On 19/10/2018 11:01, NY wrote:
"Richard" wrote in message
news
And don't get me started on the pillock who invented the space-saving
spare wheel.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-20984194

Ah good. We know where to send the hate mail ;-)

It sounds like a good idea, but it depends critically on that naive
assumption that "I asked how many times that person had used their spare
wheel. I was told they had never used it." My experience is different.
Driving on poorer country lanes and places where there may be crap on
the road, I have probably had a puncture every couple of years. The
other week I had to go off the edge of a road surface onto a verge to
make way for an oncoming tractor, and there was a lip on the edge of the
tarmac with a wheel-width trough in the grass verge. My wheel went into
it and the road surface gouged a hole in the inner sidewall of my almost
brand new tyre.

I had that, but with the tyre being toitally unusable, in a hire car,
with no spare, in the countryside and with no breakdown cover, as it was
a Northern Ireland hire car and I was a couple of miles into the Republic.

We had been to a funeral earlier in the day, followed by a reception. We
were just heading back for a quick visit to the cemetery.

The end result was that we had to wait 2 hours for someone to get to us,
pay for recovery and for a very overpriced replacement and the car was
out of commission until midday the following day - leaving us stranded
at the house we were staying at, with no transport, little food and
panicking whether we'd get the car back in time to get back to Belfast
for our flight home.

The whole evening and following morning ruined; a last trip to the grave
missed; far more money than necessary spent; and a whole lot of worry.
All when a spare, even a space-saver, would have allowed us to be on our
way in 10 minutes and we could have got a tyre at half the price the
next monring.

It was a small enough hole that I didn't notice and
completed my journey, but then found I had a flat tyre a hour later. And
I've lost count of the number of nails that I've had through the tread -
lucky most of the time the puncture has been repairable.

I've had or been a passenger in a car that has had a puncture, many
times over the years and almost all were unrepairable (due to position).
At least four that I can remember would have left us stranded if we
hadn't had a spare - one on the way to catch a ferry!

The problem with tyre sealant and inflator packs is that they are only a
get-you-home measure.

The problem is that for any puncture that can't simply be re-inflated
withot sealant for long enough to complete the journey, I have never
found sealant to work at all.

The tyre can never be repaired and must always be
replaced, whereas with a conventional tyre many punctures can be
repaired, allowing you to get a normal life out of tyre and not having
to replace it while it still has plenty of tread.

I've never yet had a wheel whose nuts I couldn't undo. With a cranked or
cross-shaped wheelbrace it is easy:

Even with a standard one, suddenly applying my weight on it has always
shifted the nuts.

snip

Modern parallelogram jacks don't make it easy because the handle won't
stay extended (it's designed to fold away for storage) and there is so
little ground clearance that I often scrape my knuckles on the ground. A
hexagonal nut on the side, into which you put the wheelbrace, would be
so much better, as you can disconnect the brace and rotate it back from
3 o'clock to 9 o'clock before putting it back on to turn it from 9 to 3
(or vice versa for lower the jack), for the initial stage when there
isn't enough ground clearance to turn the brace through the lower half
of its rotation.

Even better, you can use a ratchet or a battery drill.

SteveW