Spare wheel & tyre or not?

I always have a spare wheel as have twice had punctures in Europe, not easy to get a tyre never mind a wheel if damaged. Too decrepit to fit myself but carry the tools to do so as foreign breakdown blokes never seem to have any tools.
My mini cooper has no spare and hasn't anywhere to put one, but doesn't go abroad so AA will sort. My Ioniq has a skinny wheel and I have had to use it twice. Swmbo has a Polo which has a skinny spare, better than nothing.
 
cyberyacht said:
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
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When I change my tyres (due to age rather than wear) I’m thinking of keeping one of the old ones for the same reason
 
I thought I read some years ago that it was a legal requirement to have a spare wheel in Spain. (For the benefit of those intending to travel there.) Anyone know if this is correct?

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Freo said:
I thought I read some years ago that it was a legal requirement to have a spare wheel in Spain. (For the benefit of those intending to travel there.) Anyone know if this is correct?
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Not required now providing you have a repair kit.
 
My Hobby T500 came with a spare wheel laid flat in the garage. A couple of comments:

  • I have since secured it to the inner wall of the garage. So less of a lever behind the rear axle
  • The fact that there was a spare perhaps said something about the previous owner's thoroughness and caution making the van a marginally more attractive buy (and might be relevant to the saleability of your van?)
  • I am around 3,000 kg on a weighbridge fully laden. The balancing exercise would be more difficult if I was close to maxing out at 3,500 kg.
Personally I am far more likely to have a puncture than carry four persons in the van so if a change of van put me close to the limit I might be tempted to take out the half dinette passenger seat belts and save 150 kg that way to guard against falling foul of a weighbridge nazi (But up-plating and taking a C1 medical could well be a more practical long term solution!)
 
Evoller said:
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
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Just fitted a spare to our new McLouis. Obtained OEM Fiat spare wheel carrier and OEM spare from eBay. Wouldn't be without a spare - hate to be stuck waiting hours / days for assistance when I could sort the issue in 30 minutes.
 
Evoller said:
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
Click to expand...
Carry a spare definitely. You may be able to stow in your garage failing which you can get brackets for stowage underneath. There is obviously a weight penalty. They do come up second hand or you could use The Wheel Shop.
 
Anyone know the approx weight of just a tyre? We’re limited on weight but have garage space… and a spare tyre without a wheel feels like it would be better than nothing. Thanks

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Evoller said:
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
Click to expand...
Yes, first thing I did was buy a spare, they don’t fit them so they can say the carrying load is higher.
 
Do check your spare before going away though. Ours was completely flat, as the valve had perished and snapped. It has been under the van unused for a number of years. Needed a trip to the tyre depot to get a new valve fitted.
 
SteveE said:
Anyone know the approx weight of just a tyre? We’re limited on weight but have garage space… and a spare tyre without a wheel feels like it would be better than nothing. Thanks
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Depends on the size, but a ball park figure of 20kg.
 
Guigsy said:
Because otherwise you wouldn't have a spare anymore?
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Sorry took so long to get back, busy.
Poster said if he had a spare it would have cost him no more than 30 minutes, so presumably he could and would change it himself at no monitery cost. Up front cost to have a spare available would be a lot less than £1367.
Yes if you used your spare you wouldn't have one anymore but that would only be until you got yourself another.
 
Our Autotrail rear end is designed to mount the spare and ease of access. Adds weight right at the back end but it wouldn’t make sense not to carry a spare. I can see the dilemma though if not manufactured with a spare, where to mount the bracket, additional cost etc? Personally I’d always want one rather than a fix kit.

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Happy Jack said:
Am I missing something.
How does a spare wheel/tyre cost £1367?
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Just for comparison, I purchased a new black OEM alloy from my local Mercedes dealer for £186 Inc VAT, new Continental Vancontact camper tyre for £210 and £20 to have it fitted by my local tyre fitter.
 
Forgot, it weighs 29 Kgs
 
Evoller said:
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
Click to expand...
Recently experienced a puncture on the A68 in Northumberland. I have breakdown cover with Nationwide, so the very helpful AA was only a phone call away.
All they had to do was get the spare from the carrier under the rear of the MH, and I was on my way. If hadn't had the spare I would have been on the back of a breakdown truck. Well not me, the MH.
A 'get you home' cannister would never have worked!
PS. First time the spare was used in the lifetime of the MH (12 years!)
 
Evoller said:
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
Click to expand...
I had a blowout on the start of the motorway from the Algarve to Lisbon I did not have a spare wheel and I had to get lifted off the road to a garage , the next day I got four new tires I had the canister but when you get a blowout the canister’s is of no use to you. As don’t have a tire to pump the canister fluid into.

I’ve bought a wheel and a tire and a jack and a wheel brace so in future if I get a puncture or a blowout, I can replace it like I would normally do in my car so to save a lot of stress go get a spare wheel it’s worth it.

Also now check how old the tires are on your camper, unless it’s new. Mine wasn’t so I changed them all even though they looked ok , I felt happier driving with top of the range new tires
Safe travelling

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We got our Hymer Free 600 Campus based on a Fiat Ducato a year ago.
The first thing I checked was this pump and goo contraption and thought no way, for all the reasons against noted here.
I checked the mounting brackets etc under the rear, all there. Being brand new they'd even left the jack box that usually stows under the passenger seat on the vehicle.
Went online, found the lifting mechanism that hauls the spare up under the underside recess for £90 brand new.
Then found a brand new spare wheel and MATCHING tyre for £120, couldn't believe my luck.
Got it all FITTED myself, dead easy, tested, works perfectly.
Also got a spare wheel bag to keep the weather and road muck off the spare wheel.

What you must check is the wheel stud relationship to any given wheel you may find.
This is called the Pitch Circle Diameter (PCD) and it's vital you get this right for your vehicle to save a lot of wasted time and effort. Also the wheel and tyre size of course.

Weight is the main reason we are 'blessed' with these gloop pumps, plus cost savings to the manufacturer I should imagine.

Before we take to Europe and long trips, I want to find a local weigh bridge and load up everything to see that we are within our legal weight limit of 3.5 tonnes. Especially now we have a spare wheel on board. They are heavy.
 
My new van comes with a spare underneath, have checked the pressure it was low now up to full pressure as specified. No idea how to use it but will check instructions if not up to it will phone recovery if needed, I’m not as young as I used to be and why buy recovery and not use it ? All my other vans I carried a spare tyre would not go anywhere without it.
 
All Fiat Chassis heavy or ccs are fitted with the spare wheel kit mounting holes, the only issue is if the converter fits anything such as water tanks in the space.
A few pictures of mine total cost was £200 for winch and steel wheel and camper tyre.
Last picture is the extension bar for lowering the wheel.



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If you do buy a Fiat spare wheel carrier, make sure it's got the "security" 5 sided winding tool. A lot of resellers don't include it. And it can be a pain to find one separately.

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