Been wondering how much of a difference a spare cover makes in terms of preserving the spare. I plan to rotate the spare in with the rest so that will probably help, but yea mostly wondering what other people are doing/plan on doing.

 

I will rotate the spare into the mix but I like the "old school" look of the cloth cover. I opted for the rhino.

 

Why would your spare see any more action or degradation than the 4 wheels on your vehicle? A cover is for aesthetics only. It also prevents you from strapping anything useful onto the spare tyre such as a bike rack, trays, maxtrax mounts etc...

 

If the car is parked outside a lot the spare will get a lot more UV damage than tires on the car. My old Jeep spare suffered because of this. Also, winter driving will leave the wheel covered in a godawful mess of salt and grit that is a pain to clean. I don’t like attaching things to a spare that’s not designed to take weight anyway. Cover on for me.

 

For a summer decoration only. A thick coating of winter road salt will likely ruin it and I don't want to deal with another obstacle when changing a flat tire in cold temps.

 

My OEM hard cover has been through several rough winters and it’s in perfect shape. No worse for wear at all. I just wash and wax it as normal. A lot easier to keep clean than a bare wheel spare. That got completely gunked up inside and out with grime.

 

In addition to UV damage there’s also the issue of the tire never flexing at all for many months at a time; flexing helps to keep the tires supple.

 

I've always been a leave it naked and pull it into the regular 5 tire rotation 5000mi~7000milies. Been that way in for any of my FJ's and earlier vehicles, and that's dealing with Alberta and Colorado winters and road salt / mag chloride issues and the like


at that rate I've never had an issue with the spare being affected by more / or less sun exposure at that frequency. Accessibility is nice in not having one more thing to fiddle with (edit: no tire cover) but that a minor insane issue in my mind

 

Does the spare have a TPMS if you add it into the tire rotation? Most spares don’t and I wonder if it screws with the other 3 wheel sensors.

 

Yes it has tpms.