I agree with Pepe let Pew, but my new Troll has a spare fitted as standard and it's nice to know that I can give it to the breakdown man so we can quickly get on our way without sourcing a replacement.

We did have a spare in our PuckL and Neil did have to change it once in France. Mind you it was his fault, he clipped the kerb as we were parking up in an aire. There was an almighty bang and the tyre was sat there, flat, with a big hole in the side wall. We carry a very small jack which he was able to whip under the van sharpish and change the tyre. Understand exactly what you say Pete from a statistical point of view but for the rest of that holiday I worried that we didn't now have a spare as it was in use. We didn't need it, got a new tyre back in the UK and didn't need it again.

Tyre technology has moved on as most things have over the years and I agree its rare to even see a puncture never mind have one yourself these days.

Having said that I would be reluctant to leave at home the probably only two bits of kit which could strand me in either the middle of nowhere or stuck on the side of a motorway with no way of moving on.

So I will continue to carry them even if I may never need them.

Whilst I don't relish the idea of jacking up the 'van, on the road, to change the wheel, I have practised at home when fitting new tyres - and I don't like doing it, it is so unstable ! Of course it's essential, on the road, to keep the 'van attached to the car,all brakes on and reverse the Eriba and chock other wheel !

However unlikely a puncture may be I always take a spare wheel and jack with me - for emergency I would use my VW Transporter side jack, but at home use a trolly jack under the axle.

So I have a "carry a spare" obsession ! Indeed when I had my last new car I had to specify a "spare" rather than a "repair kit"

Our 2013 Triton 430 came with a spare slung under the back and whilst it's comforting to know it's there should it be needed there is no way in the world that I would consider changing a wheel on the side of the road/motorway myself. There is no jacking point on the Triton leaving only the axle to situate any form of jack and whilst at home, in the safety of storage, I do jack the van up from time to time, it's only to slip tyre savers under the wheels and even here the flat area available for the jack is minimal so no way would I dream of removing a wheel. We pay enough for the annual subscription to breakdown assistance so I'm quite happy to leave the exercise to them despite the unknown delay that it may cause. We always allow for plenty of time when travelling so I don't see any delay as being the ruination of any holiday.
As to the car - no spare wheel here only an emergency sealant kit etc. The same thinking as above applies here really. A spare SUV wheel and accompanying jack would weigh a fair bit and take up precious space and so it's fingers crossed here.

Quote: Pepé Le Pew wrote in post #1

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And there's one other thing - while I'm guessing that most if not all of the people on here do carry a spare, is it not the case that a spare is technically an option on new vans and not actually standard equipment anyway?
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Giving this a bit more thought. For those that insist/want to carry a spare wheel and accompanying jack even though in most instances there is no actual locating point to place it leaving only the option of jacking under the axle - wouldn't it be prudent to also carry an axle stand to ensure that the van wasn't going to suffer grief in the even of the jack either failing or collapsing as the result of slight movement of the van?