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1 or 2 spare tyres?? 1 or 2 spare tyres??
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Equipping the Overland Vehicle Vehicle accessories - Making your home away from home comfortable, safe and reliable.
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  #1  
Old 8 Jan 2008
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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
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  #2  
Old 8 Jan 2008
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Quote:
Originally Posted by m37charlie View Post
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.
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  #3  
Old 9 Jan 2008
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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).
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  #4  
Old 9 Jan 2008
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Originally Posted by Frank Warner View Post
Don't you people take repair equipment? Patches, glue .. tubes ..
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
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  #5  
Old 9 Jan 2008
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Question 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
Last edited by noel di pietro; 9 Jan 2008 at 18:57.
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  #6  
Old 9 Jan 2008
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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.
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  #7  
Old 9 Jan 2008
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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
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  #8  
Old 9 Jan 2008
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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.
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  #9  
Old 11 Jan 2008
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Originally Posted by noel di pietro View Post
what i am really looking for is how many people actually got into the situation where they needed the second spare
Noel

Earlier this year we were crossing Mongolia with two Transit vans with different wheels (bad planning I know!). One van carried two spares and had three punctures within an hour. We couldn't break the bead to change/repair the tyre. We even tried running over the bead with the second van, but this didn't work. Ended up with a five hour trip to a town with repair facilities.

It can and does happen. The second van had four spares and needed three of them to get to repair facilities. Maybe off road tyres are easier to change.
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Last edited by wrinkly; 11 Jan 2008 at 20:09.
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  #10  
Old 12 Jan 2008
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When on the rocky section, as said earlier, get some real good pressure into the tyres.

Even if it means going above the recommended by up to 5 psi.
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