Using a spare tyre to inflate others…or not

Reader question:

I have just watched your video about the tire with wood in the bead. 👍. What is your opinion of using the spare as an air reservoir? Inflating to the max pressure for the tire to facilitate quick to up of the other tires when necessary.

Pointless. A high quality air compressor will do the job just as fast, if not faster, and won’t run out. Also, you may only be able to inflate your spare to say 80psi which isn’t much if you have four other tyres at 20psi and you want them at 35. You will also need a special hose to connect the two, which is at least easy to make up – as per title picture.

However, there is a use for this spare-inflate technique and that is if you need to reseat a bead but have no air compressor, or a poor quality one. You can then inflate one tyre to its maximum pressure, remove the valve core on the tyre to be reseated, attach one end of your tyre-to-tyre hose, remove the valve core on the other tyre and hold your finger over the valve, quickly attach the other end the hose and the rush of air should reseat the tyre. I’ve tried that and it works, but in the field never had to do it as I just use a compressor – ARB CMKA-12 – as per video.