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Did your motorhome come with a spare tire? Ours didn’t. Before we discovered the Roadmaster spare tire carrier, we discussed getting a roof rack for the Jeep to carry a spare and a few other options. Then we met Don Simpson at the Florida RV SuperShow. After we saw Don’s demonstration of the spare tire carrier for motorhomes, we knew it was the solution we had been looking for. This hitch mounted carrier works on almost every type of RV with tire sizes ranging from 16” to 24.5”. If you’re in the market for a spare tire carrier for your motorhome, read our Roadmaster spare tire carrier review to see if it’s the right fit for you.
Roadmaster Spare Tire Carrier Review
Table of Contents
What We Received:
Roadmaster Spare Tire Carrier
MSRP: $595
Note: Rim and tire must be purchased separately
What We Like:
Peace of mind. If we blow a tire, we have a spare that can be put on quickly by roadside assistance. We’ve heard stories of people who damaged their rim as they were trying to get to the side of the road on a blown tire. With as much trouble as we had finding the spare rim, I don’t want to imagine how hard it would be to find one in the middle of nowhere. Having the spare gives us peace of mind when we’re driving down the road.
Simple install. The spare tire carrier comes in a few pieces that have to be bolted together and mounted to the receiver hitch of the motorhome. I found this to be an easy process as the instructions were easy to follow. With the carrier weighing in at 75 lbs, I mounted the base in the receiver. Then I assembled the rest of the components.
Easy to use. To mount the tire to the carrier, the back plate pivots downward on either side. All I had to do was roll the wheel over and bolt it to the back plate. There is no need to lift the wheel. This was great, especially when it can weigh in excess of 100 lbs. To pivot the wheel back up, Roadmaster provides a long lever that makes it easy to lift the wheel. Once it’s in place, the auto-latching mechanism catches. This latch prevents the wheel from swinging to the other side and locks it in place. An additional bolt is installed in the back once the wheel is in place. Roadmaster provided a bolt with wings mounted on it so we could install/remove the bolt with our hands.
Out of the way. We have been driving around with the spare tire carrier and it stays out of the way. One modification we had to make was to zip tie the license plate to the wheel. Once installed, the carrier covers the license plate holder. For those who own a diesel pusher, it’s simple to lower/raise the wheel when you need access the engine.
Well made. The Roadmaster spare tire carrier is made of steel with a powder coated finish. The unit it very sturdy and well made. There is no concern of the spare tire falling off or coming loose while driving down the highway or down bumpy roads.
We can still tow our Jeep. The carrier has a standard 2” receiver and a capacity of 10,000 lbs. The receiver on the carrier sits 2” lower than the receiver on the motorhome so we had to compensate by lowering the tow bar bracket on our Jeep. Since the tow bar is mounted to the end of the carrier, it now sits about 12” further away from the motorhome. We haven’t noticed any issues with towing the Jeep due to the extension.
What We Don’t Like:
It’s expensive. The Roadmaster Spare Tire Carrier is around $595, which isn’t a bad price considering what you are getting, but you also need to factor in the cost of the spare rim and tire. Buying used can save quite a bit of money, but it can be difficult to find a quality used rim and/or tire. For the tire and rim, we were looking at spending around $300 for a used rim (or new knock off) and around $150 for a used tire in good condition. When it’s all said and done, the cost can get up to $1,000.
Sourcing our spare. The tire was easy to find, but the rim was nearly impossible. We thought finding a used rim would be as easy as calling the RV dealership or their tire supplier. We tried numerous places and no one sold the rim we were looking for. The only option left was to buy a new or used rim online, about $300. The difficulty of finding a used rim will vary depending on the rim size. We found that the rim we needed is only used on the Ford RV’s, which is why they are difficult to find. Motorhomes that share a rim size with big rigs or vans will most likely have an easier time sourcing a rim. Luckily, we found a rim at an RV dealership with some cosmetic damage. Since they couldn’t sell it, we were happy to take it off their hands.
Other Things to Note:
Affects RV tongue weight. The Spare Tire Carrier and wheel weigh in around 200 lbs. We have a 500 lbs max tongue weight. If we want to tow a trailer, this would prevent us from towing anything with a tongue weight greater than 300 lbs. If you have a motorhome with a greater max tongue weight, you will be limited by the 400 lb max tongue weight of the carrier.
Since we use the Roadmaster spare tire carrier and tow our Jeep, we’re unable to add a hitch mounted bike carrier or motorcycle carrier to the hitch. We would rather carry a spare than anything else with the hitch.
Overall:
We would recommend the Roadmaster Spare Tire Carrier to anyone in the market for a hitch receiver spare tire carrier. It is well made and offers peace of mind and insurance against a tire blow out. You might wonder why we wanted a spare tire for our motorhome. Watch the video below to find out more.
If you found this review helpful and decide to purchase the spare tire carrier, please consider ordering through our Amazon Affiliate link. There is no additional fee for the buyer and in return we receive a small percentage of the sale. Thanks for your support! We really appreciate it.
Disclosure: Roadmaster provided the spare tire carrier free of charge in exchange for an honest review. This review represents our own opinions of the product.
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Hi Joe and Kait,
Hope you are doing well, we have been following you.
since about 2018. We appreciate the time you put into videos, and look forward each week to see where you are.
We have a 2019 Pleasure-Way Lexor. I need to mount my full size spare, but can not seem to find a good carrier I like.
Do you remember what the carrier you had on the Hymer?
Thanks. Gregg
Hi Greg – there wasn’t a make or model on the carrier so I don’t know if it was made by a third party or something done in-house.
Our favorite tire carrier has been this one: https://weretherussos.com/roadmaster-spare-tire-carrier-review/
I’ve had two tire blow outs over the years with the most recent being 6 weeks ago. Yes, I check air pressure and the tires are within the age limits. I will say the insurance provided RV roadside coverage is frustrating. I typically keep the spare in our trailer but this one time we decide to leave the toys behind… never again…
Another point people don’t consider is these glued together coaches do not have wheel wells. In my case the tire took out the generator, chassis exhaust, Black tank, and more. I’m having a steel liner made and welded/bolted in to help protect these components. Anything near the tires will be destroyed and it will costs thousands to repair…
Things to know
1. Fully understand your insurance provided road side coverage.
2. Buy a roadside plan if the insurance coverage does not meet your needs
3. Take a spare tire with you or an unmounted tire. Especially if you are relying on insurance road side coverage…
4. Protect the items crammed in and around wheel wells… fiber glass storage compartments will NOT hold up to a tire coming apart.
I’m not sure I get the logic. For my diesel pusher I’d have $1200+ invested to carry my own spare, $500 of which is sitting there dry-rotting (@ $100 a year). I can’t change the flat tire myself anyway, so I’ll be waiting for roadside service anyway. It’s a neat gizmo, and I enjoyed your review, just not sure it’s right for me.
Shannon – We questioned the logic as well and here are some points that we considered. RV tires are not common, especially the tire size we have – we tried sourcing them and had some trouble finding them in big cities and zero luck when we tried places that were out of the way. Since we travel to many out of the way locations, we quickly realized that if we blew a tire, we could be stuck until the roadside assistance company was able to source one, have it shipped out and then came out to install it (these companies will charge 2-4x what the tire is worth to do this). This is a common theme with many people who have had blow outs. The other issue is the rim – if we were to blow a tire and damage the rim while trying to pull over, we’d be stuck. A new rim for us is either $400 (knock off) or $2000 from Ford. These are very hard to find and would have to be ordered online and, again, shipped out. For us, having a full spare is a way to help prevent us being stuck on the side of the road until a spare or rim can be found.
It’s insurance. I just purchased the roadmaster spare tire carrier. We own a DP and I am glad I found a solution to carry a spare tire. I found a tire and rim for 518 bucks. That is perfect insurance for me. Chances are, even if you have roadside assistance, you will still end up paying more to have a tire and rim replaced. We did not have enough space in our storage compartments to carry a spare tire. It is very easy to change large tires these days. With a multiplier wrench, anyone can remove and re-install the 450ft-lb lug nuts. Plus, diesel pushers have hydrolic jacks that have enough capacity to lift your RV and front of rear tires off the ground.
You are right you can’t change it yourself. But neither can they if they don’t have the tire you need and can’t get it till Monday. (and it’s Friday evening)
Carrying a spare is important…many people don’t give it a thought or under estimate its importance. Maybe your review will strike a chord with some of the rv manufacturers to start supplying mounted spares. We were lucky- our ’08 Winne came with one (in its own compartment- out of the weather). BTW, Newmar could have supplied you with one too- but I didn’t inquire about cost. I’d get one of those covers for it too and periodically treat all the tires with 303 Protectant…it’s great stuff. Nice review, I hope you never need the spare!