providers, as a way to let us be more likely to get a good nearby response when/if it was needed.
One of the critical things to us was going beyond the ones who do the most ads and look at who they called for the service we were more likely to need.
Given what we felt most likely was not going to be a tow service, we shopped for the far more common issues like tires and jumpstart, etc. We did not have a huge RV that would require the super duty truck if we needed towed, so moved away from the super size businesses who had networks with those huge trucks and wanted to get the group who was more likely to have somebody on duty and close by, even if their tow truck was not that big!
We shopped for the folks who might only have a half ton truck with all the tools and air to do any of our tire problems. As a tradeoff for not having the huge wrecker, which we felt unlikely to need, we wanted to have tons of options that made them more likely to be available and closer!

We were happy to know we might deal with the local car dealers service and tow if needed rather than have a dedicated network that might only have 25 places in any given state in their network. We did not care if it was JimBob with a pickup and crowbar as long as he was handy and got it done. A lot better and quicker than "High and Mighty National Service" that would want to tow it next Monday morning!

But we have only had 3-5 calls in the last 40 years!

Maybe a way to gain some more reliable info would be to ask for their list of service dealers if you were needing help in your local area? In that way , you may be able to sort that they would call a local guy that does a fine local service or do they require somebody from the big city nearby that may not get there today.

I tend to like the smaller folks who operate on their local reputation over the big guy who doesn't really care if I ever come back! I'm kind of a small town type and tend to like the guys who worry about what local people think about their business.
I had a lot of options on who did my RV work in this area but the guy that got my business was Tuffy's!
Not a big place but he also was glad to pull it in on the back lot and change the oil out there when it did not fit his service bay!

All he really asked me much about was how to get the hood open!

 

[RVSpirit26T]

Winnebago does make a tire carrier for the 31K, here is the part number (300752-01-XXX)
Factory installed by welding to the frame, however I found it just as easy to bolt it to the frame.
If you don't carry the equipment to change a tire, there are too many variables for a consensus on best road side service provider.

 

[shemphill]

Awesome thanks! Most of the roadside assistance programs will send someone to change it IF you have a spare. I don't intend on attempting it myself.

 

[RVSpirit26T]

That is my plan too, hoping I never have to use it. I've read horror stories of the roadside assistance operators misunderstanding the situation sending an auto tech instead of a truck tech. Then having the RV fall to ground from an improper setup, which is why I carry a jack stand to assist if every needed.

 

[Bobn1957]

We have a Winnebago Spirit 31K. It does not have a spare tire nor a place to put one other than in the rear storage. (which is always full) We have Good Sam Roadside assistance. I have been told that if we have a flat, and we don't have a spare, they will tow the RV to the nearest service center to change the tire. If its a rear dual they send a flatbed for it. That sounds like a REALLY long day to me.

I was looking for a way to mount a spare tire either under the rear, or on a swing away mount on the bumper. My biggest concern on the swing away bumper mount is that's allot of weight and leverage working against that bumper going down the road. If I use the receiver then it blocks my storage door.

Does anyone have any experience / Advice on spare tire mount?

How do you handle a flat out on the road? Since none of these coaches have spares, how well does that process work with roadside service?

If you have a TPMS, your tires won't surprise you with a flat tire; it'll let you know when something is amiss, generally long before the tire has gone flat, unless you have a blowout or hit a rock or something else that does terminal damage!

 

[MDJDCarter]

We have a 2016 Cambria 30J and it has a spare in the "garage" compartment. Which is the big one in the rear. It is mounted on the front wall which is just behind the rear axle. This spring on Mother's Day we had a blow out south of Lake Kissimmee, Florida of the interior RR on a barely paved road surrounded by watermelon fields. I was able to pull off into a truck parking lot for the watermelon shipping company. Luckily, there was cellphone service, 4G. We called Good Sam and they took our info and said they would call back, they did not have a dealer near us and would have to search for someone local. They called back about 10 minutes later; they had found a truck tire place on the coast, but it would be 2 hours for them to get to where we were, was that OK? We said send them on, what else could we do. Good Sam called back about 2 hours later to be sure things were progressing, the truck arrived at the same time. We got our tire changed and back on the road in about an hour. The serviceman did not mind Sunday afternoon call, he was getting double time pay, plus we tipped him a C note as well. Good Sam called again the next day to be sure we were satisfied with everything, which we were. I was thinking about new tires after this trip even before we left. We visited our new friend's shop and got 7 new tires before we went on down to the Keys. Even though the spare takes up some space, I am glad we have it.

 

[chromeronzo]

If you played professional football as a lineman, you might attempt to change your our own tire on the road…providing you have invested in the necessary tools…and a professional wrestler as a wife. Once you have experienced a damaged tire on the road, you’ll appreciate leaving the hard work to the young ones. A reliable local rv road service provider (and I do mean local…keep ‘em busy) is a better decision…and less expensive. AND…make sure you invest in a TPMS…it’ll save you grief in the long run…later

 

[kswatt22]

We have a Winnebago Spirit 31K. It does not have a spare tire nor a place to put one other than in the rear storage. (which is always full) We have Good Sam Roadside assistance. I have been told that if we have a flat, and we don't have a spare, they will tow the RV to the nearest service center to change the tire. If its a rear dual they send a flatbed for it. That sounds like a REALLY long day to me.

I was looking for a way to mount a spare tire either under the rear, or on a swing away mount on the bumper. My biggest concern on the swing away bumper mount is that's allot of weight and leverage working against that bumper going down the road. If I use the receiver then it blocks my storage door.

Does anyone have any experience / Advice on spare tire mount?

How do you handle a flat out on the road? Since none of these coaches have spares, how well does that process work with roadside service?

We have a 2025 Spirit 31k and it is equipped from Winnebago with a spare mounted on the outside underneath the bedroom.