Spare Tire Check

[Ed Kennell 38,113]

Yesterday morning at 5AM on my way to the boonies to hunt turkey, my tire pressure fault light came on.    Oh crap, I drive a 2010 F-150 and the spare tire has never been removed and I assumed I would need a cutting torch to get it out from under the rear frame.    Luckily there was no flat tire, one of the tires was down 2 PSI...just enough to trigger the fault.    But this prompted me to try to remove the spare just in case I ever do have a flat.    The first challenge is removing the tool kit from under the rear seat.     Then using the ignition key( without breaking it off) to unlock and remove the plug from the crank hole in the bumper.    Finally got the plug out and soaked it in PB to loosen it up.       Surprisingly, the cable and winch used to lower the spare worked great.   I checked the unused 15YO spare and put it back in place feeling much better that I knew I could get it off ever needed.  I'll check it again in 15 years.

[squonk 41,051]

I started doing the same 3 yrs. ago.  I get my truck sprayed at Krown Rust proofing every year so I thought it would be a good idea to get that tire down so they can do a better job. So the key slot and cable get checked and lubed  and the tire gets checked as well.

[WHX?? 48,813]

I lowered mine and got showered with rust. Sprayed it all down with drain oil and called it a fish... err ...turkey truck! 

Edited May 12 by WHX??

[JoeM 7,873]

Left the key plug out and flipped the tire over so I could check the air from underneath. 

My winch worked good too, amazing.

[Handy Don 12,203]

All y’all made me go check the tire pressure on the donut spare stored under rear floor of my station wagon--clean and dry and 90psi. Yippee! 

[lynnmor 7,303]

@Ed Kennell, on Thursday I replaced all four sensors on my 2011 F250 even though only one sensor failed.  They have batteries and anything over 10 years is over the limit.  Now for your FAULT message, it was likely a failing battery.  A LOW TIRE PRESSURE message (not fault) would be for just that.  After I had the new sensors in, I tested by dropping tire pressure from 65 PSI to 40 PSI where the LOW TIRE PRESSURE light kicked on.

Edited May 12 by lynnmor

[wh500special 2,168]

1 hour ago, lynnmor said:

@Ed Kennell, on Thursday I replaced all four sensors on my 2011 F250 even though only one sensor failed.  They have batteries and anything over 10 years is over the limit.  Now for your FAULT message, it was likely a failing battery…

you almost took the words right out of my mouth.  We have a 2010 (I think) Edge and at least one of the sensors has gone dead.  Twenty minutes into every drive and the TPMS Fault message appears. 

 

I’ll live with it until it needs tires again. 
 

2 hours ago, Handy Don said:

All y’all made me go check the tire pressure on the donut spare stored under rear floor of my station wagon--clean and dry and 90psi. Yippee! 

Same as on my Honda Ridgeline pickup.  The tire lives in the trunk. Clean and dry and accessible…most of the time. There’s always the chance I’ll have a bed full of gravel when I get a flat and I’ll be cussing the spare’s location, but odds on that aren’t that high.  
 

My last flat tire that had me digging out the spare on a pickup was on my ‘93 Ranger back when the truck was a few years old.  It came right out of the carrier, but it was no joy laying under there in the snow, salt, and slush extricating it.  The trunk location is worth the trade off. 
 

Steve

[953 nut 55,160]

I have only had one occasion to mount the spare tire on a truck and getting it down from the under=-bed mount was no problem, it was nearly fully inflated so that was encouraging, but the twenty year old spare wasn't quite round anymore and I didn't dare go over about ten MPH. By the time I got home ( 15 miles) chunks of the tread had come off the tire. I now have a battery powered compressor in the truck and the wife's SUV in the event of a soft tire.

The low tire thingie on one of my tires went out about a month after I had a new set of tires installed. It would cost an arm and a leg to have them replaced now so I just do periodic pressure checks. It will probably be six or seven years before I need new tires but I will have the sensors replaced then.

[Ed Kennell 38,113]

21 hours ago, squonk said:

get my truck sprayed at Krown Rust proofing

My  F-150 is showing the results of 14 years of road salt.    Do you think a Krown treatment would have any benefit on a truck that all ready has some rust? 

What do they actually do to clean before spraying?     Our local Krown service advertises $149-$169 for a treatment.    They can't spend much time cleaning for that price.  

Just getting some info before I call our local Krown.      TIA for any input Mike.

[rjg854 11,356]

I get my truck done every other year. I think they give a spray down and then blow dry it. I've never seen it first hand tho.

[squonk 41,051]

18 minutes ago, Ed Kennell said:

My  F-150 is showing the results of 14 years of road salt.    Do you think a Krown treatment would have any benefit on a truck that all ready has some rust? 

What do they actually do to clean before spraying?     Our local Krown service advertises $149-$169 for a treatment.    They can't spend much time cleaning for that price.  

Just getting some info before I call our local Krown.      TIA for any input Mike.

They have a salt neutralizing spray. Not sure if it works. My wife just bought a clean 07 Honda CRV and I had the car sprayed for her as a Mother's Day gift and opted for the additional $20-30 it cost extra for the salt eliminator. The rust control is only as good as the applicator. The truck will drip for a couple of days. Which turned out to be a good thing. The driverside rear wheel well is a well known rust area for my vintage of truck and the last time I had it sprayed I told them to be extra sure they got that area good. The next day I noticed no drip from that area. You can stick a basketball up in there it's so wide open. I looked underneath and they never sprayed the spot!!  I went back and made them spray the entire truck again. I know getting it sprayed every year has helped a lot. 

[Beap52 809]

I had a 30 year old pickup that I backed out of parking spot at the lumber yard and left.  A few minutes later the yard called and said I left my spare tire in middle of parking lot.  The cable holding the tire had rusted in two. It could have been a disaster if I had been driving down the road at highway speeds. I now have a chain and padlock as extra security against this happening again. 

[squonk 41,051]

I was driving  down the road during a heavy snow and heard a clunk. Thought I hit a chunk of ice. That summer I decided to check my spare. Yup it was gone.

[Lee1977 6,655]

Mine only been under my Explorer for 14 years so do I need to check next year Ed?  

[Ed Kennell 38,113]

6 hours ago, Lee1977 said:

Mine only been under my Explorer for 14 years so do I need to check next year Ed?  

Do you have AAAs or are you a gambler?

[SylvanLakeWH 25,525]

20 hours ago, Beap52 said:

I had a 30 year old pickup that I backed out of parking spot at the lumber yard and left.  A few minutes later the yard called and said I left my spare tire in middle of parking lot.  The cable holding the tire had rusted in two. It could have been a disaster if I had been driving down the road at highway speeds. I now have a chain and padlock as extra security against this happening again. 

 

20 hours ago, squonk said:

I was driving  down the road during a heavy snow and heard a clunk. Thought I hit a chunk of ice. That summer I decided to check my spare. Yup it was gone.

 

Not a fan of these hangers for this reason... Nobody, present  fanatics excluded of course, ever checks them... dangerous and frankly ridiculous to access on side of road in rain / snow etc... 

 

[Ed Kennell 38,113]

Made an appointment at Krown to get the 150 sprayed next Tue. for $169.   She said they do no cleaning or prep work except for drilling the holes to spray inside the closed panels.

It is a petro based oil and will drip for a few days.

 

So, I took the spare back off and gave the wheel a wire brushing and an oil soak greasy Pete style.   I'll leave it off till after the Krown spray job.

So to clean some of the salt and mud from under the truck, I got out the pressure washer and did the truck and a couple tractors that were getting dusty.