They didnt have a spare, but they had a high lift and lots of straps. They could have rigged that up and got down the mountin alot faster than they did. They just would jack it up and push the axle shaft back in then go till it almost came out, and repeat. Then once they got to the bottom of the mountian into the woods, they cut a log to use to get them back to civilization. I thought they were going to strap the log to the tire and the Jeep to hold it in, but they took the axle out and straped the log underneath the Jeep to make a ski.