Seven inexpensive tools every RVer should have, plus a maintenance process I perform once a year, all of which can make a really bad situation more bearable as an RVer. Having a tire blowout is one of the scariest things that can happen, and getting safely to the side of the road is stressful enough. But you still have to change the tire. Unfortunately, you’re on a stretch of highway with no exits in sight, and driving further could risk more damage or possibly an accident. So, unfortunately, you’re changing the tire on the side of the road.
Many tools are available to do this, like bottle jacks, bottle jack axle adapters, tire ramps, torque wrenches, and air compressors. But those are not the tools I want to talk about today. Instead, I want to talk about some tools and supplies that I think aren’t mentioned enough.
Okay, you’ve managed to safely pull off to the side of the road before exiting the vehicle. I’m reaching for my high-visibility vest—I always keep one of these in my center console. It’s doing you no good if you have to exit the vehicle to get it. These are inexpensive, and they increase your visibility on the side of the road, especially at night. Guys, please get one of these.
Next, I also keep my mechanic’s gloves in my truck. While these are nice, these aren’t really what I wanted to show you, especially if you’re handling a tire that blew apart. These will be much better: leather gloves, heavy-duty gardener gloves, or even food-grade or butcher gloves will resist punctures much better than mechanic’s gloves. Now, these won’t give you the dexterity you’re going to get with mechanic’s gloves, but if you’re handling a shredded tire with exposed belts or possibly a cracked or hot rim, these will protect your hands much better.
So we can exit the vehicle now and start assessing how much damage we have. This next tool comes from our friends in the trucking industry. We’ve all seen these before, so we know they work. I keep these reflective triangle markers in the toolbox in the back of my truck. They’re not expensive. This box contains three markers: the first goes about 10 ft back on the driver’s side, the second goes 100 ft back in the middle, and the last triangle goes 200 ft back on the passenger side. Placement changes if you’re on a road with two-way traffic. I’ll link to a video below that goes into more detail, but like your high visibility vest, these will increase your visibility. Plus, being 200 feet back, they’ll allow traffic to reach the left lane.
Now, this next one may seem like common sense to many people, and while we all love our electric tools these days, myself included, they’re not going to help you if your batteries are dead. So get a good old-fashioned breaker bar and a pipe to increase the leverage on your breaker bar. It is never a bad tool to have, either.
Okay, so the next thing to consider is that when this happens, it may be nighttime, and while flashlights are great, they aren’t the best tool for this type of situation. So, instead of a flashlight, pick up one of these headlamps. They’ll give you the ability to work hands-free.
Another nice tool is wireless, portable, and rechargeable work lights. There are about 47,000 companies that make these, so they’re not expensive. Most of these recharge with a USB or USB-C cable. Mine have these handles that can be used as a stand or a hook, magnets on the back, and they are extremely bright. I feel like I got these at Home Depot;
It’s been redesigned with an advanced six-step filtration system. It’s made in the USA, and simply put, it provides pure and clean water. This is a perfect filter for part-time RVers, and if you’re a full-timer with a filtration system, putting these before your current filters will help prolong the other filters’ life. Even if you RV with bottled drinking water, the filter helps protect against algae, bacteria, and heavy metals in the water you’re using to wash your dishes and shower with. Everyone, this is an RV essential. I’ve been using these for eight years, and I’ll never connect my RV to campground water without one of these.
Unfortunately, none of this matters if you can’t get the spare tire unmounted and onto the RV or the truck if you lose a tire. So, at this point, I want to show you guys the quick and easy maintenance I talked about at the beginning of the video to ensure I can get these tires down should we need them. Spare tires on RVs are usually mounted on the trailer’s rear bumper. Now, there are some exceptions and different locations, but for the most part, these are relatively accessible. So, we’re not using our spare tire, and the lug nuts for the spare tire can get pretty rusty. You can get a product. Spray it on there, let it sit for a couple of minutes, hit it with a wire brush, spray it off with a little bit of water, and it’ll clean the rust right off. Then, finish up with a little Bow Shield T9. I’ll put a link below in the video description, but keep those spare tire lugs free of rust so you can get it off if you need to. It’s probably also not a bad idea that once you get everything cleaned off, crack these lug nuts loose, make sure they’re not seized, and if you want, you can apply more rust-free or more rust preventative at that time.
Jumping over to the spare tire on the truck, I will grab my lug wrench and extension bars and lower the tire. Spare tire storage on a car is different. Instead of being mounted to a bumper bar with lug nuts, they are usually fastened under the bed with a cable hoist. The spare tire hoist assemblies are relatively inexpensive; depending on your truck, you can get them for about $40 to $100. You may need some extra bracketry, but I’m not doing this maintenance to save myself $100. I do it so, should we need this tire, I know the drop assembly is going to work, and it’s going to work quickly, so I can get off the side of the road as soon as I can. Much water gets under here when driving in the rain. This water doesn’t have anywhere to evaporate quickly. Over time, all that moisture and road salt can start to eat at these assemblies, which can cause them to corrode and lock up.
After lowering and removing my tire, I spend a few seconds inspecting the winch and all the bracketry that connects it to the truck. I’ll pop off the cotter pin connecting the extension bar to the spindle and ensure it’s in good condition and not corroding. If this is showing any signs of wear, replace it. If this cotter pin fails, it’s difficult to remove because your tire covers access to this assembly. Next, I’ll remove the extension and hit the spindle with Bow Shield T9. It’s an awesome water displacement lubricant and rust preventative. It dries so it won’t attract dirt later. I’ll reattach the extension and cotter pin and give it a few spins to move the lubricant around and behind the spindle. I’ll inspect the cable for any damage or corrosion. Most of this cable is inside the assembly housing for 99.9% of its life so that you won’t find anything. But if you’ve never used a spare tire, you might be surprised.
I’m also inspecting all the hardware at the end of the cable that holds the tire in place, and all I’m looking for here, everyone, is enough damage that might prevent or advance enough to stop the tire hoist assembly from working properly within the next year before I do this again next. Starting at the assembly where the cable exits the housing, I’ll apply more T9. This is safe on plastic and rubber, so feel free to use this liberally. I’ll also coat the entire cable itself. Since the spare tire is out, this is a perfect time to do a visual inspection, which is another reason I perform this maintenance. It forces you to put eyes on your spare tire, which isn’t a bad thing to do once a year anyway. Check the treads, check the tire manufacturer date, and, of course, a great time to check the tire pressure. My front tires call for 60 PSI, and the rears are 80 PSI, so I will keep the spare at 80 PSI since it’s quicker to release pressure than it is to increase it.
Before putting the tire back up, I’ll position it so the valve stem is at the back of the truck for easy access when checking tire pressures. And last, I’m just remounting my spare tire.
I always do it at the end of winter for obvious reasons. I didn’t need to do this round, but if you notice a lot of dirt or road debris during this process, it might be worth cleaning off and applying a metal primer or undercoating on areas that look a little beat up or aged. Knock on wood; you never have a tire blowout, but if you do, these tools and procedures will make tire changing easier.