No Spaere Wheel or Tyre for Tuscans
Discussion
I recently had a high speed blow out on my Tuscan Red Rose on the way down to Le Mans.
I must say thet the car behaved well and came to a controlled stop with no real dramas.
WELL DONE TVR !
The problem starts when you get the 2 cans of foam out of the boot and realise that they are completly useless for anything other than a tiny slow puncture.
They will not fill a split in the side wall or any other defect which may occur.
Trying to get a rear tyre for a Tuscan in France is almost impossible.
They don't tell you that in the showroom when you hand over your money do they !
I had to get a spare wheel and tyre sent out from the UK before I could continue the journey which took 3 days. (Many thanks to Westovers @ Blandford for the loan and the delivery driver Dave)
All other Tuscan owners or any other car with no spare should think about what happens if !!!!!!!
What ever happened to the space saver spare or any other get you home device ?
Please comment.
I must say thet the car behaved well and came to a controlled stop with no real dramas.
WELL DONE TVR !
The problem starts when you get the 2 cans of foam out of the boot and realise that they are completly useless for anything other than a tiny slow puncture.
They will not fill a split in the side wall or any other defect which may occur.
Trying to get a rear tyre for a Tuscan in France is almost impossible.
They don't tell you that in the showroom when you hand over your money do they !
I had to get a spare wheel and tyre sent out from the UK before I could continue the journey which took 3 days. (Many thanks to Westovers @ Blandford for the loan and the delivery driver Dave)
All other Tuscan owners or any other car with no spare should think about what happens if !!!!!!!
What ever happened to the space saver spare or any other get you home device ?
Please comment.
Interesting - did you have breakdown cover ? I assumed (without checking) if I was in your position I could get my car towed somewhere to be repaired whilst I travelled onwards with a hire car if I wanted. Why was it so difficult to get a tyre in France ? I think the AA European cover will courier parts out to you if necesssary thought.
Touch wood - the last puncture I had on a road was 16 years ago. As always these cans of foam things are a good idea until you have to use them and they don't do what you want!
Touch wood - the last puncture I had on a road was 16 years ago. As always these cans of foam things are a good idea until you have to use them and they don't do what you want!
Getting large tyres in France is extremely difficult - even in Paris. The French just don't seem to drive cars that use them.
On cars with the same size wheels front and back it's probably best to take a spare tyre, not on a rim, and get a local tyre fitter to fit it in case of emergency.
On cars with the same size wheels front and back it's probably best to take a spare tyre, not on a rim, and get a local tyre fitter to fit it in case of emergency.
The bloody can of guff you get is utterly useless, having a blow out near Rome was a grim experience. You may have foreign breakdown cover but its a local joker that comes out to deal with it.
Said joker broke the front splitter, destination garage was some buddy of his and not a bridgestone dealer and tried extremely hard to rip me off for the tyre (you don't get a choice where your taken). Most the mutants at the garage are more interested in gawping at the car than actually doing anything.
Had to wait a week for a tyre to be delivered so left the car, and continued in a hire car. Obviously didn't leave them the keys.
Before I went one the trip contacted the RAC about replacement vehicle, was told we get you a car as similar as possible to the one that breaks down. So who thinks a 1 litre fiat thing is in anyway like a tuscan. Even the luggage doesn't fit as the boot is half the size of the tvr. After much arguaing as is the italian way got a reasonble passat esate (that only just took all the luggage).
Returned a week later to find nothing had happend, appartently they couldn't get the wheel off as they couldn't get a jack under it (nice one tvr, no wheel brace, no jack, no spare) hence had to do it myself with the jack and brace from the hire car.
I should add that all problems were due to the local clowns and that RAC europe in france were very helpful, I found it quite staggerring 2000 years ago they had a good shot at conquering the planet now they can't even change a wheel.
I was somewhat relieved to get out of there. France, Belgium, Luxembourg though have all been quite reasonable places to break down in.
Said joker broke the front splitter, destination garage was some buddy of his and not a bridgestone dealer and tried extremely hard to rip me off for the tyre (you don't get a choice where your taken). Most the mutants at the garage are more interested in gawping at the car than actually doing anything.
Had to wait a week for a tyre to be delivered so left the car, and continued in a hire car. Obviously didn't leave them the keys.
Before I went one the trip contacted the RAC about replacement vehicle, was told we get you a car as similar as possible to the one that breaks down. So who thinks a 1 litre fiat thing is in anyway like a tuscan. Even the luggage doesn't fit as the boot is half the size of the tvr. After much arguaing as is the italian way got a reasonble passat esate (that only just took all the luggage).
Returned a week later to find nothing had happend, appartently they couldn't get the wheel off as they couldn't get a jack under it (nice one tvr, no wheel brace, no jack, no spare) hence had to do it myself with the jack and brace from the hire car.
I should add that all problems were due to the local clowns and that RAC europe in france were very helpful, I found it quite staggerring 2000 years ago they had a good shot at conquering the planet now they can't even change a wheel.
I was somewhat relieved to get out of there. France, Belgium, Luxembourg though have all been quite reasonable places to break down in.
ehasler said:
Even more importantly, if you fit the space saver where do you put the original wheel afterwards?
THAT's the real problem. In my Boxster S if you get a blow out you can put on the space saver...but the only place the damn burst tyre will go is on the passenger seat. Absolutely no good at all if you have a passenger and luggage.
I had TWO tyres blown out by a pot-hole in Scotland earlier this month and was totally scuppered...had to be recovered to a garage which, luckily, sourced tyres for me, fitted them and sent me on my way...
I used to carry tyre weld - but as you say..its not good for split tyres anyway so one might as well rely on the recovery service.
When touring with the Chimaera we take the space saver out to give us more luggage room - use to carry tyre weld but wouldn't bother now...
Hi all,
Well I thought I would read PH forums after returning with my Tuscan S from a 4 day driving holiday around France... the car came back from Reims on a recovery truck because of a flat tyre!
No 245/40ZR18s in France we were told - we would have to wait 4 days.
Most of my rants have already been mentioned on this thread, the tyre weld gunk in the boot is completely useless (unless slow puncture i suppose), no space saver, etc..
We were completely at the mercy of a local Renault dealer.. all the mechanics just stared at the car, pointing at the exhausts and saying "moto".. I was more concerned that our return ferry was leaving Le Havre in 5 hours!
Luckily my wife had European cover with Greenflag who were very good once they decided it would take too long to courier a tyre vs. local hotel stay + recovery truck back to Le Havre. We got put up for a night in a hotel in Reims and the following morning a local recovery service drove us nearly 200 miles to the port - 5.5 hours! They were very careful with the car, no nasty splitter incidents! Greenflag are also covering the ticket amendment costs.
I dread to think how much it would have cost for the recovery if we had to pay personally...
I rang Micheldever Tyres in Hampshire on the ferry and they ordered up a Toyo tyre which arrived in stock the following day! 166 quid all in.
Apart of the flat tire, luckily which happening at the end of the holiday, the France trip was brilliant. Managed to fit in a quick blast along the Mulsanne/Arnage .. nice !
Email me for any route/hotel recommendations. Stayed the Loire Valley moving on through the Champagne region.
Cheers, Chris
03 Tuscan S
Well I thought I would read PH forums after returning with my Tuscan S from a 4 day driving holiday around France... the car came back from Reims on a recovery truck because of a flat tyre!
No 245/40ZR18s in France we were told - we would have to wait 4 days.
Most of my rants have already been mentioned on this thread, the tyre weld gunk in the boot is completely useless (unless slow puncture i suppose), no space saver, etc..
We were completely at the mercy of a local Renault dealer.. all the mechanics just stared at the car, pointing at the exhausts and saying "moto".. I was more concerned that our return ferry was leaving Le Havre in 5 hours!
Luckily my wife had European cover with Greenflag who were very good once they decided it would take too long to courier a tyre vs. local hotel stay + recovery truck back to Le Havre. We got put up for a night in a hotel in Reims and the following morning a local recovery service drove us nearly 200 miles to the port - 5.5 hours! They were very careful with the car, no nasty splitter incidents! Greenflag are also covering the ticket amendment costs.
I dread to think how much it would have cost for the recovery if we had to pay personally...
I rang Micheldever Tyres in Hampshire on the ferry and they ordered up a Toyo tyre which arrived in stock the following day! 166 quid all in.
Apart of the flat tire, luckily which happening at the end of the holiday, the France trip was brilliant. Managed to fit in a quick blast along the Mulsanne/Arnage .. nice !
Email me for any route/hotel recommendations. Stayed the Loire Valley moving on through the Champagne region.
Cheers, Chris
03 Tuscan S
TVR only provide tyre foam, same as some other manufacturers, they dont give you a spare as punctures these days are pretty rare (relative to years gone by) and anyway you wouldn't fit the wheel and tyre in the boot if you have any luggage
The moral is to make sure you have adequate breakdown cover before you go or else some other way of getting your car fixed or back home
As for no jack or wheel brace, well you dont have a spare so why would you need a jack or wheel brace?
Graham
The moral is to make sure you have adequate breakdown cover before you go or else some other way of getting your car fixed or back home
As for no jack or wheel brace, well you dont have a spare so why would you need a jack or wheel brace?
Graham
Rich...philipleslie67 said:
I have seem that many of you rate the S-03's. Bridgestone "advertise" their RE050 is hard walled tyres that will run flat up to 90kph. Has anyone used these tyres??
I don't know about RE050's but I spoke to the factory about tyres a few weeks ago and they said they really liked Bridgestone SO2’s, but when they became a bit difficult to source they tried SO3’s. Apparently they found the sidewalls on SO3’s are a little hard so changed to Toyos because they’re softer. So if the sidewalls on SO3's are too hard then I suspect that RE050's would definitely be too hard - but I don't claim to be a tyre expert!
(Incidentally the factory also said they'd tried Michelins and had found them to be extremely good but there is some sort of supply problem).
Ianf said:
Wonder if we could just carry an inner tube? At least any tyre fitter could fit it and it should allow you to continue?
This can be VERY dangerous - modern tyres are not designed to use inner tubes, the inner surface is not smoothed off and so the tube and the tyre rub as the tyre flexes (as it hits and leaves the road) and so the tube gets very hot and goes bang - so you are once again stuck with a flat, only this time it will be sudden and could end in an accident.....which is not a good thing.......
Graham
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