Spare wheel fiasco in the Highlands, again!

[wildebus]

I carry a long torque bar for nuts, flat lever to lift the wheel up a inch or so to line up with the studs, next thing I'm buying is a couple of tyre inflating gunk.
I do believe when you cannot change a wheel its time to give up and hand the licence in, do remember its an offense to drive on an underinflated or damaged wheel.

I will have to disagree with the comment about ability to change a wheel there are plenty of perfectly safe and able drivers who for one reason or another are not able to physically change a wheel.
You and I and many others are fortunate that we are still able to do so, but I wouldn't make doing that a prequesite to driving. There are plenty of people on the road who can change a wheel but shouldn't have a licence to drive!

PS. the flat lever .... something some do is get a headless bolt and drop it into the hole to help support the wheel when you are lining it up with the bolt holes.

 

[Canalsman]

Regarding changing a wheel there are many situations where it is dangerous to change it.

I would never put myself at risk on a busy road and even in a layby changing an offside wheel puts you at risk. And as for motorways it's a suicide mission.

Breakdown services are by far the best option whether or not you are capable physically. You pay a premium for their professional assistance after all.

 

[Caz]

I will have to disagree with the comment about ability to change a wheel there are plenty of perfectly safe and able drivers who for one reason or another are not able to physically change a wheel.
You and I and many others are fortunate that we are still able to do so, but I wouldn't make doing that a prequesite to driving. There are plenty of people on the road who can change a wheel but shouldn't have a licence to drive!

Well said.
By Trev's reckoning I should never have been given a driving licence as I couldn't lift a car wheel with a tyre fitted to it when I was 17, either. Many drivers are not hulking great strong men like Trev.
That's why we have breakdown insurance.
As Canalsman says, it's not always safe for a driver to change a wheel at the side of a road and the Highway Code advises against doing so.

 

[Debs]

I know this has been a topic of discussion before....

I took my car for an MOT earlier in the week, the garage is also a recovery agent here in the far north. Anyway, the guy there told me about what happened last Saturday morning.
A van in Durness had a puncture, on arriving it was evident the tyre was not repairable. The nearest new tyre was just north of Inverness, the tyre shop was now closed until Monday morning. The van was recovered to the tyre shop over the weekend, the van owners found a B&B at Durness and then took a taxi on Monday to collect their van. They had to buy a pair of tyres as the remaining tyre on the axle was quite worn.
The very mild mannered recovery agent finished telling me the story by adding ‘whoever thought that a vehicle need not carry a spare wheel was a good idea should be shot!’.

Personally, I would use a vehicle without a spare wheel. I’ve mentioned this before, don’t travel to the far north without a spare, you can be a hundred miles from a new tyre here.

You would use a vehicle without a spare, why?

 

[wildebus]

You would use a vehicle without a spare, why?

I think he meant "I would'NT use a vehicle without a spare wheel"?

But why not use a vehicle without a spare? The great majority of vehicles sold nowadays have no spare provided. Are they all unusable?

 

[mistericeman]

You would use a vehicle without a spare, why?

Plenty of modern vehicles around without a spare wheel at all let alone a space saver.

 

[Red Dwarf]

You would use a vehicle without a spare, why?

No Debs, I’m a daft old bugger and it should read ....’ I wouldn’t use a vehicle without a spare’.....

 

[trevskoda]

Most of you have toy size tyres These present more of a storage problem.
Have two wheels on each side of the back it is possible to run with just one, so in a way I have two spares fitted.


View attachment 102639

Same here.

 

[trevskoda]

I will have to disagree with the comment about ability to change a wheel there are plenty of perfectly safe and able drivers who for one reason or another are not able to physically change a wheel.
You and I and many others are fortunate that we are still able to do so, but I wouldn't make doing that a prequesite to driving. There are plenty of people on the road who can change a wheel but shouldn't have a licence to drive!

PS. the flat lever .... something some do is get a headless bolt and drop it into the hole to help support the wheel when you are lining it up with the bolt holes.

Yes my last soda had no studs and did as you say, as for wheel changing
The flat lever is to lift a heavy van wheel up an inch to get on the studs, old truck driver showed me this trick, lay flat and roll wheel over and lift.
As for older folk, yes I agree many for some reason cannot do a wheel change, but I have seen many who should not be driving but will not give up.

 

[wildebus]

My brother and sister wanted my mum to give up driving when her Escort became a bit of a struggle to drive. But I disagreed and found her a little Nissan Micra with Power Steering and Auto gearbox. Kept her on the road for a few more years. Those driver aids let her focus on the road and keep some independance

There is a tendancy to jack up a wheel nice and high and that means a big lift up. I tend to jack up just enough for the wheel to clear the ground (used to jack up, remove and refit around 16 wheels a week so got into a bit of a time and motion study of techniques)

 

[trevskoda]

My brother and sister wanted my mum to give up driving when her Escort became a bit of a struggle to drive. But I disagreed and found her a little Nissan Micra with Power Steering and Auto gearbox. Kept her on the road for a few more years. Those driver aids let her focus on the road and keep some independance

There is a tendancy to jack up a wheel nice and high and that means a big lift up. I tend to jack up just enough for the wheel to clear the ground (used to jack up, remove and refit around 16 wheels a week so got into a bit of a time and motion study of techniques)

Yes thats the way i change wheels to, we had to take the car off fatherinlaw a few years back, his driving was plain dangerous, he never was a good driver at best, then covid took him away from us

 

[GMJ]

After our blow out on the M6 the other week, I got the tyre replaced, and swapped the spare off the MH and put the original back on with the new tyre. They are heavy beasties I can tell you...and I am no stick insect either! I already carried a torque wrench in the MH but I just bought a telescopic wheel nut wrench to keep in there too as I wouldn't have fancied getting the nuts off with the brace that is supplied. I have one for the home but now have one on board as well (not expensive from Ebay).

Just as an aide memoir: make sure that you know where your towing hook is and also your locking wheel nut keys too!

 

[Dowel]

Off topic but at least about tyres: I have a Renault Trafic which is fitted with 215/65 R 16 C tyres.
These are shown in the handbook as one of the 4 options available.

The others are 195/65 R 16 C, 205/65 R 16 C and 195/75 R 16 C

The spare lives in a carrier hung below the floor behind the rear wheels.
These wheels are hefty, manageable when fitting onto a hub but a challenge when trying to wriggle them into the carrier. This is made more difficult by the fact that the tyre diameter seems to be just too large to fit into the carrier. Not easy lying on your back.

I squeezed it in and then used the vans jack to lift the carrier enough to engage the hook and then wind it up into position

My 215/65 16 s have a diameter of 27" or 686 mm according to tyre dimension charts on the web
The other options:
195/65 16 are 26" diameter - 660 mm 4% smaller
205/65 16 are 26.5" diameter - 673 mm 2% smaller
195/75 16 are 27.5" diameter - 698 mm 1.7% larger. This tyre size only found in one chart, the other says non existant.

Maybe I just put a bit too much air in my spare but I wonder whether the 195/75 would fit the carrier?

Any others encountered similar problems?

 

[trevskoda]

Mine are 225/75r/16c but easy to manage, spare is on my bum, as for extension tork bars, its best to heat and bend the end to almost 90 deg rather than the angle there at from new, then use an extension bar of about 4 inches.

 

[mistericeman]

Mine are 225/75r/16c but easy to manage, spare is on my bum, as for extension tork bars, its best to heat and bend the end to almost 90 deg rather than the angle there at from new, then use an extension bar of about 4 inches.

The reason that the manufacturer supplied wheel wrench is the length it is, is its not possible to over tighten the wheel nuts....
Obviously no use IF your average tyre fitting gorilla has been near it.

Obviously using a decent torque wrench and tightening to the correct manufacturers figure is the correct way to do it as over tightening is as bad as under tightening as all you are doing is stretching the bolts.

Don't lubricate with copperslip etc either as it alters the torque figure....

Do lubricate the mechanism for lowering the spare though as they can end up seizing being exposed to all the winter grime.

 

[trevskoda]

I use a marine waterproof grease on the studs and drum face, other wise the bu--ers bond on, I only tighten to my elbow clicks.

 

[caledonia]

Just had to rescue my son. BMW with no spare wheel. Suppose to be run flats but he had a tyre fitted at Mot time and never fitted run flat.

 

[Lunar]

My motorhome does not & cannot carry a spare wheel so I have filled my tyres with "Airseal" pre-puncture sealant. This should get me to a garage/tyre fitter or even to home - unless of course I fall victim again to some spiteful *** who sticking a screwdriver through the sidewall of one tyre.

 

[trevskoda]

If a sidewall blowout gunk is no good, or if the tyre belts shift which happened to me on the front, that was fun slowing from 50mph.

 

[Markd]

Plenty of modern vehicles around without a spare wheel at all let alone a space saver.

Yes - I think they do it to save weight and probably money.
My latest car just had an air pump and some miracle gunge - so the first thing I did was order a wheel and tyre off the internet.
As it was pre ****** delivery from Germany only took two days.
Of course I've not used it but I'm happier know that I will be able to continue journey even if tyre is ripped.