Spare tyre

sdjksx

Full Member
Posts
13
Likes
5
The motornome's, that is, not my personal one!
I am planning a trip to Spain and have come across the mandatory requirementsthat all vehicles up to 3,500 kgs must carry a spare tyre and the tools to change it.. My small motorhome is graded at 3,500 kgs. But it does not have a spare tyre, nor any facility at the moment to carry one.
Have any of you come across this problem and what have you done about it?
 
Bracket bolted to t bar or back chassis, never carry a loose wheel inside a van, bolted down is ok.
sw 4.jpg
 
I fitted one to the underside of the van using the fiat bracket.
20221023_140828.jpg
 
sdjksx said:
The motornome's, that is, not my personal one!
I am planning a trip to Spain and have come across the mandatory requirementsthat all vehicles up to 3,500 kgs must carry a spare tyre and the tools to change it.. My small motorhome is graded at 3,500 kgs. But it does not have a spare tyre, nor any facility at the moment to carry one.
Have any of you come across this problem and what have you done about it?
Click to expand...
Where is this actually stated? I can understand the tools to change as all vehicles do seem to come with that, but a madatory spare wheel? about as likely as the 'mandatory' alcohol testing kit in France I would think, given how many vehicles do not come with one and often no way to actually carry one.


Having a further look ....
Along with cars, vans and light trucks, whose weight is less than 3,500 kg, are required to always carry a spare wheel or an anti-puncture kit. This is established by the regulations: “Vehicles transporting people or goods weighing up to 3,500 kg must have a spare wheel, which can be for temporary use or a complete wheel, or an alternative system”.

The "alternative system" would be the factory provided repair kit I would think. How good or effective that it is a different question, but it that is what the vehicle supplier provides, it meets the requirement so you are covered.

(I don't carry a spare wheel as I have no place provided to do so, but have a repair kit provided instead).
 
Last edited:
wildebus said:
Where is this actually stated? I can understand the tools to change as all vehicles do seem to come with that, but a madatory spare wheel? about as likely as the 'mandatory' alcohol testing kit in France I would think, given how many vehicles do not come with one and often no way to actually carry one.


Having a further look ....
Along with cars, vans and light trucks, whose weight is less than 3,500 kg, are required to always carry a spare wheel or an anti-puncture kit. This is established by the regulations: “Vehicles transporting people or goods weighing up to 3,500 kg must have a spare wheel, which can be for temporary use or a complete wheel, or an alternative system”.

The "alternative system" would be the factory provided repair kit I would think. How good or effective that it is a different question, but it that is what the vehicle supplier provides, it meets the requirement so you are covered.

(I don't carry a spare wheel as I have no place provided to do so, but have a repair kit provided instead).
Click to expand...
Dont work with a side wall cut or blowout.
 
If you don't have a tyre pressure monitoring system (TPMS) installed, you should consider fitting a system.

I, and a number of other members, use the TyrePal system.

This will warn you if a tyre is losing air which may avoid the possibility of a blowout, and it will also warn you if a tyre is running hot. This may also indicate that a tyre is in trouble, or a wheel bearing is running hot, or a brake caliper has seized.

All of this offers great peace of mind when driving a relatively heavy vehicle over long distances.
 
After a flat tyre, I bought and fitted the Alko spare wheel carrier under my first MH. I bought a brand new steel wheel and tyre from a scrappy on line for £60 delivered, from memory. It was a straightforward thing to fit.

Thankfully both MH's I have had since have come with a spare on board.
 
Check with your recovery policy’s folks. I know that some will not come to you if you don’t carry either a spare tyre or wheel/tyre. I don’t remember if they counted the compressor and gunk option on the policy that said about the spare. Every time (3) I have occasion to use the gunk it was useless due to damage being sidewall on country lanes. The gunk also rendered the tyre scrap if it did manage to be useful.
 
Nabsim said:
Check with your recovery policy’s folks. I know that some will not come to you if you don’t carry either a spare tyre or wheel/tyre. I don’t remember if they counted the compressor and gunk option on the policy that said about the spare. Every time (3) I have occasion to use the gunk it was useless due to damage being sidewall on country lanes. The gunk also rendered the tyre scrap if it did manage to be useful.
Click to expand...
There are some newer versions of the 'gunk' that can be easily cleaned from the inside and allow the tyre to be repaired if it was a "normal" type of puncture. (I don't think I have had a puncture that could not be repaired, so the chances are the repair kit would have worked.

As far as recovery, I actually had a conversation about this at the NEC Motorhome Show with the people on the RAC stand. They showed me the special near-universal spare that the patrols carry, which had a selection of fitting holes to deal with different PCDs (distance between mounting bolts) and a range of spigots (that convert the wheels Centre Bore to match the vehicles one).
So they ARE setup to deal with a no-spare situation - and they need to be as so many vehicles do not come with Spare Wheels, therefore the drivers cannot be expected to have one. (I am one of those no-spare wheel drivers for my Motorhome. My car also didn't come with a spare, however I did buy one as there was a space in the boot to stow one).
 
My spare is unused but 9 years old, my tyre fitter said he had “heard” of French customs checking if the spare was not only present but Also enough tread, probably an urban myth but I left my spare where it was and had 2 new front tyres so at least it looks perfect.
 
  • Like
Reactions: GMJ
I see that you should have tools as one mite need to jack van up and swapping wheels around to continue journey ! But now they allowed space savers just buy one that is the lightest as they don't state it should fit still. As long as you have one on board.

But if you had a bad back you couldn't do the task.
 
wildebus said:
There are some newer versions of the 'gunk' that can be easily cleaned from the inside and allow the tyre to be repaired if it was a "normal" type of puncture. (I don't think I have had a puncture that could not be repaired, so the chances are the repair kit would have worked.

As far as recovery, I actually had a conversation about this at the NEC Motorhome Show with the people on the RAC stand. They showed me the special near-universal spare that the patrols carry, which had a selection of fitting holes to deal with different PCDs (distance between mounting bolts) and a range of spigots (that convert the wheels Centre Bore to match the vehicles one).
So they ARE setup to deal with a no-spare situation - and they need to be as so many vehicles do not come with Spare Wheels, therefore the drivers cannot be expected to have one. (I am one of those no-spare wheel drivers for my Motorhome. My car also didn't come with a spare, however I did buy one as there was a space in the boot to stow one).
Click to expand...
They came to me when I got a slashed sidewall on a country lane over near Millers Dale, in the Monsal trail car park. It seems they only had one of these universal spares and it hadn’t yet come back from the day before. I didn’t ask if it was one per van or one per depot as it made no difference to me if there wasn’t one. They used one of those neat fold out, extendable Dolly things, marvellous invention but scary on narrow lanes.

The driver decided to go the short route back to our house, about a mile, rather than the longer route out and around Buxton, about 10 miles. It took about an hour to do the mile as the dolly didn’t allow another vehicle to pass.

It must be a good 5 years since I have had a puncture on a car so good to hear they have changed the formula of the gunk. Kwik Fit and ATS wouldn’t entertain doing anything to the tyres once gunk filled back then. I thought it was due to the mess rather than what it consisted of, whatever, they didn’t like it. Sidewall damage was the biggest threat where I used to live as you would get sharp slivers of stone exposed at the edge of the road, car comes the other way so you pull over just a bit too far…
 
1 Cup said:
I see that you should have tools as one mite need to jack van up and swapping wheels around to continue journey ! But now they allowed space savers just buy one that is the lightest as they don't state it should fit still. As long as you have one on board.

But if you had a bad back you couldn't do the task.
Click to expand...
On the last recovery policy I had that I checked you didn’t actually need a Jack or wheel brace but did need minimum spare lose tyre or the gunk and compressor option. That may have changed since of course and also different recovery policies may well have different requirements.

I always carry a complete spare wheel and tyre in the van just in case. Would have been a big problem if I didn’t last time up in Scotland when an ally wheel cracked. I did get a quick repair but it was still about 36 hours on the spare. 👍
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who viewed this discussion (Total:0)

Back
Top