I'm on a one month tour of the Atlantique coast of France and it's been fabulous for my purposes. I can remind you that I customised the rear as a sleeping and storage compartment. That's worked really well.

However, early on in Brittany I kerbed a tyre to avoid an oncoming coach and within two Km's I was on the rim. Because of the modification I begged Green Flag to recover me and leave me overnight on the forecourt of a good tyre dealer. Their local agent wouldn't hear of it and the mechanic was very critical. "Don't know what they do in England, but we are professionals in France and we'll have you back on the road in 20 minutes.

He then produced a bottle jack and knew nothing of locking the air suspension. When it reached the top of its travel, I realised and locked the suspension. He still didn't have the reach and put the Mini-Minor jack supplied by Land Rover and although the car rocked on the stony ground, it stayed up and within 40 minutes they were off and I was back on the road. I was given the name and location of a nearby tyre Depot to visit on the following day

Unfortunately, the French Professionals didn't check the air pressure in the space-saver and within 20 minutes I was back on the phone asking to be recovered. A fresh face arrived with a pickup truck and dropped me outside his depot. That was 10:30pm with the promise to transport me to the tyre depot the following morning. Goodnight.

Next morning I approached reception and they were seeking an alternative tyre dealer as the name they had given me had closed 2 years previous.. I was then transported anout 20 Km's to a good tyre dealer in Brest. He didn't have a 20" tyre in stock, but would have it by 2pm the following day and he loaned me a used tyre and rim to get me by. He did and that all worked fine.

Now for the point of this post. The original equipment space-saver tyre is a 19". He couldn't source that and it had to come from a Land Rover dealer. Unfortunately, the LR dealer in Brest closed 12 months previous and has not been replaced. The nearest available LR dealer to Brest is in Quimper. He doesn't have one in stock and CAN'T, repeat CAN'T !, get one. WHAT ??? There are none available ... it's a special. OMG !

Pray enlighten me, what is the point of having a space-saver tyre on a car that's designed to cross the Sahara desert and Mongolian plains if you can't get a replacement for it ?

What is the point of having a space saver tyre that only allows you to poodle around a town centre waiting36 hours for a full size tyre to come to town. The answer is there's no point, none at all. I think Land Rover should be embarrassed.

I'm now travelling towards Santander without a spare tyre. I have a rim, but no tyre. When I return home, I'm going to buy a matching rim to the other four and then use the new Brest tyre as the spare and buy 4 new 45's, or even 50's it they will fit and get rid of the space saving rim.

My 2011 Range Rover Sport" is on 20" rims. What is the deepest tyre the car will allow. Please.

Gary

Carry a spare under the car and put another on the roof, thats what i do. I carry an air jack and a small compressor with an extension bar and socket


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Great advice.
Thanks.