Something to check....

[carbonman]

I went green laning up on exmoor on saturday with surfsup and were having a great time until.. see below pic...

So with a busted rim and a flat tyre though ok, we will troop on and put the spare on.
Which was a fine plan until I discovered that the spare wheel was held on by 2 wheel nuts and a LOCKING wheel nut!! ARgggggggggg I have never seen a key for this. I phoned the guys who imported it for me, and they wern't aware of even being a key on there, so I was a tad stuck and with limited tools.
Long and the short of it I ended up having to phone the RAC!!! And knock me over with a feather, after I requested a landrover type recovery vehicle, they sent a guy in a Nissan Nivara, fully loaded 3 tons of it!
He was making my green lane wider as he came, but was fitted complete with a diff locker on the rear and just blasted down to me. Took off the locking wheel nut, and changed my wheel for me!!!

The moral of this story is, if you have a imported surf, you might be well worth checking your spare to make sure its not held on my a locking wheel nut like mine.
And second, the RAC deserve a medal for sending that guy out! Thought he would see the beginning of the lane and turn back, but credit to the patrol man, he just kept coming!

On a side note, a garage is going to have a go at hammering the rim back into shape, anyone know if this is likely to work, or should I just leave the spare on change the tyres over and put the bent one as the spare once hammered out...?

Another fun time in the surf!

[Koi]

If its the standard rear mounted spare, I think you may find you already have the key, its the one you use to start your motor (the ignition key).

[Morr]

Both my current and previous Surf came with a locking nut on the spare, old style rotating chrome type, the handy bit is that they both operate from the normal vehicle key.

[carbonman]

Both my current and previous Surf came with a locking nut on the spare, old style rotating chrome type, the handy bit is that they both operate from the normal vehicle key.

No unfortunatly is wasn't a "key" operated key if you get me, its the sort that has its own seperate socket to fit which you would then plug your ratchet into..

[robnw67]

Check it

I think there's some good advice here. After a quick check, I found that I had the bottle jack, but no operating handle. I don't have the wheel winch lowering handle and my spare wheel was so corroded that it couldn't hold pressure!!

I would have been well stuck in the event of a puncture. At least I can sort something out now!

Rob

[Fish]

I think there's some good advice here. After a quick check, I found that I had the bottle jack, but no operating handle. I don't have the wheel winch lowering handle and my spare wheel was so corroded that it couldn't hold pressure!!

I would have been well stuck in the event of a puncture. At least I can sort something out now!

Rob

Will go and check out whats missing on mine, it would be just my luck to puncture after reading this and have no crank handle for the underslung spare.

Cheers
Fish

[celticwolf]

good advice

I never thought of checking that i am off now to do so.
Thanks.

[Vagrant No2]

I used to a AA patrolPERSON ,as they called us . Many a motor with no locking wheel nut key , jack , handle , wheel brace . Especially the Merc's with alloys as road wheel and a steel spare , you need shorter wheel studs for these as the long ones rip the handbrake shoes off when the wheel turns . Many a person said they had took the little bag of bolts out as they did not know what they were for .

Goodbye was answer as I drove off and they had to get a mobile tyre fitter out to swap the tyres over on rims or for a new tyre at a nice price .

Rick ( going out to check his Astra for kit)

[TonyN]

If the wheel is steel, it'll bang out OK, done it many times. Alloy will crack.

[da SLUG man]

i can't believe people go out so ill prepared!... um... i'd better get myself a spare out the garage!