Spare wheel

[BusyBuilder]

or just a tyre ?
Weight may be an issue with a full 16" wheel and tyre so thinking just carry a tyre ?

will breakdown cope if I just have a tyre and not a wheel ?

 

[PlacidoD]

I have no personal experience. I have a 16" spare wheel in my garage and would not want to be without it. But I am well under 3500kg. For what it is worth my thought process if migrating to a larger van and close to 3500kg would be to have a spare wheel to use for weekends away when the van would be relatively lightly loaded but just take a tyre when fully loaded for 3 weeks or whatever in Europe. That also has the potential advantage you can swap out front or rear axle from the van and put a new matching pair on leaving you with two part worn tyres. It always seems to me to be such a waste to have a brand new tyre and wheel sat in the garage but no way would I want to rely on the first aid packs that come with so many cars and vans now!

 

[fishplug]

You're probably saving 10KG

Unless you're right at the vehicle limits then I'd live with the extra weight and know that you can swap it over yourself in less time than it would take the breakdown van to arrive.

I think some of them would fit a tyre for you but I'm not sure if all of them would. Might be worth asking whoever you get your cover through.

 

[Happy Jack]

You're probably saving 10KG

Unless you're right at the vehicle limits then I'd live with the extra weight and know that you can swap it over yourself in less time than it would take the breakdown van to arrive.

I think some of them would fit a tyre for you but I'm not sure if all of them would. Might be worth asking whoever you get your cover through.

I'm exactly the same mind as you.
Just changed from 15" to 16" and got 5 .
Busy now sorting out the underbed area to take the spare.

 

[Bill-H]

The RAC breakdown cover blurb sugests "If you break down due to a puncture, we'll come out to replace your tyre. The cost of new tyres isn't covered by RAC Breakdown Cover, unless you've added Tyre Replace to your cover etc...".
A lot of people will have directional/rotational/handed tyres fitted such as Michelin Crossclimates, I do, and apart from carrying two spare wheels with a tyre fitted each way round, will only carry a tyre - which is what I do.
Whether all the breakdown providers will do this I know not.
When abroad I'm towing a car on a trailer so can take punctured wheel and spare tyre to a local fitter- I don't travel at night so chances are they'll be open should I get a puncture

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[fishplug]

Weight is always a compromise and we all have different priorities.

I'd never considered carrying just a tyre but can see how that could work with a directional tyre.

Given that my van has the needlessly complicated winch cable mounting for a spare wheel, I can't see how I could mount just a tyre on the underside so that would mean it taking up valuable space on the inside.

I'm also not convinced that having a tyre exposed to dirt and salt and pooled water inside it would be particularly good for it even if I could mount it externally.

Could be an idea for the car though. It's currently only got the goop+inflator and I keep meaning to see if I could fit a full size spare in the boot but never got round to it...

 

[Bill-H]

Weight is always a compromise and we all have different priorities.

I'd never considered carrying just a tyre but can see how that could work with a directional tyre.

Given that my van has the needlessly complicated winch cable mounting for a spare wheel, I can't see how I could mount just a tyre on the underside so that would mean it taking up valuable space on the inside.

I'm also not convinced that having a tyre exposed to dirt and salt and pooled water inside it would be particularly good for it even if I could mount it externally.

Could be an idea for the car though. It's currently only got the goop+inflator and I keep meaning to see if I could fit a full size spare in the boot but never got round to it...

When I had a camper with an underslung spare, I wrapped the spare wheel in a thick plastic bag, maybe not ideal for just a tyre as I can see water pooling in the top centre of the bag - unless you cut a disk of thin ply to lay over the tyre. My current spare tyre is carried inside the garage

 

[DerryW]

Wouldn’t be without a full spare wheel when traveling abroad. I know it’s 32kgs of weight we have to sacrifice elsewhere, but small price to pay in the event of puncture in a strange environment, where (certainly in my case) language barriers maybe an issue.

 

[royandsharont]

A recent thread on here suggests you need a complete wheel in Spain or alternative, the gunge stuff

 

[Bill-H]

A recent thread on here suggests you need a complete wheel in Spain or alternative, the gunge stuff

I'm sure a lot of people wouldn't be comfortable changing a wheel at the side of a busy motorway on the live side and would call a breakdown service to change it for them. The gunge stuff is ok for a nail-type puncture although you may still need to jack the wheel off the ground to remove the offending object before inflation, bringing you back to the live side of a busy motorway scenario. A larger gashed tyre would need changing as gunge wouldn't be suitable to fill a gap. I carry the 'mushroom' type repair patches - again only good for a very small hole.
If you need to call out breakdown to change a punctured wheel, they may as well just replace the tyre. on your existing rim.
I realise that Spanish regs require complete wheel or gunge - but gunge is a rather poor substitute even through this is all that is offered with many new vehicles.
With directional tyres (Michelin Crossclimates for example), if you carried one complete spare wheel, there's a 50/50 chance you'd end up putting the spare on and the tyre would be the wrong way round which I guess would be an offence.
Carrying a spare with a 'normal' type tyre may also be on offence if it's put on the same axle as a directional tyre, I'm not that conversant with Spanish motoring law.
So, my compromise is to carry an inflator, a 'mushroom' type repair kit and a seperate directional tyre of the same type as those fitted on my motorhome.