sawood12
New member
After many discussions on this forum regarding spare wheels vs. a couple of cans of tyre-weld I thought i'd post today's experience. Well today I got a phone call from my Wife stranded by the road-side int he SMax with a puncture. I rushed round as she would have had no idea how to operate the compressor and sealant (no spare wheel with the SMax like most new cars these days). I connected up the tyre compressor, screwed in the bottle of sealant and switched it on - no inflation. What I did notice once the compressor was on was a 1 inch gash in the side wall which only became visible once the air was blowing out of it. Oh C**p! what do you do now. Waiting around for the AA with a hungry and screaming 1 year old in the back was not an option for the wife. If only I had a spare wheel!! For the extra bit of weight you're lugging around in the boot they are worth their weight in gold for that one time (however unlikely) you might need it.
Luckily we were not far from home so I drove it back at about 5mph and will remove the wheel tomorrow and buy a new tyre. Still looking on the bright side I only replaced the front tyres in June so I will only need to buy one tyre - i'm a stickler for matching axel sets with tyres so if the other tyre was more worn i'd have probably been looking at two new tyres.
The thing that is bothering me now is I think the tyre has been slashed. The gash is on the front drivers side so not really easy to cause such damage to the side wall. I had a knock on the door late last night from a foreign door to door art student (allegedly) peddling his wares. I politely told him I was not interested so now i'm wondering if he's slashed my tyre. It is on the same side of the car that is up against a bush and plant bed so plenty of cover for him to hide behind as he waggled his craft knife into the tyre. Hope i'm wrong but I just can't see how you can cause that sort of damage to the sidewall of a tyre on the drivers side.
Anyway, moral of the story is, you can't beat a proper spare wheel!
Luckily we were not far from home so I drove it back at about 5mph and will remove the wheel tomorrow and buy a new tyre. Still looking on the bright side I only replaced the front tyres in June so I will only need to buy one tyre - i'm a stickler for matching axel sets with tyres so if the other tyre was more worn i'd have probably been looking at two new tyres.
The thing that is bothering me now is I think the tyre has been slashed. The gash is on the front drivers side so not really easy to cause such damage to the side wall. I had a knock on the door late last night from a foreign door to door art student (allegedly) peddling his wares. I politely told him I was not interested so now i'm wondering if he's slashed my tyre. It is on the same side of the car that is up against a bush and plant bed so plenty of cover for him to hide behind as he waggled his craft knife into the tyre. Hope i'm wrong but I just can't see how you can cause that sort of damage to the sidewall of a tyre on the drivers side.
Anyway, moral of the story is, you can't beat a proper spare wheel!
