Spare Rim

[vondy21]

About to purchase a 2017 4R Off-Road Premium, it's just hitting shore so won't see it for a week or so.

Will immediately be swapping out the tires and was thinking I'd do 5 so I can rotate the spare in and out. But does the spare rim match the other 4 or is it a basic steal one? No sense in buying 5 tires then unless I go up in size. Which may be a separate post...

 

[rayofsi]

About to purchase a 2017 4R Off-Road Premium, it's just hitting shore so won't see it for a week or so.

Will immediately be swapping out the tires and was thinking I'd do 5 so I can rotate the spare in and out. But does the spare rim match the other 4 or is it a basic steal one? No sense in buying 5 tires then unless I go up in size. Which may be a separate post...

i have a steel spare on my 2017 trd pro

 

[Jetboy]

They all have steel wheels except for the Limited. I've never understood why you'd want to rotate 5 wheels, but that's your prerogative if you feel like it has some value to you.

 

[vondy21]

They all have steel wheels except for the Limited. I've never understood why you'd want to rotate 5 wheels, but that's your prerogative if you feel like it has some value to you.

Keeps the spare at roughly the same tread depth as the others.

Won't be doing it unless I can come up with a single matching wheel for cheap. This isn't a priority, just deciding if I was going to buy 4 tires or 5.

 

[perf0rmance]

Keeps the spare at roughly the same tread depth as the others.

Won't be doing it unless I can come up with a single matching wheel for cheap. This isn't a priority, just deciding if I was going to buy 4 tires or 5.

I wouldn't recommend rotating a 5th into your normal cycle.
Thinking about it logically, at what point (besides brand new) will all 5 be at the same tread depth?

Example - assuming they start at an arbitrary "9".
1-2-3-4-5 (5 is the spare)

9-9-9-9-9 (brand new)
8-8-8-8-9 (measure at first rotation, rotate in #5, rotate out #1)
8-7-7-7-8 (measure at second rotation, rotate out #2)
7-7-6-6-7 (measure at third rotation, rotate out #3)
6-6-6-5-6(measure at fourth rotation, rotate out #4)
5-5-5-5-5 (measure at fifth rotation, rotate in #5, rotate out #1)


It looks like you'd even out when you get to your 5th cycle of rotations. The problem is, you still have to factor in potential tire problems that could throw off you cycles. If you have tire damage and its irreparable, then you have to get a new tire.

Also, keep in mind the tires do have a shelf life.
As to your original question, they spare should be coated in yellow - So no, they won't look the same as the main wheels.

 

[philsey]

Unless things have changed, I don't believe the spare has a TPMS, so that's $30-40.

Plus, again unless things have changed, the ECU only reads 4 codes, thus requiring you to reprogram it at each rotation, if you put a TPMS in the spare. (Otherwise the TPMS light will be on all the time).

Toyota does not make the 5-tire rotation convenient.

 

[vondy21]

Sounds good to me, 4 it is. Thanks!

 

[jerad]

And the full size wheel/tire on the LE is bright freaking yellow! My wife's been rocking the spare for a month or so. I haven't had time to fix it and she doesn't seem to care, but man it looks stupid.

 

[AdamDS]

I do 5 tire rotation with matching rims and it works fine for me. I had Costco add a 5th tpms when they installed 5 bfg at ko2s. Yes the computer can only sense 4 at a time but Costco has reprogrammed it to read the 4 tires on the ground without charging me even when the Toyota dealer rotated and said they couldn't reprogram it. I have also had the tires rotated before without worrying about reprogramming which just meant that one of the tires on the ground was not being sensed and the spare in the stock location was. I've had no issues with this.

The main reason I opted for 5 tire rotation is that I upsized to 275/70/r17 tires so I couldn't keep the stock spare and i didn't want to deal with an unused tire in the event I decide to change sizes again in the future. This way they all wear out fairly evenly and I'll just buy 5 new tires in whatever size I want at that point.

 

[e60ral]

the dollars don't work out for 5 wheel rotation making sense

 

[JoeG19]

And the full size wheel/tire on the LE is bright freaking yellow! My wife's been rocking the spare for a month or so. I haven't had time to fix it and she doesn't seem to care, but man it looks stupid.

I have a 2015 LE with the spare identical to all of the rest. In fact I'm running with it currently.

 

[vondy21]

Thanks for all the replies. I'm pretty much sold with just the 4 tires, unless I decide to go larger.

What I'm having trouble with now is deciding which tire.

95% of my time is on the road. If I do go off road, I want something sturdy enough to handle it. There is also the possibility that I'll do more off roading in the future.

I need a tire that is quiet, great in the rain and has good dry handling abilities.

Right now I've narrowed it down to Michelin Defender LTX M/S or Cooper Discoverer A/T3.

Obviously one is a street tire and one is an all-terain tire. I'd go with the Cooper but I'm mostly worried about the road noise. I had the Michelins on my Xterra and it was probably the quietest vehicle I've ever been in. The test drive of the 4Runner with the crap stock tires was equally, if not more, quiet than my Xterra.

On my current 2016 Taco I have the Wrangler ATs with Kevlar. They are pretty good but louder than I would like.

Leaning towards the safe side, Michelins, but having made up my mind yet.

 

[Toffees]

5 wheel rotation makes sense on the LE, when you've got a matching wheel and tire, but for the TE it doesn't make a ton of difference; in any case, there's no savings to 5 wheel vs 4 wheel rotation if you replace all 5 tires when they wear out. Maybe if you rotate 5 then keep a reasonably worn 5th as spare to your new 4, but that's probably a matter of pennies over the life of your 4R, especially if you're adding a 5th TPMS and matching wheel.

 

[Toffees]

I wouldn't recommend rotating a 5th into your normal cycle.
Thinking about it logically, at what point (besides brand new) will all 5 be at the same tread depth?

Example - assuming they start at an arbitrary "9".
1-2-3-4-5 (5 is the spare)

9-9-9-9-9 (brand new)
8-8-8-8-9 (measure at first rotation, rotate in #5, rotate out #1)
8-7-7-7-8 (measure at second rotation, rotate out #2)
7-7-6-6-7 (measure at third rotation, rotate out #3)
6-6-6-5-6(measure at fourth rotation, rotate out #4)
5-5-5-5-5 (measure at fifth rotation, rotate in #5, rotate out #1)


It looks like you'd even out when you get to your 5th cycle of rotations. The problem is, you still have to factor in potential tire problems that could throw off you cycles. If you have tire damage and its irreparable, then you have to get a new tire.

Also, keep in mind the tires do have a shelf life.
As to your original question, they spare should be coated in yellow - So no, they won't look the same as the main wheels.

I think the point is that tread depth is always within a limited, small range instead of swapping on your spare, unused, paired with three 35,000 worn tires

 

[Grug556]

And the full size wheel/tire on the LE is bright freaking yellow! My wife's been rocking the spare for a month or so. I haven't had time to fix it and she doesn't seem to care, but man it looks stupid.

Yeah I got the banana yellow one to. Who came up with this colour scheme? :doh:

Even a flat black cheapo would be better

 

[03_4x4Runner]

My 4th gen and the Avalon had matching spares and the Avalon came with 5 tpms sensors. The 4runner did not have tpms. I always did the 5 tire rotation. I could not see having a perfectly good tire setting there rotting away that will eventually get to old to be dependable. You should get 20% longer life by using 5 tires. When the 5 are worn out just replace 4 and use a worn tire for the spare. At that point most people will sell the 4runner anyways. The 5 tire rotation was even in the owners manual. I see that the newer Limited do have 5 matching wheels now, I wish my 14 did but I usually run my 4 ko2 tires anyways.

 

[perf0rmance]

i have a steel spare on my 2017 trd pro

What size, brand & model is yours? Mine doesn't match my AT tires.




back to the OP... here's an interesting image I found regarding 5-tire rotations (see attachment)

 

[vondy21]

Yeah the manual has a rotational diagram including the spare but it's only for 20" wheels. I'm assuming the Limited has a matching spare rim???

I have not plans to use the spare since I've already had the new tires for over a month and don't want to buy a spare rim.