How to Change a Tire on a Travel Trailer – Your Step-by-Step Guide in 2024

Last Updated on January 27, 2024 by Jeremy

Heading out on a camping excursion with the family in the great outdoors seems like a great way to spend the weekend. Doing so in a luxury RV or hauling your fifth wheel or travel trailer for this adventure seems like the right opportunity to take in that exploration.

But what happens when proper maintenance has been neglected on your camping units and your safe and enjoyable trip now turns into chaos and anger? Specifically, when is the last time you paid attention to your tires and are you prepared in case one of them needs replacement?

In today’s article, I am going to provide you with a step-by-step guide on how to change a tire on a travel trailer, plus give you alternatives for different scenarios, so you can ensure that excursion can most definitely be enjoyed.

For the majority of these specific steps, we are going to set the scene, and assume the scenario that you did a walk around at a gas station when filling up your vehicle, but you hesitated in checking your tires on the trailer itself. A little way down the road, you notice your trailer starting to emit smoke from around the axle area, and the result is what you see in the picture above… Now you have to change a tire!

Step 1: Find a Safe Location

The first step in changing a tire on a travel trailer is to find a safe location to pull over, so you can perform the task of changing your tire. Ideally, this location should be a flat and level surface, and out of the way from traffic.

Roadside Turn outs or intersections make great suggestions, but it may not always be possible, so make sure to engage the parking brake and place a wheel chock behind each of the wheels to prevent the trailer from moving.

Consider adding road hazard awareness tools such as pylons or reflective triangles farther back from your trailer unit so that vehicles can slow down upon approach to your unit. This can be critical if your safe location wasn’t an option, and you need to be directly on the side of the road.

Once you have completed your initial assessment of complete safety in preparation for you to change a tire, you can now advance to step 2.

Step 2: Gather the Necessary Tools

Now that you have ensured safety and found solid level ground, you’ll want to gather all the tools you need to change the tire. To be specific, these tools will include a lug wrench, a jack, and a spare tire.

The lug wrench suggestion for me is a cordless impact device with the socket that fits the tires wheel lugs (or nuts). I always convince myself to have this device added to my camping list checklist as it’s saved my bacon on multiple occasions.

Your spare tire is usually mounted at the back of the trailer but can also be mounted sometimes underneath. For your jack, it’s best to use the scissor jack that is supplied with your Chevy, Ford, or Dodge truck, but should you have a spare, that’s also good to use.

It’s also a good idea to keep these tools in your trailer at all times, such as the pass-thru storage area, so that you are always prepared in case of a flat tire.

Step 3: Loosen the Lug Nuts

Since all the necessary items have now been gathered up and placed near your work zone, you’ll want to proceed to this step where you will use the lug wrench or impact to loosen the lug nuts on the tire, being careful to NOT remove them completely.

The reason for this is that loosening them before you jack up the trailer makes it easier to turn them and remove them afterwards. It’s a time-consuming step that avoids a few choice swear words that you may have compiled within your swollen gum cheeks.

Step 4: Jack Up the Trailer

Once you have the wheel lugs loosened, position the jack under the trailer’s frame, near the flat tire, and start raising the trailer until the tire is off the ground. The alternative and more stable location is the axle itself, closer to the flat tire.

For added measure, lower your stabilizer jacks on the flat tire side of the trailer to aid in raising the tires off the ground, but do not make these the primary source of lifting the trailer, because this will damage those jacks.

You’ll want to make sure the trailer is stable and not wobbling before crawling underneath any further than you need to. The sturdiness and stability of the scissor jack should be able to lift the majority of the weight regardless.

Step 5: Remove the Flat Tire

At this stage, you’ll want to now remove the remaining lug nuts completely and pull the flat tire off the wheel hub. Sometimes, you’ll have to convince the tire to come off with a gentle kick to the rim.

To do so, sit on the ground with both feet out in front of you facing the tire. Bend your knees slightly of both legs, inch yourself towards the tire and give a kicking motion towards the tire, equally and opposite spots apart.

Alternatively, if you have a hammer, you can give it a tap as well, but the rim and tire should come off with ease without the extra measures.

Once the tire is off, the suggestion is to place it under the trailer, just in case the trailer falls off the jack. But if you’re 100% certain the stability of the trailer is secured, proceed to put it in a location suitable for transit and replacement later.

Step 6: Install the Spare Tire

Now pause, take a drink of water, and smile because you’re already half done!

What you’ll want to do next is take the spare tire that was lying next to you in preparation and align it with the wheel studs on the wheel hub. Sometimes this step can be tricky so utilize your legs and put the tire between them while you’re sitting on the ground.

When the tire is upright, raising or lowering your legs gives the tire an equal distance raise to adjust going onto the studs. If you didn’t raise the trailer up too far and do it just right, 1 to 3 inches of a gap is all you need between ground and tire so this step should actually be quite simple.

Once on, tighten the lug nuts by hand only to ensure the tire is centered properly. Now it’s time to move onto the next step.

Step 7: Lower the Trailer

You’re almost home free at this point, so you’ll slowly want to lower the trailer back onto the ground and remove the jack. Now you can use the lug wrench or impact to tighten the lug nuts as much as possible. You’ll also want to make sure to get the lug nuts torqued properly afterwards by a tire professional.

BUT, before you go all random and in a complete circle, you’ll actually need to tighten the nuts in a specific order. Start by tightening them diagonally, so the pressure is evenly distributed and do it in a star-shaped pattern.

Let me show you what I mean. There are 4 types of wheel patterns on any given trailer, and they are 4, 5, 6 or 8 bolt patterns with the most popular being a 6-bolt pattern.

Each of these lug nuts needs to be tightened and torqued with the same pattern, and to go one step further, common practice is to loosen them the same way. The picture below will clarify the order in which ALL wheel nuts should be tightened in.

Step 8: Check the Tire Pressure

It’s official! You can now change a tire, but now it’s time to check the spare tire’s pressure to make sure it’s inflated to the proper PSI. This information can be found on the sidewall of the tire or in your trailers user manual.

It’s also a good idea to get the flat tire repaired or replaced as soon as possible!

Step 9: Tool Clean-Up / Back on the Road

Pat yourself on the back, you’ve officially become a master and can now proceed to tell others on how to change a tire on a travel trailer.

Finish cleaning up the remaining tools you have used and put everything away where it originally was stored. Gather your safety marking devices placed on the side of the road and continue on your merry way to your destination.

Other Scenarios

Now, I can think of at least 2 other scenarios in which you could be in the same predicament, but the results would have different outcomes, which in turn, would modify the steps slightly different.

Scenario 1: Plug Your Tire – Say for instance you don’t want to change a tire, because you don’t have a “flat” tire, but instead you have a small leak that you noticed at that same gas station. You wouldn’t have to go through the step-by-step instructions above, however you’d still need to repair your tire before it goes completely flat and gets obliterated, looking like the image at the beginning of this article.

To do this, you’ll want to consider purchasing a tire plug kit such as the BlackJack Tire Repair Kit one below. They are extremely useful in situations and designed to fix your tire on any vehicle or trailer tire, before it gets to be flat and by using what is called a plug.

In owning one of these, I highly recommend it and would like for you to learn more about it in my Blackjack Tire Repair Kit review article!

Instead of going through the process above, here is where the directions would change:

1. Listen for the sound of a ‘hiss’ emitting from the tire and try to get an accurate pinpoint location as to where your leak is on the tire.
2. With the aid of a spray bottle filled with soap and water, squirt water around the tire until you see bubbles form from the location of the leak.
3. Once the leak is found, remove the foreign object (if any) and proceed to use the tools in order from the directions of the kit.
4. Reaming out the hole, you’ll want to have prepared a plug with the other tool and lubed up with the plug grease.
5. Remove the reaming tool and insert the plug into the hole until approximately 1″ is remaining visible on top of the tire, using steady downward pressure. Then, remove the plug holder tool out by pulling straight out with even pressure, allowing the plug to stay in place.
6. Light the remaining end of the plug on fire, making sure the plug burns into the tire down to flush. Make sure your tire repair area is always upright, so when the plug burns, it pools on top and doesn’t drip and waste.
7. Check for leaks, fill to the desired PSI and away you go.

Scenario 2: Call your insurance company – Perhaps you’re one of those people that just don’t feel like applying the above methods to good use and take advantage of the process in doing it yourself. If that’s the case, utilize your travel insurance company such as Good Sam Roadside Assistance, and have them change a tire for you. You’re paying into it anyways, so why not give them a call, right?

Celebrating 30 years of successful roadside rescues. Good Sam Roadside Assistance. Learn More!

Best Tire Brands for Travel Trailers

Finally, when it comes to choosing the best tire brands for your camping unit, there are many factors to consider, and they are:

• Durability
• Weight capacity
• Weather conditions

Of many of the most popular tire brands available for travel trailers, they include Goodyear, Michelin, Primo Hauler, and BF Goodrich, four extremely well-known tire makers.

To purchase these tires, my recommendation is an online store called Tiremart.com. They offer a wide range of tires for all different types of cars, trucks and SUVs, including fifth wheels & travel trailers. Their website is easy to navigate, and they offer competitive prices on top brands like the above-mentioned name brands.

Going all-in, Tire Mart always has sweet promotions happening on all trailer tires so now is the time to stock up on those replacement ones, and lock in some sweet pricing.

Need help to find your trailer tire size? Again, on your sidewall, from the picture under “Step 8“, you’ll notice a series of letters and numbers in bigger block letters above the inflation suggestions.

This is your tire size. Example: ST 225 / 75 R 15. To get a complete understanding of this, here is the breakdown of each of these digits.

Conclusion

To finalize this article, when you want to change a tire on a travel trailer, or any vehicle for that matter, it is an essential skill everybody should learn, and especially one that every RV owner should know.

By following my outlined and detailed steps, you can officially, safely and quickly change or repair a flat or leaking tire and get back on the road in no time!

Also, if you need to purchase new tires, Tiremart is only one of many great options to start your search for the amazing tire brands available for travel trailers, and even at a discounted price!

Should you require any more information pertaining to this article or have any more questions on how to change a tire, don’t hesitate to reach out through the comments section and I’ll be glad to steer you in the right direction.

Cheers!