1 or 2 spare tyres??
 

On my trip around Africa in 2005/2006 (60.000km) I carried around one spare wheel and one tyre. From the Netherlands to Cape Town (west) we had zero punctures. On our way back (east) we had 5 punctures. Never really needed the 2nd tyre though. Used it only for rotating purposes to keep even thread on all tyres. During our trip we never met anybody who ever needed the 2nd spare tyre! Now I am changing the set-up of the car and the 2nd tyre is a real menace to store in or on the car!

I would like to get some feedback from the field if your experiences are the same. Maybe this “take 2 spare tyres” dogma is a bit overdone!

Would be grateful to get your opinions!

Cheers,
Noel
exploreafrica.web-log.nl

Same experience(but no punctures) and now same dilema:helpsmilie:No room inside or on roof so will have to fabricate 2nd carrier on rear. I have seen mounts on the side, which is fine in the dunes etc but on overgrown tracks a disaster.
Probably going to ditch the 2nd spare along with the fridge, too many spares and about 1/2 ton of gadgets:confused1:

On my last trip I backed over a huge spike in a field and killed a tyre. I had two spares so was now down to 1 spare.

When returning through Spain from Africa I got a flat tyre on the side of the motorway in a howling gale with lashing rain at 1am. Down to no spares and no humour for a while.

After sleeping for the night in the next motorway services I woke to see the back tyre on the same side as the previous nights flat was also flat - I had driven over a bunch of nails it seems. Stuck in the middle of Spain at a motorway services area on a Sunday. Ho hum...

Take two. It gives you much more piece of mind and ability to travel when one tyre is killed. Rubber is soft and easy to puncture no matter how careful you are you aren't in control of everything you drive over.

You need 4 wheels that go round at all times.

Take 1 mounted and 1 unmounted spare. Any less is asking for trouble. I've "been there, done that".
Better yet, 2 unmounted spares (plus 1 mounted) if you have an oddball size like a Unimog.

Charlie

And if you're the least bit creative you'll stuff the bare carcass full of stuff, being used as storage space.

Repair ?
 

Don't you people take repair equipment? Patches, glue .. tubes ..

Reading Len Beadells books (an Australia surveyor/explorer Australian Explorer Len Beadell ) he fixed his flats daily .. think he only had the one spare.

Take patches, glue and tubes .. case patches too (for tyre case repairs) and you'll be able to fix the flat tyre.. oh and you'll want tyre leavers, bead breakers (unless you have some clever rims) and an air pump. And one spare tyre for a fast change (in cities/motorways).

Take 2
 

2 tyres off rims and knackered on Ekok-Mamfe. Thank the all powerfull for the fact that we had 2 spares. Take 2 + repair equipment. But remember that a buggered side wall is not a simple repair.

If you're planning on any serious off roading or even just off-the-beaten-tracking I would say 2 spares make it all the more comfortable. It's not pleasant babying a car over rocks when you know the next flat is a trouble maker.

No one (OK, no one sensible) heads for the desert here in Egypt with less than 2 spares.

JT

Well let's see. In Baja in April a Koni shock broke in half and ate out my entire sidewall. I found a used 395/85R20 XML (the rest of my tires are XZL) in Tucson and for whatever reason it fell apart with two large sidewall splits 800 miles later; perhaps prior abuse.
Fix these problems with patches and glue?
This sort of thing is why I carry two spares.

Charlie

actual destroyed tyres
 

Thanks for all of the advise. I know about the spares, tubes, repair kits, the compressor, back-up footpump, patches etc. E.g. I am carrying a variaty of patches of which one in 8mm thick and has the size of a keybord! Can mend a truck tyre with that.

But what i am really looking for is how many people actually got into the situation where they needed the second spare because the first was buggered! The reality just does not seems to correlate with the theory. From the above reactions I see 3 cases where the second spare was needed because the other (flat) one was beyond repair. So how many more people did serious 4x4 overlanding and how many actually destroyed a tyre and on top needed the second spare! I am not counting simple flats. I had 5 in 60K km and any one of them I repaired with a plug from the outside. Personlly I met nobody who actually destroyed a tyre beyond repair.

Cheers,

Noel

exploreafrica.web-log.nl

It's your decision at the end of day. You need to decide where you are likely to go, what your driving style is like and most importantly imho how long you are going for. The more weeks you go for, the more likely you are to drive over something nasty.

But it's a good question to ask.

"he fixed his flats daily"

I take two full wheel/tyre combinations as spares. Simply because I can't be arsed trying to fit a 14 ply tyre in the middle of a sand storm, civil war or down pour. I travel by myself so like to avoid having to fix anything out in the wild if possible. Bolt off, bolt on.

But people who are more mechanically minded than me actually enjoy fixing things so each to their own in that regard. At the end of the day you need to be able to have 4 wheels that go round so that you can drive off. I have little ability at playing the butch 4x4 tyre man in the jungle so I travel prepared as much as possible (and with a gold buddha on my dashboard to remind myself that it's all just stuff and sometimes it will go wrong so don't stress too much over it).

On a landy, one on the back door and one on the bonnet works fine - reinforce the bonnet with a large chequer plate first.

1 spare
 

Hi Noel,

Although I ripped a sidewall in Angola, I would vote for one spare, a spare tube and repair kit if you're running reasonably normal tyre sizes.

By now, I've done 60k Km overland traveling, and the only tyre problem I had was the ripped sidewall in Angola (stupid mistake while trying to catch up with a car that thought I was in front of him ... .)

I've stopped taking the second spare. Actually, I stopped taking many things. It appears that a lightly loaded car doesn't break things so easily... .

You'll have to get far away from civilisation to get in a situation that one spare doesn't get you to a place where the the busted tyre can be fixed. I also feel that if you run over something that punctures two tyres at the same time, it might as well puncture three or four, in which case you're as stuck with one spare as with two.

Rob

I have destroyed a tyre on a uk motorway. a big bolt went through the bottom and out the side and twisted around.. So it can happen anywhere. taking an extra spare in the long run does not cost anything. So i would say take the spare wheel and spare tyre, seems less trouble than walking.

I've yet to have a puncture...
 

but I would always travel with two spares, in my case on an 80 series TLC on a rear arm and one on the roof rack. I agree completely with Darrin's comments above - and it's enough hard work just to get one wheel and tyre off and replace it with a spare. They're very heavy...

We have driven from North Yorkshire UK to Melbourne OZ (with a couple of water crossings) altogether 13000miles so far. We carry two spare wheels with the same Michelin XZY tyres on and I have never even taken them off the roof rack. The tyres I got before we set off were second hand, they were all spare wheels off MOD armoured Land rovers, during this trip they have had a hard time but I have never had a puncture (fingers crossed). We are also carrying two spare inner tubes (unused). I am also thinking about ditching the second spare in OZ but of course you know that when I do that I will need it the very next day!

Hope this helps

Jason

2 tyres and wheels
 

I have never had a puncture overlanding, but while working full time in the bush I was caught out a few times by the double puncture palaver (usually when the tyres were getting to the end of their useful life). After that I always carried two wheels in the back of the pick-up. I know that Len Beadell probably got out all his kit while his Billy boiled and mended his trusty cross plies with a bit of formica glue and old balloons and full respect to him and pioneers like him! Personally I like two (hate that feeling of being in the middle of nowhere and down to one 4 tyres) and yes I carry a tubeless repair kit, but to be honest local "vulcanisers" do it so much better (well, less sweating anyway).

Besides my IEF rear bumper looks plain daft unless there are two wheels hanging off the back!!! And I have destroyed tyres beyond repair, but that was largely due to being stupid and running really low pressures for comfort in bouncing bakkies! FWIW bridgestone "duellers" seemed really weak with regard to that...

Gil