I love the way this has morphed into a 2 page topic about the dangers of not having a spare wheel and anecdotes about "when I had a puncture".
So I'll follow suit. I've never had a puncture in 20+ years. That's including lots of off roading at pay and play sites. Did have a flat once,thought it was a slow puncture, turned out it was a duff valve.
There, that's my contribution.

 FL2 MY10 TD4 GS traded in at 2 years
FL2 MY13 TD4 GS Current

I've had far too many punctures to count, but never, strangely, on a Land Rover. Although when I changed the tyres on my first FL2 two of them had nails in (and I do check regularly!).
Biggest Land Rover joke - almost all DS models have no spare and NOWHERE TO PUT ONE! I have a spare wheel which I put in the DS boot for anything other than local journeys. Takes up a lot of room though. Ex AA Series III LWB Safari - Gone
300TDi Disco (bought new - terrible car) sent back after 18 months
Freelander 1 Estate - leased, given back at end of lease
200TDi Disco (bought from a mate with 100,000 on the clock) - Gone
Disco 2 TD5 - sold and exported to France
FR2 TD4 GS - Gone
FR2 SD4 HSE - Now changed for a DS
New model ex-demo Evoque S 180 in white
Unable to order a new DS, so gave up. Now have a Volvo S90 Recharge.

Past master wrote:

I've had far too many punctures to count.....

I've had a few dozen over the decades, virtually all in the city, mostly from builders dropping screws onto public roads..... Dickheads!



Over the decades I have had 2 tyres on different cars disintegrate (tread came away from side wall) on city roads within 5km of home. Each were good tyres. I always check the spare tyre for air pressure, a bit more lazy these days as it takes very little time to pump up flat tyres!

I have a full size spare, tyre repair kit, 2 additional electronic tyre pressure gauges for averaging readings, & proper tyre compressor onboard with 2 high volume computer cooling fans! Better still the compressor is ice cold located under the seat & not in the engine bay (if one could actually find the room) as I always use the air conditioning. I am thinking of plumbing the the compressor into the air conditioning with a few simply pipes. The colder the air supply to the compressor the better!

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A 6th wheel option!

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Last but not least, 3/4 inch drive T handle https://www.kincrome.com.au/sliding-t-handle-3-4dr-475mm. plus extension https://www.kincrome.com.au/extension-comb-3-4dr-100mm

Plus 6mm thick aluminium tread plate to spread load for jack with stainless steel hex bolt to key into jack base.

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Sheet of plastic for the ground if needed.
2 orange safety vests.
& builders leather gloves to save knuckles winding up the jack (most important) & to avoid brake dust from the wheel. These are worth their weight in gold ten times over!

Chuck a pair of builders leather gloves in the wheel well even if you are too bloody lazy to do anything else! Procrastination, mankind's greatest labour saving device!

Acoustic insulation ARB TPMS 3xARB air compressors After cooler Air tank On-board OCD pressure air/water cleaning Additional 50L fuel Carpet in doors ABE 2x1kg Waeco 28L modified fridge Battery 4x26ah Solar 120w Victron MPPT 100/20 DC-DC 18amps 175amp jumper plug Awning 6x255/60R18

I had one puncture in three years on our FL2 and I've had two punctures in 12 months on our Evoque. One I noticed while on our drive so I took the wheel to work and repaired it. The other I got on the last day of our holiday in the Peak District. That was in a tyre that had covered about 300 miles and was unrepairable. Got home on my space saver spare.

Very roughly, working on cars and carrying out services and MOT's, I would say that around one in ten cars that I work on have a nail or screw in the tread. I'd say out of those, nine out of ten of the owners are unaware as more often than not, the nail remains in and the tyre looses very little air so they too could state that they have had no actual 'puncture' resulting in a flat tyre. It's more common than you would believe. I'd never be without a spare. Past: FL2 TD4 HSE Auto
Evoque SD4 Dynamic Lux Auto
Present: Audi A3 S Line.

I think I've averaged a flat every five years or so. Been driving for forty plus years. Sometimes it's been on a trailer or boat trailer. Wouldn't be without a spare. Never needed roadside assist apart from once when in my twenties I locked the keys inside the car.

Good tip about the aluminium plate and the gloves..... will do that this weekend... thanks.

Back on track, well sort of, I use my spare wheel space for an LPG tank.  Common sense isn't very common.
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2007 Land Rover Freelander2 I6 hse Auto

Talking of spare wheels and MOT's - I had an advisory for having "No spare wheel" last year on my Freelander 1 racer. Strange thing really as it's fixed inside the vehicle in the load area and you cannot fail to see it without even opening any doors. I was told that as it "normally" lives in a carrier on the tailgate and that's no longer attached, then effectively it's "missing" as it's not where it should be. This begs the question - why were there no advisories for the "missing" rear seats as these were removed to fit the roll cage.
Also if I decided to remove my spare on my F2 and replace it with the compressor and goo, would that also get me an advisory ?
Oh, and just so there's no confusion from my earlier post about never having a puncture. I ALWAYS carry a spare wheel. I've been lucky so far, but sod's law would guarantee me needing it if I left it at home. It does no harm and isn't an inconvenience .Better to have it and not need it than vice-versa.

RealBeale wrote:

Also if I decided to remove my spare on my F2 and replace it with the compressor and goo, would that also get me an advisory ?