It was by chance that I just crawled out from under the tail end of my '04, RCab, 150. While schmoozing under there I noticed the valve stem for the spare tire is on the up-side of the spare, against the bottom side of the bed. I could not even find the valve stem by feeling through the holes in the rim. End result, lower the spare tire for flat tire drill, then find a way to air the spare at least once a year to insure it is not too soft for safe driving when needed.

 

Stock tires lasted me the first couple thousand miles and then went into the desert. Yup... got a flat ... a rock of all things, right through the tread! ... Got BFG AT's to replace them and interesting enough no more flats! Knock on wood! But, my BFG's have been over some nasty sharp rock areas. Gouges & cuts but no flats!

Seems I get a flat with every vehicle I take to the hills until I buy the BFG's and no more flats! Many others I know have similar tire stories some of which I've had to help when the air was gone! On my motorhome I got flats at least twice a summer until I put XPS Rib's on. No BFG's fit so my research pointed at them being the next best choice.

Guess the moral to my story is ... just maybe ... with the right tires ... that ol spare tire retrieval trick might be avoided. I hate flats!

BTW... I'm not trying to say BFG's are the best tire or the "right" tire for everybody. Just that certain tires seem to work for me better than others at avoiding flats!