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Is a spare tire cover necessary? I prefer the more rugged look without one. However, are UV rays from the sun that damaging to the tire? My Defender is parked outside at all times (at home and at work). If the spare is rotated with the other wheels at its required interval, should it be okay without the cover?
If I do get one, do OEM ones come in Fuji White and where would be the best place to get one? From a Land Rover dealer? Thanks!
Well mine wasn’t covered but my 130’s will be. I certainly wouldn’t rotate it with the main 4 though. As far as sun Damage and dry rot, I think that would only be very prevalent if the car just sat out in the open for extended periods of time and wasn’t being driven. Although I would expect that to be more apparent on the main 4 tires and not so much on the spare.
The 4 moving tires get UV rays too. Spare cover really serves no purpose other than cosmetics for those who like the look of one. Gives it that urban RAV4 look.
Keep the spare in the rotation and you'll get more life from the 5 tires for time you've got them. Much better than a cover.
Definitely keep the spare in the rotation — rotate every 5000 and after 25,000 miles every tire will have 20,000 on it, rather than 4 having 25,000 and one having zero. If you keep your tires to 50,000 miles, say, each tire will get a free ride for 10,000 of those miles, meaning no tire will have 50,000 on it until the car has 60,000. It’s not really going to make or break the economics of owning this vehicle , but why not do it that way and get an extra 10,000 miles out of your tires? I hate to see that $400 tire sitting back there aging out without ever doing any work.
Of course, this is all theoretical with me. My problems are several where this plan is concerned.
1) I never keep tires on my enthusiast cars and trucks for very long — I get excited about some new tire or size and replace long before end of life on either mileage or years.
2) I also run a set of 5 off-road wheels/tires because I want the aggressive tread of an RT or MT when I’m out west on an offroading or overlanding trip, but I want the smoothness (and urban good looks) of the 20s with OEM Goodyears most of the rest of the time. Because of this and my laziness in marking what tire came from what position, when I put the street tires back on I never know which was the spare. But there’s an 80% chance the former spare will wind up on the ground when I put them back on each time, and I’m okay with that because even if it doesn’t, see No. 1.
Last edited by NoGaBiker; Aug 8, 2022 at 08:42 AM.
Definitely keep the spare in the rotation — rotate every 5000 and after 25,000 miles every tire will have 20,000 on it, rather than 4 having 25,000 and one having zero. If you keep your tires to 50,000 miles, say, each tire will get a free ride for 10,000 of those miles, meaning no tire will have 50,000 on it until the car has 60,000. It’s not really going to make or break the economics of owning this vehicle , but why not do it that way and get an extra 10,000 miles out of your tires? I hate to see that $400 tire sitting back there aging out without ever doing any work.
Of course, this is all theoretical with me. My problems are several where this plan is concerned.
1) I never keep tires on my enthusiast cars and trucks for very long — I get excited about some new tire or size and replace long before end of life on either mileage or years.
2) I also run a set of 5 off-road wheels/tires because I want the aggressive tread of an RT or MT when I’m out west on an offroading or overlanding trip, but I want the smoothness (and urban good looks) of the 20s with OEM Goodyears most of the rest of the time. Because of this and my laziness in marking what tire came from what position, when I put the street tires back on I never know which was the spare. But there’s an 80% chance the former spare will wind up on the ground when I put them back on each time, and I’m okay with that because even if it doesn’t, see No. 1.
My thinking is, when you have to buy a set of tires, you only have to buy 4 instead of 5, assuming you keep the same spec tire and never used the spare at all.
The other advantage of using the spare in your five wheel rotation is that when you need to use the spare it will be the same diameter as the others. If you do like most jeep owners around me seem to do and rotate the 4 corners and leave your AT or MT tire on the back with pristine tread, it may well be a significantly different diameter to the other three when you need to use it. Which adds many other potential issues to your task of getting home safely on the spare
Spare tire cover necessary?
, but why not do it that way and get an extra 10,000 miles out of your tires? I hate to see that $400 tire sitting back there aging out without ever doing any work.
