[Jrbrannan1]

I am planning on taking my Outback on some longer roadtrips and off track adventures. Because of that I am considering replacing the "donut" with another factory wheel and tire. I would also probably do a 5 tire rotation.

Has anyone done this? Any concerns with TPMS?
Where did you find your 5th matching? I've been checking on the for sale forum here but everything is way too far away. Everyone close to me on FB wants $1300 for a set of 4!?...

Anything else I should be thinking about or considering?

 

[SilverOnyx]

Can you buy the set of 4 and then turn around and sell the other 3? You're not the only one with this issue but for some reason nobody seems interested in cooperating with other forum members to get this taken care of.

 

[DanielAcosta]

I had an extra tire from my last Outback, picked up a steel wheel from Discount Tire and now have the perfect full size spare. It has 8/32 tread, so close enough whether it's to fill in for a new or worn tire. Full size fits in the spare well just fine. Base and Premium will not accommodate a 5th tpms, but supposedly Limited and Touring will. I do not do a 5-tire rotation.

 

[ALSG]

It sounds like you want to keep the OEM Yokohama tires & wheels and buy just one more? While there are lots of people selling their Yokos & wheels (because they have upgraded), nobody wants to sell just one and split the set.

Here's what I did: I bought one lightly used OEM wheel from ebay. Then I purchased 5 new Falken Wildpeak A/T Trails so I'd have a full size spare, all mounted on matching OEM rims. I sold the 4 OEM Yoko tires (which had about 2k miles on them) on Craigslist and while I didn't get what I wanted for them, I got a bit more than the price of the wheel I had purchased on ebay.

At the time I did this, I did not bother to have my tire dealer install a TPMS for the full-sized spare. This was last September and it was believed back then that only the Onyx was capable of storing 5 TPMS. Then last month or so I was reading the forum thread about installing TPMS on the spare and found out my Touring XT definitely would have registered a 5th TPMS no problem (I think all but the base model will register that 5th TPMS). When I found that out, I got all excited and got a quote from my tire dealer to install and register a 5th TPMS in the spare (about $100) so I could put all 5 tires into rotation.

Unfortunately, by the time I realized I could do that, I already had put about 8000 miles on the Falkens and I have decided it is too late to put a 5th tire into regular rotation. So the spare is now a dedicated full-sized spare and doesn't have a TPMS installed (yet) and isn't going into rotation. At some point I will get the 5th TPMS installed on the spare. Then, when the other 4 Falkens need replacement, I will definitely put all 5 tires into rotation.

I think everyone who has the Falkens thinks they are better than the OEM Yokos and if you do this you will definitely spend a lot less than spending $1300 on a set of 4 OEM Yokos on OEM wheels and then trying to unload just three of them.

 

[Arrowsmith]

I have a set of winter tires the same size as the original tires ,so I use one of them for the spare on my Canadian 2020 limited. It was tight fit in the spare hole and I had to get rid of the foam lid section to accommodate the winter tire. We don't have to have the TPMS in Canada so that's not an issue. The weight of the tire and rim brought the headlights up a bit so I adjusted those so I wasn't blinding people.

 

[teuton]

I bought Wildpeaks on method rims, sold 2 OEM wheels to forum members, 1 more to a Facebook marketplace buyer, and put the last one in my spare tire compartment as non matching full size spare. Don't care about TPMS, I'll just manually check the tire pressure once a year. Subaru does not recommend 5 tire rotation anyway.

 

[KEP]

I have a full size spare and do the 5 tire rotations with the TPMS in all 5 tires. It so far works flawlessly. I bought a factory wheel on E Bay and an OEM tire at the dealer (cheapest option in my area). Had Discount tire put the tire on and the TPMS in. I put the lowest tread depth tire as the spare and will continue this practice each rotation. The TPMS recognition is automatic when the tires are rotated. I do the free rotation every 2500 to 3000 miles. I like the idea that if I damage a tire and it can't be repaired I can continue using the remaining 4 good matching tires.

On my Jeep Grand Cherokee I got bit with having to replace all 4 tires because of a sidewall puncture. It cost me over $900 even with one tire being free + road hazard for the BFG AT tires. That really chappped me as I only had about 20,000 miles on the set at the time.

 

[Jrbrannan1]

I have a full size spare and do the 5 tire rotations with the TPMS in all 5 tires. It so far works flawlessly. I bought a factory wheel on E Bay and an OEM tire at the dealer (cheapest option in my area). Had Discount tire put the tire on and the TPMS in. I put the lowest tread depth tire as the spare and will continue this practice each rotation. The TPMS recognition is automatic when the tires are rotated. I like the idea that if I damage a tire and it can't be repaired I can continue using the remaining 4 good matching tires.

On my Jeep Grand Cherokee I got bit with having to replace all 4 tires because of a sidewall puncture. It cost me over $900 even with one tire being free + road hazard for the BFG AT tires. That really chappped me as I only had about 20,000 miles on the set at the time.

Great to know it is automatic- that is what I was hoping. I have another few months to find a set of tires for a good deal, or order a rim and install a new tire. I just turned over 700 miles .

Sorry for the stupid question but is the TPMS sensor just a generic one that Discount Tire had or did you have to get it from Subaru?

 

[KEP]

Great to know it is automatic- that is what I was hoping. I have another few months to find a set of tires for a good deal, or order a rim and install a new tire. I just turned over 700 miles .

Sorry for the stupid question but is the TPMS sensor just a generic one that Discount Tire had or did you have to get it from Subaru?

Generic TPMS from Discount tire for around $65 I think. I wouldn't wait too long I think I did mine at less than 500 miles and the drivers front tire had the most wear so that became my spare and the new tire went to the drivers front position before there was too much wear to do a 5 tire rotation.

The discount tire manager said if there was too much difference in wear he would not be able to do it due to liability reasons of an AWD car and mismatched tire wear. I actually left the car parked while I waited for delivery of the rim just to be sure I could do the 5 tire rotation. I also bought road hazard for all five tires and they included free rotation and balance.

They were a bit miffed that I bought the tire from the dealer. I told him that his salesman told me he couldn't get the exact same tire so they let it slide. Turned out the manager said he could have gotten the tire special order but that his salesman didn't know that at the time.

 

[Jrbrannan1]

Generic TPMS from Discount tire for around $65 I think. I wouldn't wait too long I think I did mine at less than 500 miles and the drivers front tire had the most wear so that became my spare and the new tire went to the drivers front position before there was too much wear to do a 5 tire rotation.

This is concerning if one tire is showing more wear after only 500 miles! I have never noticed a difference after 5k miles. But good pick up.

 

[KEP]

They used a tread depth gauge to select the lowest tread depth. I think it was shy of 1/32. from brand new. I think he said more than 2/32 from new they would not do the 5 tire rotation. My first rotation they were all even so I again selected the drivers front to be the spare and mounted the spare there. It could just be my Discount tire though. I just wanted to be sure I did not screw it up.

A quick search and it shows this...
Looks like 2/32 or 1/4 inch max

Subaru Dealer said this too

 

[Blorky]

I went Arrowsmiths route - Summers and winters are the same size and whichever set is off season donates the spare. I bought the Onyx foam insert, but liked how much usable space there was in the well that I don't use it. The cargo cover (which I never use) crossbar provides enough support for the floor for anything I've do so far.

 

[SilverOnyx]

I took my cargo cover thing and the styrofoam completely out of the trunk and just store it in the house and for my needs the cargo cover is plenty stiff enough without that cross support - but from what you're saying I'm thinking it might be a good idea just to take a 2x2 or 2x3 piece of wood cut to fit. Maybe something to do this weekend. I measure 50" long, with the ends 1.5 x 2 inches

 

[Jrbrannan1]

I went Arrowsmiths route - Summers and winters are the same size and whichever set is off season donates the spare. I bought the Onyx foam insert, but liked how much usable space there was in the well that I don't use it. The cargo cover (which I never use) crossbar provides enough support for the floor for anything I've do so far.

I don't think we get enough snow to justify snow tires, but that is a great idea.

 

[Brantly79]

Just swapped out the donut in my Touring for a 235/65/17 wildpeak trail aired up all the way. Fits great, just did some trimming of the styrofoam for the jack and accessories and stuffed them in the wheel of the upside down spare.

 

[DanielAcosta]

@SilverOnyx if you put enough stuff under the floor you don't need to worry about adding a piece of plywood. Mine is filled to the gills for sure.