Spare wheel and jack

Just bear in mind there was a post not long ago about a guy who had a flat whilst in a service station on a stretch of privately run motorway in France.... he called breakdown instead of changing it himself thinking his insurance would cover the cost..... they refused as they wont cover private motorways....so check your smallprint.... personally i would be embarrassed to call out breakdown for a flat tyre unless legally bound to.... in a service area even more so...if physically incapable i would rather pay a fit local 50eu to help...
 
Garry - June said:
Just bear in mind there was a post not long ago about a guy who had a flat whilst in a service station on a stretch of privately run motorway in France.... he called breakdown instead of changing it himself thinking his insurance would cover the cost..... they refused as they wont cover private motorways....so check your smallprint.... personally i would be embarrassed to call out breakdown for a flat tyre unless legally bound to.... in a service area even more so...if physically incapable i would rather pay a fit local 50eu to help...
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You pay them and reclaim from your breakdown insurance so it's not a problem.
 
Garry - June said:
Just bear in mind there was a post not long ago about a guy who had a flat whilst in a service station on a stretch of privately run motorway in France.... he called breakdown instead of changing it himself thinking his insurance would cover the cost..... they refused as they wont cover private motorways....so check your smallprint.... personally i would be embarrassed to call out breakdown for a flat tyre unless legally bound to.... in a service area even more so...if physically incapable i would rather pay a fit local 50eu to help...
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Me to, I wouldn't be able to look the breakdown person in the eye if I called him out for a flat tyre.
 
Stealaway said:
What if was the off side tyre - on a motorway and you are too old and infirm to to lift a MoHo tyre?
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I think a lot of folk do not even try.... if you have a spare then people should spend an afternoon actually practising to make sure they can do it...i have a large 8.4m tag axle and i found it relatively easy to jack it up and remove a wheel.... not much more difficult than a car.... hardest job was actually getting the spare from the underslung carrier...however there were instructions in the owners manual how to do this... when followed it was easy...its just a case of practising to make sure you know what you're doing...obviously there may be situations where safety overrides everything else but at the least i would try and get to a service area and then ask for help if needed ..
 
Garry - June said:
Just bear in mind there was a post not long ago about a guy who had a flat whilst in a service station on a stretch of privately run motorway in France.... he called breakdown instead of changing it himself thinking his insurance would cover the cost..... they refused as they wont cover private motorways....so check your smallprint.... personally i would be embarrassed to call out breakdown for a flat tyre unless legally bound to.... in a service area even more so...if physically incapable i would rather pay a fit local 50eu to help...
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I had a blow-out on a toll motorway. Luckily this happened near the slip road to an Aire so limped there along the hard shoulder to a safe spot.

The hardest bit was loosening the wheel nuts. Overtightened with a windy gun, probably. A kind and much stronger French bloke helped me out. He was the driver of one of the motorway company's security vans so I expect this was outside his job description.

Saved myself a big call-out fee from the breakdown concession contractors.
 
Draper do telescopic wheel braces that give you more leverage 👍

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I am new to group so uncertain on how to join in on a discussion. This note is intended for the discussion on spare wheels and what to do in the event of a puncture.
When we bought our motorhome the first thing on the shopping list was a full sized spare wheel. Whilst one may be ok to travel without a spare wheel in the uk and rely on the can of goo supplied, we are not happy to do so.
Our vehicle did come with the fiat van jack but I am intending on buying a high lift bottle jack (which weighs less than 8kg) and will then ditch the supplied jack. The spare wheel is heavy but worth it for peace of mind. Having a puncture in France can be expensive if you don’t have a spare wheel or are limping on a goo fixed wheel to the nearest tyre centre that is open and has your size of tyres. The plural is intentional because in France the tyre cente will only fit an axle set so you will end up paying for two new tyres on the axle and if you lack good language skills you may end up paying a high price.
 
SpeedyDux said:
the wheel nuts. Overtightened with a windy gun, probably.
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Depends though. My transit nuts have a setting of 200Nm , just under 150 lbs/ft. which is a lot. I use an extending wheel nut angled bar but even the small cranked angle is enough to make it not as safe as it could be so I usually undo & final tighten with a socket on to a power bar with a length of tube to extend it. Then I check them at my mates as he has a 1" torque wrench that exceeds the required setting.
 
gus-lopez said:
Depends though. My transit nuts have a setting of 200Nm , just under 150 lbs/ft. which is a lot. I use an extending wheel nut angled bar but even the small cranked angle is enough to make it not as safe as it could be so I usually undo & final tighten with a socket on to a power bar with a length of tube to extend it. Then I check them at my mates as he has a 1" torque wrench that exceeds the required setting.
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I must remember to bring that length of scaffold tube! (Found it at the roadside).
 
Dave_E said:
We have a spare wheel and jack on our Adria pvc.Bearing in mind that if we have a flat when out and about I'll be calling a breakdown how many people actually carry a jack which uses up payload.
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I certainly wouldn’t venture out without either, I have had to change a wheel after a puncture in some remote areas, not worth leaving behind for the amount of weight saved and having said that my bottle jack on my Sprinter based Motorhome is a fair old lump.
 
Simon Meadwell said:
Five ton bottle jack, heavy duty wrench and spare wheel. Also electric pump to inflate.
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I also carry a 3 foot length of galvanised scaffold tube, as I have found from experience that you will never loosen Motorhome wheelnuts with the standard brace on it’s own, just slip the tube over it job done, haven’t yet found a 12v compressor that will inflate a Motorhome Tyre that has lost quite a few lbs, none that I have tried will inflate to anywhere near 75-80lbs psi. despite the manufacturers claiming inflation up to 250lbs psi!! Have burnt a few out trying tho’.

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Stealaway said:
What if was the off side tyre - on a motorway and you are too old and infirm to to lift a MoHo tyre?
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But I'm not old(ish) or infirm and if it was on the motorway i'd make best efforts to get off the motorway even if it meant destroying the flat tyre/rim in the process, its no safer for the rac man at the side of the motorway than it is for me. I also spend £35 on a tyre pressure monitor system that should give me some warning if it doesn't deflate immediately. What if you have to wait four hours for a breakdown person to come out and you end up missing the ferry to Spain because you have a flat and no spare or a spare but no tools to change it? Its always better to have options when things break, the more options you have the better.
 

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gwyntaxi said:
I also carry a 3 foot length of galvanised scaffold tube, as I have found from experience that you will never loosen Motorhome wheelnuts with the standard brace on it’s own, just slip the tube over it job done, haven’t yet found a 12v compressor that will inflate a Motorhome Tyre that has lost quite a few lbs, none that I have tried will inflate to anywhere near 75-80lbs psi. despite the manufacturers claiming inflation up to 250lbs psi!! Have burnt a few out trying tho’.
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I own this one and I'm very happy with it. 70psi is as far as I air up my tyres though but ive no reason to think it wouldn't hit into the 80s as well
Its a significant upgraded over the £25 halfords cigar lighter ones that bounce all over the ground for 10mins to raise a car tyre 2psi
Amazon product ASIN B000W08QZY
 
JonnyMac said:
I own this one and I'm very happy with it. 70psi is as far as I air up my tyres though but ive no reason to think it wouldn't hit into the 80s as well
Its a significant upgraded over the £25 halfords cigar lighter ones that bounce all over the ground for 10mins to raise a car tyre 2psi
Amazon product ASIN B000W08QZY
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A brilliant piece of kit well built and very effective
 
Lenny HB said:
Missed that bit, that is unusual, perhaps he didn't inform his insurers before calling the motorway breakdown.
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No i think he said they stated they wouldn't cover for this particular French Motorway because it was a privately run stretch.. hence why i suggested folk check the small print of their policies..

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Garry - June said:
No i think he said they stated they wouldn't cover for this particular French Motorway because it was a privately run stretch.. hence why i suggested folk check the small print of their policies..
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I thought most French Autoroutes were private.
 
Another good reason to have self levelers fitted , no jack , no wedges , great security and makes tyre changes a breeze .
 
JonnyMac said:
Me to, I wouldn't be able to look the breakdown person in the eye if I called him out for a flat tyre.
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We had a flat on a motorway in the Netherlands which did not have a hard shoulder, before we had chance to call for a mechanic to replace the wheel the police were there diverting traffic around us so that the mechanics could left the side on the traffic side. The dangerous situation we were in was obvious to me having heard of people being killed changing a wheel on the traffic side so do not do it, leave it to the professionals. Additionally, do you have the lifting capacity (a low height bottle jack, etc ?) to lift the vehicle high enough to get the replacement wheel onto the vehicle as the axle beam on a Ducato leaf spring suspension is very low with a flat tyre.
 
In a post or two lower down the motorway was mentioned and I said I would drive on the flat until I could get to a slip road/services even if it meant destroying the tyre(which I have done in the past though it was in a car). Leaving it to the professionals sounds fine until you are sitting on the hard shoulder of the motorway for 4 hours waiting for a breakdown guy to show up because the only person in the area is on another call out. Having a spare gives you options.
The ducato comes with a jack, I wouldn't use if for maintenance but it works well enough for changing a tyre.
 
JonnyMac said:
In a post or two lower down the motorway was mentioned and I said I would drive on the flat until I could get to a slip road/services even if it meant destroying the tyre(which I have done in the past though it was in a car). Leaving it to the professionals sounds fine until you are sitting on the hard shoulder of the motorway for 4 hours waiting for a breakdown guy to show up because the only person in the area is on another call out. Having a spare gives you options.
The ducato comes with a jack, I wouldn't use if for maintenance but it works well enough for changing a tyre.
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I can only say that the scissor jack supplied is fine for the front wheels but useless for my motorhome on the rears as there is nowhere to position it except under the axle beam which is quite a few feet from the rear of the vehicle

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Ian Bosman said:
I can only say that the scissor jack supplied is fine for the front wheels but useless for my motorhome on the rears as there is nowhere to position it except under the axle beam which is quite a few feet from the rear of the vehicle
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If its an Al-Ko chassis there should be a hole in the suspension mounting plate to locate the jack. I've jacked mine up with it.
Whatever you do DON'T jack it on the axle.
 
Stealaway said:
I cant help wondering how many people have carried all this equipment - and for how long - and never had cause to use it :Eeek: :Eeek:
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I can't remember the last time I had a puncture - probably 25 or 30 years ago. I do remember the circumstances though. On Shap Fell in snow ploughed to one vehicle width with snow 3+ feet deep on either side. I don't count tyre deflation when not being driven wherever it occurs. I've had a few of those cured by re-inflation then a visit to a tyre service place.
 
JonnyMac said:
View attachment 496554
That's the mount point on my van, i'd guess its the same on most conversations. Thats enough room to change the wheel and there is another 4 to 6 inches height left in the jack.
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That's a Fiat chassis not an Al-Ko which is lower but there is still a position for it.

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