Buses with standard truck tires can get away with waiting on road service. You'll get toasted buying a tire, but you'll get going quickly.
Those with 22" bus tires may not find a tire in some places. If you find a tire, you better have some Vaseline...you're gonna need it. You could pull a tag, if you have tags, but that seriously limits your 'legal' road speed. May compromise handling on a heavy bus. Either way you still need a tire.
If you need a tire, the tire guy won't come out until a tire is obtained...unless you have specific instructions such as using a tag axle wheel for a spare.
I've read that spare tires served as crush-zones when located behind the front bumper. It's part of the structural system when the bumper is crushed.
I carry a steel wheel with a good, correctly sized spare. And got jacks for most conditions.
Have a torque head and pipe to get the wheel off. Alcoas are easy (relatively) to handle. The steel spare is a PITA to work with.
If you have steel wheels, or steel inner duals, carry a steel spare wheel. Aluminum may not fit the stud length. Two alloy duals are a lot thicker than one steel and one alloy.
Also carry a peice of flat steel plate if you plan to jack a bus up on anything other than hard concrete.
Most bus front frames are really close to the ground when a steer tire blows. If you cannot air it back up, you better have a low jack on board.
Be safe and only jack on the proper jack points. Most buses have specific jacking points.
Often, two jacks can be used...air up the bus all the way, place the frame jack in the proper location, and take up the slack...don't jack, just take firm the jack up agains the frame.
Then bleed the air off the system and your bus is almost jacked up. Place a small jack under the affected axle and jack 2" and the tire will come off.
Be sure and loosen the lugs prior to jacking when working on a tag or steer axle wheel. Drive axle will be locked up when air is bled off.
BTW, for those that haven't had the pleasure of pulling a truck tire: don't jack the tire more than enough to slide a piece of paper under the tire. You just want to work it off. If you get more than a fraction of an inch between the tire and ground, it'll make the wheel difficult to remove, and the wheel and tire assembly will fall off the hub. It'll get you~
JR
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