Hi our van came with an underslung spare. The drop-down section held in place by a Yale padlock. Thought I’d give removing the wheel a go on the drive. Safe practice and all. After clambering under the caravan to release the lock, I dropped the flap of the cage with tyre attached by central bolt and cup washer with nylon wing nut. Removed the wing nut and cup washer then tried to remove the spare wheel. UNBELIEVABLY DIFFICULT. The flap didn’t drop down far enough to make it easy to lift the spare wheel off the central retaining bolt despite the caravan having been lowered as far as possible at the front end.

Wrestling with the sheer weight of the spare wheel whilst still under the caravan was a major task and it was almost impossible to return the spare wheel into the cage and over the central bolt, which by the way, was welded onto the cage flap. Frankly the thought of having to do this whilst at the roadside or in a muddy field was more than I was prepared to contemplate. To be honest, I would have been reluctant even to call out Green Flag thinking of how the poor mechanic would struggle.

Add to all of this difficulty the fact that the Yale lock was already showing signs of corrosion (at only three weeks old) I needed to think of improving matters in the event the job needs to be done for real.

My solution.
1. Temporarily remove the drop down flap from the cage (easy).
2. Saw off the central retaining bolt. (Easy).
3. Returned drop down flap to spare wheel cage.(Easy).
4. Slid spare wheel into cage. (Straight forward with bolt out of the way). Spare is enclosed on all four sides plus top and bottom so can’t go anywhere.
5. Closed the flap.
6. Replaced the Yale lock with a suitable bolt and added a nylon wing nut to avoid problems with corrosion.

Recommendations
1. Practice spare tyre removal from under slung cage in the comfort of your own driveway.
2. Don’t wait until the spare tyre is needed.
3. Yale padlock is not going to be easy to remove once corroded. Might be impossible to remove.

My Puck has had the retaining bolt removed by previous owner. I can't understand why it was needed.

Having struggled in the same way we now carry the spare onboard under the bed which we leave made up. From a weight point of view the tyre is in the same position just a little further from the ground. I realise this won’t work if you like the rear left as bench seats but it solves the issue for us.

Hi Richard. We bought a new 542 this year and never thought about this untill your post. As this model doesn't have the sloping floor of previous models the spare wheel is even closer to the ground than our previous 420. Got under the caravan today to check it out, what a nightmare! In this position I would never get the tyre out as I had to put it on my ramps to get enough room. Our model has a permanent bed so the spare wheel is now stored under the bed.

Totally agree most if not all spare wheel carriers are impossible to access without using ramps,
in crawling underneath whilst at the roadside.

On previously owned low slung caravan I removed the carrier completely, carrying the spare
wheel in the back of our VW Bus being safety tied down with heavy duty straps. Never had
to use the spare ever, but if I needed it, its comfortingly to know its not going to be a real
struggle for me or my breakdown service in the event of a puncture.

Worth noting with a NEW spare tyre, it will emit a strong wiffy rubber smell. Not very pleasant
when travelling in the Summer months. To overcome this simply purchase a spare wheel bag.
Once on site, we store the spare wheel under the caravan in its waterproof zipped bag.

Roy.

I put my spare wheel cradle lock in a sandwich bag to stop grit and grime getting in the lock and tape it upside down to the cradle to avoid it catching on the floor. My experience has been the lock call caught on the camber of the road when putting it on my drive and bending the shackle, I had to hacksaw the lock off.

Well, I decided to do a hybrid of these things talked about above. I have left my spare wheel under the caravan mainly because I don't want to haul it about - and it's a convenient place to store it - I had a spare without a cradle on my first Triton and it was a pain to keep moving it into the caravan for travelling and then out and under it when camped.

So, instead, I bought a spare tyre storage bag to put it in under the caravan. But not the zip-up type (zips don't like harsh environments in my experience); instead I bought one that gathers with a pull cord in the centre of the wheel on one side. This then goes on top of the spare in the cradle. I, too, have removed the centre stud from the cradle and have replaced the padlock with a stainless steel bolt and nyloc nut. Easy enough to remove in the rare event of having to change a wheel when touring, hard enough to deter casual thieves or vibration...

So far, so good...

On my “to do” list to cut off that ridiculous retaining bolt, what a ridiculous design. In the interim I have found putting the wheel in the carrier “ up side down” and obviously without the nylon lock nut makes it much easier to replace. Why anyone decided that stupid retaining bolt was needed is way beyond me…surprised at the Germans.