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Just having returned from Aldi and Sainsburys, ( it's all rockin' here y'know ) The thought occurs to me that having a gert big spare wheel atop the bootlid would be a bit of a pain lid-lifting-wise. I really must try to think about something else now......
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I'm sure I've worked on a Rover 2000TC or 3500 with the spare on the bootlid.
Can't recall, but the springs - there were no gas struts in those days - on the hinges must have been wound up to compensate.
No such luxuries with Land Rover - the spare just makes the bonnet very heavy.
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I'm sure I've worked on a Rover 2000TC or 3500 with the spare on the bootlid.
Both had the capability for it, but you had to have a specially strutted boot lid and not just bolt the wheel on. Normally the Rovers had a full-size spare stored vertically in the boot (and, in the case of my 3500, the battery on the other side) so the actual boot space was very limited indeed. The spare just fitted - another inch on the diameter would have made it quite hopeless. I find it interesting that, however much cars evolve, some of the design problems remain timeless. Battery split into two halves, as per the XK150 (I think), anyone? Or perhaps running boards will make a comeback.
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There is absolutely no justification for manufacturers fobbing us off with cans of glop or so-called space-savers ("penny-pinchers" more like!)
Trust British engineering eccentricity in the shape of Bristol Motors to come up with a brilliant engineering soluiton to spare wheel storage that absolutely no other company in the world ever thought of copying: goo.gl/kATdkR
Edited by Bilboman on 16/04/2016 at 01:08
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happily paid the 20 quid upgrade for the full size spare on swmbo fiat panda, happily its got space for the full size wheel as that is what it was originally designed for
my old corolla had a full size steel spare which in its 3 years had to be driven on the spare a few times, once an alloy had to be off for a week getting refurbished, other times waiting for new tyre to arrive on special order as exact tyre i wanted wasnt available
new car only has space for a space saver, so no chance of upgrading it, and worse than that it takes a rare size of tyre on the alloys, so i imagine in event of flat it will always be a case of waiting a day or two for a specially ordered tyre to arrive - impending nightmare that i wish you had not reminded me about!!!!!!!!!!!!
i think full size spares should be mandatory, although steel rather than alloy is ok
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re people calling breakdown service to change a wheel, yea i do this mainly nowadays, because the jack supplied with most new cars is far too flimsy to trust with an expesive motor, the scissor jack supplied with new cars is really too flimsy for me to trust in anything other than a dire emergency
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the scissor jack supplied with new cars is really too flimsy for me to trust in anything other than a dire emergency
Had a look at mine in the Roomie and its no more flimsy that the jacks supplied with the 1997 Polo or 1979 Maxi... I suspect that it will do the job its intended for (lifting one corner of the car so you can change the wheel) but thats about its limit... but if you wanted to do any more you'd buy a trolley jack, surely?!
I'd have thought that it would have to be strong enough otherwise in this compensation-based culture we have at the moment someone would sue them!
I suspect the reasons that many people don't change wheels when they burst is twofold...
1. The don't know how, and
2. The roads are too busy for them to risk it when they can get someone else to do it for them!
BTW I can remember P6 Rovers with wheels on the boot lid as well!
Edited by b308 on 22/02/2009 at 18:08
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You drive on the flat tyre until you reach a place where it's possible to change the wheel without getting in the way. Then you change the wheel, applying due care and diligence to the question of the jack and its footing.
Does anyone who thinks it is all right to call out the emergency services to change a wheel or clean mud, I ask you, off a rural road, ever wonder, I wonder, why everything is so expensive and inefficient these days and why councils and police forces don't seem to want to know?
Might not the deafening white noise of demands and complaints coming from passive, infantilised citizens be playing some sort of role here?
No offence to anyone of course.
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Does anyone who thinks it is all right to call out the emergency services to change a wheel . . . .?
I do. The goo and "pump" from our Picanto is in the loft and I bought a full-size spare (for which there is space) straight away. But still the idea of expecting my wife to change a wheel on a dark night is out of the question.
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the idea of expecting my wife to change a wheel on a dark night is out of the question.
Absolutely. I doubt if mine could do it in a garage with axle stands. Quite right, those physically incapable of changing a wheel shouldn't try to do so.
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On the contrary, my wife would almost certainly slap anyone who even hinted that she couldn't change a wheel whatever the prevailing climatic or ambient light conditions. For what it's worth neither is she a combat jacket favouring, round spectacle affecting, makeup eschewing sort of woman. Despite her rapidly advancing years, in between her commitments to her day job she still gets regular modeling assignments.
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>>On the contrary, my wife would almost certainly slap anyone who even hinted that she couldn't change a wheel whatever the prevailing climatic or ambient light conditions.
Last person I stopped to help happened to be female. Turned into the road I was trying to a right turn out of. She got out and looked at the side of the car for a while (I could not move but saw "steam") so wound down a window to check.
She had a flat and had driven until she could stop. She was about to phone her insurance. Myself and a dentist (worked in the building next to us) sorted it.
Took a lot off effort to move the wheel bolts so maybe she should have called her emergency breakdown which she will have had.
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a bit of a pain lid-lifting-wise. I really must try to think about something else now......
Not if the lid is hinged at the bottom and supported in the open position by hinged struts or chains, as such lids were in the days of small boots.
My fathers 20/25 RR limo had a spare on one (or both, can't remember) front wing, sitting in a sort of well. The inelegant rear of the car had a folding grille to strap luggage to.
The tail of that car always looked a bit naked to me. A big black steamer trunk on the grille at all times, or a couple of spare wheels, would have made it look better.
Edited by Lud on 22/02/2009 at 18:06
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funnily enough i used the jack supplied with the car to put new locking wheel nuts on over the weekend, just about happy having the wheels lifted a mm with 3 nuts still in, but the jack definitely not sturdy enough to risk for a wheel change if i can get the aa or rac to do it !
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Thats the crux of it! Why DIY when you can get someone else to do it! Though to be fair the jacks supplied with cars were never particularly stable things, even the old ones... I'd still have no problems using one if I needed to, you just have to be careful... if it can lift it off the ground by a mm or so then its done its job, surely!
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It may be ok at home on a known secure piece of ground/tarmac etc.
But I would strongly advise anybody who needs to change a wheel at the roadside to call out breakdown serivces if a member.
If you have ever changed a wheel at the roadside (I do quite a few), even in town, its dangerous. And thats without the stress/worry of the jack being secure/strong enough to do its job!
I am all for maintainance of vehicle, but not if causing other problems/risks!
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I'm at a loss for words here, its only a few years ago when me and thousands like me would change lorry wheels at the side of the road, and i'd be damned if i had to call breakdown services for such a minor thing as a car puncture.
As for the fairer sex being unable to physically change a wheel, thats why gentlemen were invented.
A gentleman would feel it his duty to help a lone woman by changing her wheel, and a lady would gracefully allow a gentleman that privilege.
Not for the first time do i feel that i have gone to sleep somewhere and awoken in a parallel universe.
No wonder the country's in a mess....mumble grumble.
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gordonbennet
i sort of sympathise
im tempted to go out and buy a more substantial jack to carry in my car, but the likelihood is i wont bother
the reality is that the aa or rac are usually there within 30 minutes and have a nice jack to change the wheel with no risk, with the bonus that you wont get covered in dirt if wearing nice clothes
but its important to be able to use a jack in real emergency when you cannot get a patrol out for some reason, but even then unless it was level flat good condition ground i wouldnt risk it with the jack that came with my car
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Heh heh gb...
Have you forgotten though that there's no such thing as a gentleman and women are supposed to be suspicious of approaches from 'strange men'?
Walking in a deserted area of Trenton, New Jersey, thirty-six years ago, I found myself overtaking a lone middle-aged woman. As I drew closer it became apparent that she was trying to hurry. Then she tripped over a projecting kerbstone and fell heavily tearing her tights or stockings and bleeding a bit from one knee. I leapt forward to help her up only to find her whimpering with terror on the ground and, I ask you, pulling her skirt down.
Her whole fantasy of the Wicked Man pursuing her, the nightmarish fall and then, horror of horrors, a strange man with a foreign accent leaning down with what was in fact a reassuring smile but to her looked like a snarl of evil triumph, became clear to me in that moment. So I stepped back, wished her a civil good day and left. All she could do was gibber.
That was thirty-six years back down the line of tabloid media and no education (although I admit it was in the US, more hideously advanced than us in these ways). These days she would blast me with a .44 magnum or taser at least.
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Am quite surprised at some of the comments on here . especially those who would put a space save on the FRONT!
Instructions in SWMBO's A2 said space saver must be fitted to the rear, so did the Honda. Consider HJs comment about braking and ask yourself where most of the braking is done. Those with RWD would but them on the front (presumably to maintain traction) should consider that the most important function a car has is STOPPING, not accelerating or going round corners!
Have driven on one once - In the Honda and decided it would be quicker to drop off the M25 and get a tyre than drive home on the space-saver (Staffordshire) sub 50mph.
SWMBO has driven on one once (Audi A2) and that was for one day while I took the wheel in (odd size tyres on the A2 (185/50 R16), and no-one carries stock) - she was not happy - at least that one was same diameter and kept ABS/ESP etc working correctly. It was one of the Vredenstein expanding ones designed specially for the car and only obtainable from Audi.
Better than a can of goo but prefer a real wheel and tyre.
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Having had an OSR wheel puncture on the M25,I called the RAC,not because I couldn't change the wheel but because I wanted protection from the stream of HGVs with their wheels running along the hard shoulder-anyway a police range rover turned up first ,the observer got out,told the driver to back up 100 yards,put his big blue flashing lights on and assisted me with the wheel change.Then he radioed his control room to turn off the RAC.One of my cars has a narrower section spare of the same rolling radius as the normal wheels-no speed restriction mentioned.The wide alloys are too big to go in the spare wheel space anyway.
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Instructions in SWMBO's A2 said space saver must be fitted to the rear so did the Honda.
That really shows up the stupidity of the things... if you have a puncture on one of your fronts you end up having to change two tyres... madness!
Edited by b308 on 23/02/2009 at 09:15
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