Spare wheel

I can't see why you would "need" one anymore in France than the UK or elsewhere where the tyre involved is readily purchasable.

It is a lot more to carry unless the vehicle has the provision to stow a full sized spare and it was left out simply to glean a bit better official fuel so VED rating.

It's a gamble.

I don't like the whole concept of "spareless" cars or caravans but having said that we usually get through a few years between punctures, so as said its a gamble. 

Some caravan tyres I read were challenging sizes to get out of the UK, in that case I would be more concerned, but not for a universally used size.

Not being a natural gambler I purchased a spare in France, so not running without a spare after a total tyre failure and the price was eyewatering. Good I did as that trip two caravan tyres failed, though not punctures they were a substandard batch.

knilly, for peace of mind take your second-hand alloy spare with you. Getting tyres in France could waste a day of your holiday depending on where you are when you get a puncture. It's a big country with a lot of distance between towns and cities. My car only has a 'skinny' spare which is only marginally better that no spare so I, like you, got a full size wheel from the scrap yard. I've never liked the idea of using the 'skinny' when towing. SO FAR I've never had to use it but that may be tempting fate. I have found that although it is bigger than the 'skinny' I can stow it in the spare wheel well and just build up the car floor around the well with a couple of bits of wood about 1" thick so that the flooring sits flat. I hardly notice that flooring is a bit higher. As ocsid has said, going without a spare is a bit of a gamble.

Some friends of ours, not caravaner's, bought a new convertible Volvo a few years back, because the metal roof folds in to the boot area it had no spare wheel just a small compressor a bottle gunge to put in the punctured tyre. on the way to their daughters place in deepest France one year they had a blow out, trye was trashed, they were recovered to a small local village garage and it took 2 days to get the correct replacement tyre express couriered in from the UK.  Take your spare wheel

I had fantastic service from "Red Pennant" Insurance when my N/S caravan tyre literally exploded, when descending off the Pyrenees one summer.  I used the spare, but then of course I didn't have a spare left if I had another blow out.  Was unable to locate a suitable spare so rang the CC merely for advice.  The reply was "But you've got red pennant Insurance" we'll have one with you in less than 24 hrs"  And they did!

So point 1.  I would never travel a long distance abroad without a spare!

Point  2.   Take out Red pennant Insurance incase of trouble!

I had had no thought of claiming on the Insurance, which I thought was really only incase of an accident. But their help was outstanding.  It was explained to me that I would be charged for the tyre itself, and have to find someone who could fit it. But the insurance covered the cost of getting it to me, ready for fitting!

TF

@ Tigerfish

Assuming your car's spare us the same as mine ie a flat one, what are your thoughts 're using it while towing? MB says it's perfectly ok to use in an emergency. 

MM, My ML came with a full sized spare. Its still there and has never been on the road.  Speaking of the Tyres my original Michelins last 35K per set, she has done 71K now and just fitted her 3rd set. Always used the same tyres as originally suppled.  Tyre wear is exactly the same front & rear with the same profile, so that if you stood all four wheels side by side you would not be able to identify fronts from rears.  The only problem with that very equal wear, is that I had to buy all four tyres each time they were needed!

TF

I'm using a CC's WiFi so can't get on line to give you a link, but my spare comes flat .... if you look on YouTube for Mercedes flat spare you'll find a video of it. 

At around a £1000 a set, I'm not surprised you don't like buying 4 at a time ...... I just do 2 at a time.

MM,  Mine is definitely full size.  Regarding buying four tyres at a time, my experience has been that you can play hard ball with the tyre dealers and so I have never paid more than £800 for the four. But even then you have to be careful.  My car is one of the "Blue Efficiency" models.  I had mistakenly thought that that just meant that the engine was better on fuel, but it is much more than that.

The door mirrors for example have a gap of about an inch between the inner part of the mirror casing and the body of the car. It was done to improve air flow etc.  There are other changes on the Blue Efficiency models that came to light in a more expensive way!

At the 35k mark I needed a set of tyres, and contacted 4  tyre dealers for a quote.  I selected the cheapest, (a National name) and took my car in. I insisted on premium grade Michelins  as fitted to the car when new.  When I collected the car I noticed a slight change in the tread pattern but was assured that they were the correct tyres for the car.

However I noticed a sudden increase in fuel consumption.  I am fanatical about record keeping, and every tenth of a Litre of fuel that has ever passed through the car is recorded in the log. With that in mind I was able to prove a sudden change.  I had previously recorded about 550 miles range per tank of fuel, now I was getting 470 miles to the tank.

The tyre company said that they would contact Mitchelin and try to find out the problem.. Within a short period of time they came back to me and asked me to bring the car back in for another Tyre change.

They had neglected to tell their supplier that this car was a Blue Efficiency model!  Apparently and unknown to them this model was fitted with low rolling resistance tyres.  The correct ones had a figure of 2 and the ones they had fitted were7's.  I had no knowledge of such things!  Anyway with the correct tyres fitted my fuel consumption fell back to the original very acceptable figure.

TF 

Problem is more and more cars only have either the skinny or repair kit with no dedicated space for a full size square so you either give up a lot of carrying space or purchase Red Pennent. A third choice is to buy the £30000 spare and accept the rest of the car that comes with it.