Spare wheels - Do I really need to carry one?

[tacr2man]

Did you ever get the result of your poll, or was that humour?

If you go to top of thread and click show results you will see results

 

[Stealaway]

Did you ever get the result of your poll, or was that humour?

 

[TheTwoOfUs]

Sometimes it's a case of "needs must". I carry a spare when I have the trailer attached but don't have one when it's not. The reason being that I don't have sufficient payload to be able to carry one on/in the motorhome. I don't carry a jack for the same reason. And why do I do this, simply because following a medical problem my licence was downgraded and so the motorhome had to be downplated also. At this stage in my life I am not about to go swapping motorhomes so I make the most of what I've got.
In my previous motorhome I had a spare and I had a massive blow-out on the A1. I called the AA out and let them have the hassle of crawling about under the m/home by the side of a very busy A1 to get the spare from out of its cradle and change the wheel.

 

[Pixies]

Well that was interesting.
The weird one is that 509 viewed the poll but only 77 bothered to fill it in.

More people (72%) carry a spare than I would have guessed but only 27% have ever needed it.
Only 34 % of MoHo owners have ever had a pumpture.
Two thirds would be happy to change it themselves but the other third would have to call the breakdown service

I could change one at a push but it would have be safely in a car park or campsite - never on the road.
With only a 34% chance of having a pumpture, I will continue to take my chances on never having one. I will be happy to wait for the breakdown service and then wait for them to fetch a new tyre.

As I suspected no one has tried using the repair kit, it simply enables the manufacturers to avoid the cost of supplying a spare wheel and carrier.

I viewed the poll, but would answer no to each question, so don’t fill it in. It’s a problem with the poll that people only answer if they have had a puncture?

 

[Clivefog]

If you rely on breakdown service, check the small print some require you to carry a spare.

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[x17ken]

I have to carry my spare wheel on the floor of the van when we are on a long trip. I wouldn't be comfortable without a spare on board. I have no space in my garage so I bought a wheel bag to keep it tidy when travelling. When we get to site I stow the wheel under the van. One of my dogs also likes it. The pic is not staged I just put a little bed in the wheel recess to make it more comfortable for him. He seems to love the security of the solid sides. And it helps him with his breathing.

 

[Minxy]

Please ensure that your tyre isn't fully inflated when you have it inside especially if it's been cold outside and is warm in the MH as the increase in temperature may cause it to burst ... probably unlikely but not worth the risk. Below is a death caused by having a tyre inside and although it says they don't know why the tyre burst I seem to recall that the likely cause was later attributed to a change in temperature coupled with the fault on the tyre:

Car passenger killed as tyre she was holding on her lap explodes

Jenna Wilcox, who was based at RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk, was holding the tyre because it would not fit in the boot. She died in hospital five days after the blast.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[BikerGraham]

The relative increase in temperature would not cause it to explode.
Yes temperature increase does increase pressure but from outside to inside a van would not be sufficient to do that.
It would only be in reality from maybe 5 deg to say 20deg. Or similar relative change.

When on the wheel and in use when driving the tyre temperature would increase considerably more than that. It’s designed to withstand much greater internal pressures.

We can easily go from -6 in the U.K. to 25 or 30 in Spain in the same trip.

The tyre failure would have been due to another reason. It does say it was changed due to a bulge. So already faulty with a weakness.
It is also worth noting that it was a Z3 so a 2 seater sports car. It is likely the tyre was very close to the victim.
Way too little information to determine that the tyre was the cause of death.

 

[busby]

The last and most recent time I had a Puncture, was on the R-V. Now if anyone fancies changing 23" O/S Rear Dual inner on the M25 Friday Afternoon. They are Most welcome. Prior to that we had one burst spectacularly on a Campsite (stationary), SWMBO was on the Loo at the time!. Which is Just about on top of it!. Not a happy Bunny, even less so when she saw us all laughing!. I have a spare, it`s in my garage (at home) the date on it is 2008, and it looks brand new!. "Found" it under the bed when we got the `van home 27kg of extra weight right where we don`t want it!, and as far as I can seen no alternative location either!. I will, should I ever go back "foreign", Buy a tyre and let the RAC fit it to the wheel. I have a Tyrepal Solar fitted and monitor them that way.

Must admit when I was trucking if a rear twin went I would just drive slowly to the next junction..pull off and find somewhere safe to change it..Not possible with a 4 in line trailer.An inside flat on those was a nightmare.BUSBY.

 

[Bern8]

All the tyre repair garages where I live are so busy (due to potholes in the area) that my next door neighbour called in to have a repair done on his work van. They told him to leave it with them for a week and they would get round to fixing it

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[meanders]

We only ever have one blow out and that was on a no-toll French autoroute. On the hard shoulder.I started to get the jack out unsure if was man enough. Police car pull up and told me in no uncertain terms I could not do it on the hard shoulder and the recovery truck would pick us up taking about 20-30 minutes to arrive. Police coned off the next lane for safety. Then the con began. You have to pay to get your keys back irrespective of any insurance. They also broke the spare wheel carrier. And failed to properly torque up the wheel it's.

All in even after the insurance paid up for the recovery, but not the wheel change, it cost over £1000 with over £700 to repair the carrier on return to the UK.

I don't, but have considered carrying a spare tyre, but I also don't think I would attempt it with the jack provided, and don't have the payload to carry a trolley jack.

Get as good insurance / recovery that. You can, but still expect you will be charged for something expensive.

 

[Stealaway]

If you rely on breakdown service, check the small print some require you to carry a spare.

I specifically asked my insurance company ---- Comfort Insurance.
They stated that they would attend all and every breakdown regardless of cause.

Are they likely to leave you abandoned and drive away?

 

[Stealaway]

Did you ever get the result of your poll, or was that humour?

Of course but you need to vote --- where was the humour?

 

[Pappy]

Of course but you need to vote --- where was the humour?

Can’t vote as don’t carry a spare

 

[Funnymunny]

In my previous van I had 3 blow outs, the first just coming home on the motorway from a service and a rear nearside tyre blew just like a cannon going off. The beading had blown on the inside, my mate being a manager of a tyre depot said he had never seen one go like that so sent it back to Michelin who replaced it no quibble.
The second two blow outs again the same batch of Michelin tyres happened on the way down through France near Alencon. The first blew out much the same as the previous one, I had the spare fitted then called at a tyre depot and had a new tyre fitted and all tyres checked then left and within 5 miles the other tyre blew out so back to the same tyre depot to replace.

All tyres were virtually new, no damage and all blew out much the same way, needless to say I changed all my tyres to Vanco Continental after that and had no more problems despite doing 110,000 miles in that van.

Would I buy a van without a spare, NO WAY. A can of gunk wouldn't have been of any use for any of those blow outs

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[Pappy]

When I have two bikes, dog food, fishing tackle, tables and chairs etc in the garage I don’t have room for a spare wheel.

 

[Rapido925M]

Yes temperature increase does increase pressure but from outside to inside a van would not be sufficient to do that.
It would only be in reality from maybe 5 deg to say 20deg.

Some people might think that is a 4x temperature change BUT for gases we need to consider thermodynamic temperatures ie add 273 to each value. So 279k to 293k, a change of approximately 5%

Gordon

 

[jumartoo]

We had a blow out of a rear tyre on the busy road into Inverness, just as the two lanes merge to one. We'd been spiked by metal from a truck canopy. The noise was loud enough for some workers on the hillside above to drive down to investigate. They imagined the worst! They stayed with us, with their truck light flashing, until the police arrived. Even then the police were nearly wiped out by rubberneckers .

Our insurance, based in Madrid, were wonderful, and called out a local breakdown (that took quite some time). Eventually, the breakdown arrived, our spare wheel, eventually, liberated from under the van, where it had been for almost ten years, popped in place and we were then asked to drive for a few miles or so, to an exit, where it could all be checked safely.

Long story short, we bought two new tyes in Inverness. The front ones had been changed before our trip.

On our return back to Spain, with a van with four new tyres, that we then decided to keep, we went to visit our local dentist. On the carpark was a Hymer FOR SALE. Guess who bought it. The tyres were original, in good condition, but old. After our recent problem, we changed them.

We were regular orienteers then. A few months later we were driving through a forest, on a rough track to get to our parking area, when the van tipped to the side on a waterwashed track and blew out the side of one of the new tyres. Luckily, this van (we still have it) has a spare wheel, so we were able to offload all our junk and get the wheel out to replace the blown one.

Sorry this is such an epic post. But it's to show that, sometimes having a spare wheel is good. Twice for us in quick succession. Nothing before, front 1994 or since, 2024. We still have the spare wheel, even though it limits our payload, and we're loath to discard it.