Safe Speed Forums

Now ,not so long ago I had a puncture on front drivers side on M6 -FORTUNATELY it was in Cumbria ,where there still seems to be a bit of courtesy on motorways . Called out AA ,and after getting details ,read me the safety act - I replied that both me & passenger were in a position of safety ( baffled him ,did that ) -and wearing Hi viz -we did get visit from HATO - who parked behind us ( thought that was good -placing us in danger ,when they took off) and a traffic car ( possibly Ian H ,police member) ,who stopped after us - and commented ( complimentary) on our visibility-he jokingly said he'd seen us a mile or so away - but approved .He left us ,having remarked that we were safe and visible .I got the impression that he was surprised to see someone take precautions as we had done .

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lets bring sanity back to speed limits.
Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on

Well, oddly enough (for someone who hardly ever gets punctures), I got one today! I was just pulling out of a junction and thought it felt a "bit odd". 100 yards later decided to pull in as the road noise had changed, and found a flat rear tyre. Sidewall damage too. Must have been some broken glass in the gutter or something. This was especially irritating because (a) it was chucking it down with rain and (b) I was already late for a meeting a good 75 miles away! Anyway, I called work to ask them to tell the company I was visiting that I'd be a bit later and they offered to send someone out to me! I told them I was fine as the car had a spare wheel, jack and everything, and they seemed to think this was some kind of amazingly complex feat of engineering!

Anyway, observations were:

1. I was very glad I had a full-sized spare with no speed restrictions as I still had a total of about 200 miles to do before I got home this evening.
2. I was slightly irritated that it was a scummy, rusty steel one rather than a matching alloy - but that's just vanity on my part!
3. I don't have a spare wheel well - thereby maintaining the structural integrity and purity of design of my floor. Unfortunately, that means the spare lives under the floor in a carrier and you wouldn't believe just how FILTHY it gets on a day like today! Needless to say, I really relished doing this in the rain (and putting the old one back)! Stuff the structural integrity! I think I'd rather be clean!
4. Erno Rubik must have designed the stupid plastic carrier that the jack is supposed to fit into - I gave up and just threw it in the back!

Can we please change the title of this thread, as it was NOT the space saver that exploded.

My Apologies - it was sloppy reporting and I copied the main parts of the article

Mea Culpa !

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Gordon Brown saying I got the country into it's current economic mess so I'll get us out of it is the same as Bomber Harris nipping over to Dresden and offering to repair a few windows.

Chaos, panic and disorder - my work here is done.

http://www.wildcrafts.co.uk

I find it odd that when they put a spare wheel on the back of a 4x4 they give it a nice protective cover; but when they put it in the filthiest location possible, under the car, it has no protection at all. I once had to call the AA because the screw that lowered the spare wheel was siezed. Mind you that was a French car.

Incidentally, why are space saver spare wheels restricted to fifty miles distance. Are they cream-crackered after that and in need of replacement?

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When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. H.G. Wells
When I see a youth in a motor car I do d.c.brown

I don't think the protective cover on a rear door-mounted spare is for the wheel's benefit. Cars (as opposed to goods vehicles - and that's significant because some 4x4s do get type approved as "goods" vehicles) need to meet the "Exterior Projections" requirements. They put a limit on the sharpness of any "contactable" edges. The cover is there to present a nice, pedestrian-friendly, rounded surface to the unfortunate pedestrian (or cyclist) when the 4x4 driver is out doing their job of running them over (or off the road, at least). Note that some spares have a crappy vinyl bag over them, which is an aftermarket item that would never have met the type approval requirements, but protects the other road users in the same way an an orange bag over a boat propeller might (i.e. not at all). I believe their primary purpose is to act as free advertising for the dealership that sold the vehicle or, in many cases, to show the world how rough, tough and macho a vehicle they are following. Note that in these cases, the roughness, toughness, and macho-ness of the vehicle is usually inversely proportional to the roughness, toughness and macho-ness of the picture on the tyre!

As for the 50 mile limit, I've no idea either. Space-savers obviously don't have the amount of tread on them, when new, that a "proper" tyre has, so it could be that 50 miles would be likely to see it bald anyway. I guess they'd also be a very soft compond to give them as much grip as possible so that the car stood half a chance of stopping in a (vaguely) straight line if you had to do so in a hurry whilst wearing one. Again, that would be likely to limit their useful lives. That's all speculation on my part though - I don't honestly know!

Ah, just spotted this. YES, I had that once too. The French love doing this to us "Rosbifs" - presumably because they don't get as much rain! I had to jack the car up on the spare whel carrier until the carrier bent enough to unhook itself from the hook. Of course, my smugness was short-lived because the deflated wheel then wasn't "fat" enough to hold the carrier against it's hook and because it was seized, I couldn't tighten it either! I then had to lob the grubby wheel in the back and tie the carrier to the back bumper! The current car is German and has a wire that passes round a "windlass" and is lowered to the ground by turning the wheel key on a bolt poking up through the floor on the inside of the car. It worked fine, just messy.

As an aside, I must relate the tale of one car manufacturer I worked for that secured the spare wheel in a well in the boot with a bolt. Someone in the purchasing department managed to save a bit of money by sourcing a smaller "standard" bolt, rather than the "special" - which was essentially a wheel bolt with a much longer threaded portion. This was a great idea until someone twigged that we'd have to supply TWO spanners - one for the wheel bolts and another one for the spare wheel bolt!

I've had a few citroens and the first thing I do on all (except the C4 which has an internal well) is to cover the thread with a liberal smear of lm grease - never had a problem with it.

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Gordon Brown saying I got the country into it's current economic mess so I'll get us out of it is the same as Bomber Harris nipping over to Dresden and offering to repair a few windows.

Chaos, panic and disorder - my work here is done.

http://www.wildcrafts.co.uk

Takes me back yeeeears to days of BMC J SERIES 15CWT vans( 60's-70's) .where the spare was held in a carrier as per above .After a spate of front wheels parting company ,an instruction was issued that in the event of a puncture ,after changing the wheel the vehicle must be returned to base to have the wheel tightened with a Spider .As above they got dirty ,mud caking in the nut space ,allowing the wheel to be seen to be tightened ,and when the dirt broke away - off came the nuts( as per story told by mate of mine -who wondered whose wheel had just run in front of him -minutes later he found out as van lurched over) .The replacements ( Commer vans -which had handbrake on front wheels due to poor grip on the rears) had the spares enclosed in a plastic bag .Strangely ,Transits still use this method , along with a bolt to try & stop spare wheel theft ( by honest folks) - the professionals just cut the wire .-but never heard of a Transit loosing a wheel this way .However in the latter days it was decreed that the driver was not qualified ( on HSE grounds) to change a wheel ( something I agreed with on fronts of LWB Hi Tops) as the jacks were deemed to be inadequate .Certainly not one decision I was going to challenge .

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lets bring sanity back to speed limits.
Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on

... ya picked a fine time to leave me loose wheel...

[\Kenny Rogers\ off]