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Old 03-14-2015, 06:24 AM   #1
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Can the basement compartment handle carrying a spare?

I have a 2014 Fleetwood Excursion, but I think this question applies to many different MHs. I decided I'm going to carry an unmounted spare in case of a flat. I have coach.net, but figure its better to have a tire available instead of getting stuck waiting for the wrecker to find one.

The tire is a 255 70 22.5 and weights about 90 pounds. It fits in the basement of my coach, but just barely. The basement of my Excursion are plastic watertight compartments that run side to side under the coach. There is a steel bar under the plastic for support, but it doesn't seem super strong. I'm just wondering if it can handle weight of carrying the spare. I don't see much in the coach literature about loading the basements or capacities.
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Old 03-14-2015, 06:39 AM   #2
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I have a Bounder, so I am guessing the compartments are made of the same material. I carry a 80 lb scooter in one of mine, plus a few other things. I don't see 90 lbs being to heavy.
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Old 03-14-2015, 08:56 AM   #3
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I'd say call Fleetwood and ask. I know the compartments on the bottom of the slide on our Bounder have a maximum weight capacity of about 300 pounds total IIRC. Personally I wouldn't bother with the spare; takes up too much space.
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Old 03-14-2015, 09:24 AM   #4
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There are probably 100,000 units running around with no spare.
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Old 03-14-2015, 09:34 AM   #5
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There are probably 100,000 units running around with no spare.
Which is an interesting fact that has nothing to do with my question
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Old 03-14-2015, 11:41 AM   #6
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"jondrew".....I had a different coach (Monaco) and carried an unmounted spare around for years. I had the same size tires as yours and they are hard to find, so for me the spare was a good idea. My coach had a slide out tray and the spare sat atop the tray. I made a small metal stand out of 1/2" square tubing that supported the sides of the tire where it would span the open area of the slide tray. I wrapped the tire in plastic wrap and then bought a roll of masking tape and wrapped it again to keep it clean and preserved to a certain degree. I filled the center of it with items and didn't really lose a bunch of space.

Even though your storage bays are plastic, they're strengthened by their one piece design. You might think about attaching some angle iron down both sides of the bay and build a shelf across the bay. It will be cumbersome to get the spare up on the shelf, but it will be out of the way. Attach the angle iron at multiple points and use large flat washers. I like to get things high up in my more storage bays to gain space.

Crawl into your storage bay and move around, you'll see tat they're pretty stout.
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Old 03-14-2015, 11:43 AM   #7
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The 90 lbs won't be an issue. I couldn't fit a mounted spare in my Bounder so I carried an unmounted one. There's always an argument for and against and those who'll say they carry a credit card. When you travel to far away places you quickly realize that your not in Kansas anymore and a spare may take a few days and a huge % increase in cost to obtain.
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Old 03-14-2015, 11:54 AM   #8
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"jondrew".....I had a different coach (Monaco) and carried an unmounted spare around for years. I had the same size tires as yours and they are hard to find, ......

....Crawl into your storage bay and move around, you'll see tat they're pretty stout.
Thanks for affirmation on my decision. You're the second person to tell me this size is hard to find. It's Ive played around a bit in the bay moving things around and it's probably fine. I put a piece of cardboard under it to make it easier to slide in and out.

Like any other insurance, I'm hoping it just sits there until it dry rots.
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Old 03-14-2015, 11:56 AM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jondrew View Post
I have a 2014 Fleetwood Excursion, but I think this question applies to many different MHs. I decided I'm going to carry an unmounted spare in case of a flat. I have coach.net, but figure its better to have a tire available instead of getting stuck waiting for the wrecker to find one.

The tire is a 255 70 22.5 and weights about 90 pounds. It fits in the basement of my coach, but just barely. The basement of my Excursion are plastic watertight compartments that run side to side under the coach. There is a steel bar under the plastic for support, but it doesn't seem super strong. I'm just wondering if it can handle weight of carrying the spare. I don't see much in the coach literature about loading the basements or capacities.
We were a Fleetwood dealer. Fleetwood bragged on their storage compartments. If i remember correctly they called it their power platform. The compartments are a composite material and are rated to carry 300 pounds. You can carry the spare and put somethings in the middle also.
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Old 03-14-2015, 03:09 PM   #10
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I carry an unmounted 275/80-22.5 in my basement. Unfortunately, I had to remove the sliding tray so I could squeeze it in. But, if I have a blowout, I won't have to buy a no name crap tire for $700 or $800! I'll have a Michelin to install.
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Old 03-14-2015, 03:36 PM   #11
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Can the basement compartment handle carrying a spare?

I googled "buy michelin 255/80 22.5".
Seems everyone has them.
I had spares on my rigs with 16" tires, but they had a spare tire rack!
In over 100K miles I have not had a flat (jinx), but did have ply separation on one 16".
When we vacationed with 22.5 tires, we had space for a spare but didn't buy one, didn't need one.
Now fulltime, there aint nuff space. A spare would have aged and, not totally trusting it I would have a new tire installed after the on-road swap and place the spare back into a space I don't have. That would make 2x the cost.
But each to their own ways.
Happy trails
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Old 03-14-2015, 06:35 PM   #12
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You compartment can definitely handle the weight, but if you are concerned about point loads on the plastic put a piece of plywood under the tire.
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Old 03-14-2015, 09:14 PM   #13
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CampDaven......The OP has 255/70-22.5, not 255/80-22.5. Luckily, it's one of the sizes that Hankook makes, but usually takes two days to get in a major city. Getting stuck in a small town on a Saturday, could take until at least Tuesday to get back on the road.
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Old 03-14-2015, 09:18 PM   #14
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CampDaven......The OP has 255/70-22.5, not 255/80-22.5. Luckily, it's one of the sizes that Hankook makes, but usually takes two days to get in a major city. Getting stuck in a small town on a Saturday, could take until at least Tuesday to get back on the road.

Ah! My bad. An 80 is too big?
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