Before anyone jumps in with the "WTH are you thinking?!!!" response, let me explain the situation:

My XJ is running 35" heavy wall MTs on 17" steel beadlock wheels and the suckers are HEAVY!!!!!!!!! Each wheel/tire unit is near 100 lbs deflated and I can't even begin to pick them up by myself (it's a struggle for two people to pick them up). I've never had a flat and for the life of me can't imagine what it would take to actually puncture these things. All of this has be seriously considering ditching the spare.

I'm inclined to think that IF I ever did get a puncture, I'd just plug the hell out of it and head home. WORST CASE, with a beadlock I should be able to drive it out even if it were dead flat (all I need to do is get to where a tow truck can pick me up) right? Yes, I'm aware that driving it dead flat would destroy the tire (and might damage the wheel), but I'm imagining if the tire is too damaged to plug then it's already beyond repair anyways.

 

i would consider a spare, either build a tire carrier/bumper that will handle it, or toss it up on the roof if you can't strap it down in the hatch. it's easy to get down from the roof, but getting the flat up there may be a bit of a pain, but as long as you don't wheel alone, there should be others there that can help get it up there.

or, if you have a good buddy going along with you, and he's running 35's, he may be willing to offer up his spare, if needed.

i run 36 bias ply iroks on beadlocks, i used to run with my matching spare up in my roof basket. i can get it up and down myself, but i damn near blow a nut trying. good thing is, for the 4 years i had it up there, i didn't ever need it. now it's on a swing out carrier, but that's much harder to get it on the lugs myself. tire/wheel has got to weigh more than 100 pounds.

 

depends how often you drop alone or how far from civilization haaha..i personally would never go without a spare...it doesn't have to be the same tir rim combo you have now. Just get the same size tire.

 

Yeah, I agree, if you have a buddy who has the same lug pattern, then agree on who can carry (and share) certain spare parts and tools. It would help both. Also depends on where you go and how extreme you go ..the condition of your tires, cell phone range, etc.

Could you carry a plain ole spare w/o the rim? You could pack tools and supplies in and around the tire so it wouldn't really consume much more room than the tools do now ..perhaps. At least worst case you DO have a back-up plan. Or maybe you just carry the puncture repair kit AND a rolled-up inner tube (and compressor) and tools that'll do the job.

Is there such a thing as a lighter-weight non trail type tire you could carry somewhere?? (I'm thinking like the idea of a 'compact spare' tire concept, but the size of a 35")

Problem with trail tire problems is often they are tears and gashes which a puncture kit won't even come close to helping.

 

Consider this: Bead locks lock the outside of the wheel. However, the inside bead can come off. I have had this happen, and so have many of the staff at the national off road mags. In fact years ago they did a reader query for the exact situations, types of tires etc. It involved having the inside bead come off when on the uphill side of an off camber situation. Many heavy sidewall tires have the inside bead deform when the tread is pushed to the inside enough that the air begins to escape, then eventually it is enough that the whole bead looses integrity. In my situation it was a whoosh, whoosh, whoosh and then down all the way. Pretty funny coming down the hill in the Fordyce Creek area on a doughnut spare that had lost its air too

 

Just carry a tire by itself, doesn't need to be mounted on a beadlock, just change with tire irons when you get a flat. That's the beauty of having beadlocks, easy to mount, just time consuming.

 

Why not just mount the same tire on a normal steelie?

 

if you ever gash the sidewall with a rock, you will regret it

 

I'd wheel without a spare if it was a trailer queen. Something I'm driving there and back I wouldn't. Even with a trailered rig I'd at least want to carry a spare on my trailer or something. Would be inconvenient to get the spare from the trailer to the rig, but you could wheel the rest of the weekend. Personally I carry a spare tire that's mounted on a wheel and plugs. Crap happens. In the spring I broke a wheel. Tire was fine, but the wheel wasn't.

 

when I started wheelin I did not have bead locks and a few times I knocked the tire off the rim after some dickering around I was able to get it back on and aired up and on my way now with beadlocks the tire does not knock off the bead it just goes thru the sidewall so I do not leave home without a spare