Who has actually used their spare offroading?

Long winded, bear with me. As I'm researching tires and everyone is discussing E vs P vs C vs SL, and sidewalls and plys...I'm guessing I'm just overthinking it for what I'll actually do in my 4R. I know there are folks here that do some bonafide offroading, rock climbing, deserts, mountains, etc. Everyone has different comfort levels and I don't want to disparage anyone, but I also see people talking about offroading on gravel roads. I see someone talking about "mild off-roading" daily, but have no idea what that means. I put 255/75/17 Cooper AT3 4S on my Taco, never aired down, never got stuck or had a flat, just kinda blindly got new tires for the size and went where I was going. Farm 2-tracks, non-paved roads in a couple National Parks, etc. I also spent a couple days driving around state or national forests in WI on Goodyear HTs without knowing any better and didnt have any issues. All this is to ask, who's had an actual failure offroad, on what tire, and what were you doing?

 

Been offroading all over the West from CO to CA and everywhere in between. Never once got a flat on a trail, dirt, rocks, gravel, or snow.

Had two flats and both times were on nice roads, and both from running over a large nail / screw.

Toyo Open Country AT2 and AT3s.

 

Just curious, what load range are you running?

I've had 2 or 3 flats, all due to nails and screws, and in each occasion I've fixed it on the vehicle. I carry an plug kit and compressor, so far so good.

Unless I have a sidewall tear, I think plugging is preferable to messing with the spare.

 

Those DIY plug kits are nice, but they aren't really a permanent fix. I'd rather put the spare on and get the tire patched properly, if it were an option.

 

Just depends on the wheeling you do. Most off road flats are from sidewall punctures. Rock crawling. 4runners tend to not do as much of that. I would still have the spare, it would make me feel a lot better having the peace of mind

I answered the question like this:

Are you a mall man? Street tires
Gravel & logging roads, occasional trip? SL
You like off-roading (me)? C
Hard-core? E

 

I took my 4Runner up to the sierras and did a power line/fire access road up to watch the sunset over the sierras from the eastern side (near Bishop). I hit nothing and I popped 2 Duellers (front right and left rear). It's possible. I had to spend $400 the next day for a new tire in town because it Memorial Day and I had to replace my factory rim because I was forced to drive on a flat for 10 miles back to 395 to get towed into town. Best part, was my friend in his mazda wagon had zero flats.

I don't believe I've ever had another flat in my many adventures in the dirt, but when it happens, it happens.

 

Thanks the replies. My question isnt so much, do I need a spare? Its more, for how I use my 4R and will for the next couple years minimum, do I actually need E or C tires? I'm thinking I dont.

 

C rating should be fine for you. I would recommend you drop the spare to the ground every 6 months and lubricate your chain system. Nebraska salty roads can lock that spare up and leave you stranded if you don't maintain it.

 

I have used my spare multiple times with my jeep while crawling. Although I've never had to use my spare for the 4r while off-roading, I've had to use it three times within the past year while I'm out in the middle of nowhere on the highway. I always carry at least one spare tire and two spares for my boat trailer.

 

Yeah, I wonder about this too. If I drive on paved roads 50 weeks of the year, and rocky desert off-road trails the remaining two weeks, does it make sense to roll with E loads? I'd go with C load but there's apparently only the KO2's in our stock size, and I'm leery of the commonly reported wet traction problems for, you know, those 50 weeks on the road. On the other hand, one thing that's appealing about the E-loads is the tread depth is usually a good bit deeper than SL tires so in theory I would get longer life for each set of tires. To answer the OP's question, I've yet to get a flat off road while running SL load tires...

 

Got a flat on a rough rocky road on the way to Mt Rainier. Had to change to the spare on a slant in 80° weather, then go for a 4 hour hike.