later this year i have a trip up the motorway to Scotland & have decided to take the spare wheel out from under the caravan (320GT) & pop it in my vito compact crew cab rather than risk crawling under the back of the caravan on a motorway & the stupid design cradle with the bolt that is welded into the cradle sticking up rather than one that unbolts. I have already modified the cradle to fit better round the motor mover but its to dangerous still on a motorway. does anyone else do the same

We’ve removed our tyre from under the van and now store it under the bed which is permanently made up. If we used the bed we’d probably store it in the car. It was hard enough removing the spare on our drive in good weather, would hate to do it on a motorway in the dark or rain.

I have a 320 and modified the cradle due to the motor mover obstructing the tyre removal . If I get a puncture I will be ringing Greenflag Mayday to change it for me, caravans are inherently unbalanced to start messing at a roadside to change a tyre.

well I'm used to tyres & wheels after a lifetime in the tyre industry & jacking car tractors etc but i still wouldn't want to crawl under the back on a motorway & the carrier is a bad design. at some point in the future i will cut the threaded rod out of the middle of the caravan & make a piece of flat bar with a threaded rod welded into it + a dowl to one side to go through a stud hole & the threaded rod to go down through the centre of the wheel.

Monoboard, I’ve done just that - (well, my mate welded it up for me)
It’s still a proper faff, even on the drive, so I think Julie and Randa have the right idea. It’ll help with the nose-weight too!

This has really got me thinking about my spare slung under my triton (with motor mover). I will have a look at it when I get it out of storage next week. Last year I had the misfortune to have a puncture in a school minibus and the spare was fitted in a similar way. What a faff to get it out - When I dropped the cradle it didn't go low enough to get the wheel out (because the wheel on one side was flat!) - I had to drive that side up on to a kerb to get enough drop (I wasn't worried about damaging the flat tyre!!). Also, all the threads, etc. were filthy and needed cleaning before it would undo. And on a vehicle only a year or two old. Still much quicker than waiting for recovery, though - and it was a nice, sunny day!

Yeah - just keep it in the back of the car along with the space-saver that I purchased with the new car. Uses up a bit of space, but hey-ho only the two of us travelling, so we just drop the rear seats and we have a handy estate car.

Dave