Spare wheel & tyre or not?

[Evoller]

Hello all
We've recently bought a 2014 Carthago i142 but it did not come with a spare. When shopping to buy the van, we noticed a lot of them did not have a spare.
Do you all carry one or use the gloop canister get-you-home type of thing?
Many thanks

 

[icantremember]

IMO definitely yes

 

[Spriddler]

Gloop might fix a nail puncture in the tread area but no good for a split or blowout.
Storage space and weight of a spare is a consideration. Some just carry a spare tyre (no wheel).

 

[Carolyn and Kev]

Yes...Dont rely on a bottle of gooo! Side wall goes ...Goo is useless! Spare without a doubt!

 

[Mr porky]

We have not ordered a spare for our new morelo coming soon, in the 7 years of owning a motorhome we have managed to limp to a garage and they are not interested in using the spare. We have breakdown cover so in the instance of not been able to move we shall just get relayed to a suitable garage.

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[Verteuil Man]

I was in the no camp relying on breakdown recovery for a prompt serve. There is no way I could change on myself these days. In July I was in France with out TOAD and got a proper puncture. Hole as big as a fist. The squirty stuff did not come out of the boot. I was recovered promptly and the car was taken to a Ford main dealer garage. Our TOAD is a bog standard Fiat 500. It took until Friday (recovery day Sunday) to have 2 new tyres fitted to the front. In France you have to have both tyres on the same axle being identical. I then went and got a spare wheel for both the TOAD and motorhome. I did not see the point on sitting around for 6 days waiting for tyres.

 

[Jev88]

Imagine a damaged rim - long wait for breakdown service to find you a wheel and tyre.

 

[Mikeco]

I’m in the carry a spare camp, my Peugeot Boxer came with a spare and I have always carried it, my Volvo did not but I carry a space saver and I have one in the Smart car as well and in all cases complete with a jack and means to change the wheel on the roadside.

 

[Mr porky]

Imagine a damaged rim - long wait for breakdown service to find you a wheel and tyre.

Luckily it's a motorhome, somwhere to stay.

 

[Lenny HB]

Always carry a spare and needed it a few times.

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[the1andonly]

Always carry a spare and not needed it yet. (even had to have bracketry made). Once had a week when we had 4 punctures on 2 cars. Have a spare in cars as well. Even if you cant do it yourself still possible to find someone else to do it.

 

[Clemmo]

Alway carry a spare…wouldn’t be without one.
Personally I check annually my ability to change a wheel just so I know.
Last year we had a blow out where the tyre came off the rim. We were on the Isle of Mull 6am heading for a ferry.
What a relief to have a spare and manage ourselves out of the situation
Clemmo

 

[PP Bear]

Definitely need a spare, also blocks of wood, a torque bar and your ramps, or when you get to this point, you ain’t going nowhere less calling recovery.

 

[BILL 875]

Always have a spare wheel on motorhome a nail in the tyre if no spare means using the goo which means a new tyre which in France probably means two tyres at an inflated price and no rush to find two tyres, someone once said Do you feel lucky.

 

[icantremember]

A useful tool to assist refitting heavy wheels .. I only use one and not 2 as shown.

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[Jev88]

Luckily it's a motorhome, somwhere to stay.

Bit tricky with a wheel missing

 

[Mr porky]

Bit tricky with a wheel missing

Self levellers

 

[Cassidyuk]

In the small print of the breakdown cover with Nationwide it does say the vehicle must have a spare

 

[Mr porky]

In the small print of the breakdown cover with Nationwide it does say the vehicle must have a spare

I'm sure if the vehicle had a gunk system that would be allowed as a lot of cars don't have a spare anymore.
However thank you for the information as I may have made a boo boo, checking cover now.

 

[David and Sally]

Just bought a spare tyre only. Didn’t think about a damaged rim. Might look for a wheel too.

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[Tonks]

Spare tyre and wheel for me for the van. I also learned from someone else's bitter experience to not assume that my wheel bolts would fit my spare, so I now also carry a set of bolts for the spare. When the van is serviced I always ask them to check the spare for damage/inflation, and make sure that it can be got out of the cage it sits in if necessary! My van has after-market alloys on.
I saw a friend struggling with the gloop at an event, and he ended up borrowing a spare to get home on.
Another friend drove over something in the road while in Cornwall. He had to be recovered back to the campsite.

 

[Mr porky]

In the small print of the breakdown cover with Nationwide it does say the vehicle must have a spare

Hi I have just checked and there is no issue with cover if you don't have a spare wheel fitted. This is rac European full cover through camc.

 

[nicholsong]

I was very glad we carried a spare wheel when we had a blowout on the Autobahn near Leipzig in roadworks which reduced to one lane. There was no proper hard shoulder, just a patch of gravel with a 10 degree camber.

No way was I going to use a FIAT scissor jack on a 3850kg MH in those circumstances. Even the ADAC man had to use two bottle jacks. Fortunately for him it was the nearside rear wheel, because doing it next to the single carriageway with 44-tonners thundering past could have been a death sentence, but in that case maybe he would have called a recovery low-loader.

After that experience I will always continue to carry a spare wheel.

 

[KNWH]

It’s not just Sod’s Law that punctures often seem to happen in the rain: wet rubber cuts more easily.
Not any change in the rubber itself, just that the water acts as lubrication

 

[Barriesimpson]

The main problem for many of us is the extra weight. Mine came with the tube of gunk and an electrical tyre pressure pump, which I am well aware is probably of no practical use if the puncture is more than a small hole. But for now I have no choice, so I pray to the tyre gods before starting a journey.

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[gus-lopez]

In europe it isn't even worth thinking of not having a spare. I've seen vehicles blocking the inside lane of a motorway for over 5 hours waiting for breakdown to arrive.

We have breakdown cover so in the instance of not been able to move we shall just get relayed to a suitable garage.

As above you could be waiting hours. & a vehicle your size it might even have to call for a second one when the first realises that the van weighs 8 tonnes

Luckily it's a motorhome, somwhere to stay.

not on a motorway it wouldn't be sensible.

Self levellers

as abiove yu'd be fined using them.
I saw a halfwit on tueday.Flat tyre 10m from traffic lights & exit. stopped where he was . put a triangle 2m behind. When I was passing about 2 hours later & waiting at lights breakdown man turned up & set about him. basically aske him wtf he had stopped there for & get in & drive it round in to the service road.

 

[nicholsong]

I wonder whether MH manufacturers dropped the spare wheel because of desire to increase payload under 3.5t or for cost reasons?

Do most MHs in the 4-5-6ton bracket come with spare wheels?

 

[Guigsy]

If you're trying to stay under 3.5t, or you're hitting the load limit on the rear axle, a spare wheel and carrier eats about 40kg. Or it takes up a lot of space if it's inboard. So there's potentially a big trade-off if you choose to carry a spare.

What's the average frequency of punctures? I'm guessing it probably averages something like 50-100k miles. So on average, it'll take many years to save the probable day of faff to sort it.

I'm not convinced it's a clear cut essential.

 

[haganap]

if you have the weight and space available, take one. Simple really.

In 20 years in the Motorhome, I've never needed one and not always carried one but I do now.

However, I drive about 30-50k miles in the car per year. I can't remember the last time I had a puncture before what happened to me 2 years ago this week oddly enough.

I had been to Nikkis grans funeral in Oxfordshire, we left at 4pm , I hit a pot hole. It literally destroyed the rim and the tyre. The goo stuff was useless. we ended up having to get a hire car having been sat at the side of the road in the freezing cold for 3 hours, before then being taken to a services for another 2 hours to be given a hire car. Eventually arriving home at 1am- if I had a spare it would have delayed me by about 30 mins.
Then to make matters worse, Volvo lost my car, they couldn't find who recovered it and to where, eventually it turned up 21 days later with a new wheel fitted and a cost of £1367. Cars just don't seem to have them nowdays so if you have a choice, have one!!!.

 

[cyberyacht]

When I changed my tyres last year, I bought an additional one so that, at least, I have a matching one. Weight tends always to be an issue so it's a compromise on a full spare.

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