Beware! More tyre horror!

[Rumour]

We have just had two Maxxis CP tyres fitted, so decided to get the spare taken off (under the van) and replace that and use the best old tyre as the spare. At six years old, one of the tyres was cracking, so thought it was about time to change. When the spare was removed, it became obvious that the wheel hadn't been off in a while. It was 17 years old! And had no pressure in it at all and the tyre fitter said it almost "fell to bits" when taken off the rim. Last year we travelled about 5,000 miles in Europe and 2000 in the UK. Something tells me we would have been buered if we'd had a puncture!

So come on, get out and under, inside or wherever the spare is and check it! BTW. The Maxxis tyres cost me £238 for both, including everything. They are CP rated so I thought that a good price including cleaning the wheel rim and treating it against rust.

 

[wildebus]

I checked my spare ..... where is it?? If only one was actually supplied it would be handy.

I guess you could say that motorhome of yours has been carrying around unnecessary dead weight for 17 years? is it worth having it?

 

[Rumour]

I checked my spare ..... where is it?? If only one was actually supplied it would be handy.

I guess you could say that motorhome of yours has been carrying around unnecessary dead weight for 17 years? is it worth having it?

I am tending to agree. If it has not been off in 17 years, what is the likelihood of getting a puncture? And with the many tyre repair packs now used in many vehicles, would that be as good? I guess so. We are lucky that we are not short of load capacity. Rated at 3400kg and travel all up including the spare around 3250kg. But I am now thinking (doing the drawings in my head!) of how I could use that space. Maybe lower the floor in the small garage to increase the "stuff" we take with us? If I did, I think she would kill me!

 

[wildebus]

I am tending to agree. If it has not been off in 17 years, what is the likelihood of getting a puncture? And with the many tyre repair packs now used in many vehicles, would that be as good? I guess so. We are lucky that we are not short of load capacity. Rated at 3400kg and travel all up including the spare around 3250kg. But I am now thinking (doing the drawings in my head!) of how I could use that space. Maybe lower the floor in the small garage to increase the "stuff" we take with us? If I did, I think she would kill me!

back when LPG was a good idea for Petrol Car conversions (it still is really, if LPG was still on every forecourt!), a popular conversion technique was to remove the spare wheel and fit a doughnut LPG tank.
Maybe get a round tank in place of the spare wheel

In my last ex-minibus camper, the spare was moved from the rear to a new underslung carrier by the door in order to make way for a wheelchair lift. I relocated the spare from its new position onto the rear door and used the carrier to house a pair of Kerosene tanks to feed the diesel heater
I did wonder if I even needed the spare as I had 6 wheels already so one flat one wouldn't matter too much (I did have a rear flat twice due to problem valve and never noticed when driving as the other rear took all the weight fine )

 

[Trigger]

We have just had two Maxxis CP tyres fitted, so decided to get the spare taken off (under the van) and replace that and use the best old tyre as the spare. At six years old, one of the tyres was cracking, so thought it was about time to change. When the spare was removed, it became obvious that the wheel hadn't been off in a while. It was 17 years old! And had no pressure in it at all and the tyre fitter said it almost "fell to bits" when taken off the rim. Last year we travelled about 5,000 miles in Europe and 2000 in the UK. Something tells me we would have been buered if we'd had a puncture!

So come on, get out and under, inside or wherever the spare is and check it! BTW. The Maxxis tyres cost me £238 for both, including everything. They are CP rated so I thought that a good price including cleaning the wheel rim and treating it against rust.

WelI have just suffered the horror of a blow out in Spain , damage the under wheel arch too but I can fix that knackered the wheel too, had my spare wheel fitted in place onf the blown one and the spare tyre was as new, it turned out however that this tyre was 20 years old eeekk I have had this van for 10 years and it had new tyres fitted when I bought it, so I assumed the spare was replaced too but no it seems any way this tyre got us home from Spain via Calais so did a lot of miles on it, Yesterday I replaced both the rear tyres one of which was the 20 year old one , I have also been able to source a replacement wheel on E Bay, get it Thursday maybe and I will get a new tyre and valve fitted to that and it will be my spare, believe me you Do Not want a blow out .

 

[Vanterrier]

Spares are just insurance. You don't need it until something goes wrong and then it becomes worthwhile
Feeling lucky? Don't bother...
Personally I would not travel without a good spare any more than without insurance.
Neither would I set out on a holiday home or abroad without checking and knowing I can get the spare off, and it is in good condition.
K

 

[mistericeman]

Think I'll stick with a spare ....no amount of tyre goo would've fixed this last October on our way home ...

Fortunately it didn't let go on the national speed limit twisty descent down the Trawsfndd road to Bala
Or along the M56 with no hard shoulder and roadworks

BUT on a garage forecourt where I was able to change it and get on our way within 15 minutes .

 

[Geek]

We have just had two Maxxis CP tyres fitted, so decided to get the spare taken off (under the van) and replace that and use the best old tyre as the spare. At six years old, one of the tyres was cracking, so thought it was about time to change. When the spare was removed, it became obvious that the wheel hadn't been off in a while. It was 17 years old! And had no pressure in it at all and the tyre fitter said it almost "fell to bits" when taken off the rim. Last year we travelled about 5,000 miles in Europe and 2000 in the UK. Something tells me we would have been buered if we'd had a puncture!

So come on, get out and under, inside or wherever the spare is and check it! BTW. The Maxxis tyres cost me £238 for both, including everything. They are CP rated so I thought that a good price including cleaning the wheel rim and treating it against rust.

Ouch! At the MOT before last, I needed two of the four back tyres replaced. The other two were pretty well done, so I had all four replaced by the garage that did the MOT. They charged £240+VAT for the four tyres.