Road trip without a spare wheel/tyre? Never again!
Posted: Thu Feb 17, 2011 8:02 pm
On the way back from the alps, I stopped for petrol at motorway services near Lyon. I accidentally clipped the curb with the front, passenger side wheel at ±1mph.
(All the pumps on my driver's side were occupied).
This particular piece of curb was damaged, pointy & sharp, and ripped a hole in the sidewall of my Vredestein Wintrac Extreme tyre. It was completely flat in less than a minute, and obviously not repairable with the bottle of tyre repair goo in the boot.
We called Audi assistance Europe (which is actually RAC France).
They advised us that because the french motorways are privately owned, it's the local breakdown service that have to recover the vehicle, and we have to call them out ourselves.
We did that and the recovery truck came shortly afterwards. We were taken with the car to the local recovery depot.
The RAC spoke to the people in the depot, and informed us that because it was an "unusual" tyre, and a Saturday lunctime, there would be no chance of getting a replacement tyre until Monday.
The RAC put us up in a local hotel for the weekend where we passed the time and waited for Monday.
In the meantime, the RAC said that from this point forwards, they were only responsible for the passengers, not the vehicle. RAC said the insurance company were responsible for the vehicle.
I called the insurance company, who were completely disinterested.
Their overseas department was closed on the weekend (useful!) and the advice from the UK office was to:
"sort it out yourselves, and then claim it back"
although,
"by the time you've paid the compulsory excess, there probably won't be much point"
Fortunately on Monday their overseas department were more helpful, and began to make arrangements to have the car towed to a garage with tyre fitting facilities, and replacement tyres.
In the meantime the RAC had asked us to check out of the hotel room, so we were literally hanging around in a hotel lobby surrounded by our luggage waiting for phone calls and updates.
At 4.30pm in the afternoon, after keeping us waiting ALL day, the insurance company called back to announce that
1. they'd managed to find a clause in the insurance policy
2. tyres were not covered
3. the car had not been towed anywhere,
4. and they were not going to help us after all.
I called back the RAC, who were just as surprised & outraged as we were about the waste of time with the insurance company. As we were now completely stranded again, the RAC decided to make an exception and help us with the vehicle. But because it was so late in the day, nothing could be done until tomorrow.
On Tuesday, a tow truck finally came and took us to a Bosch service center near Lyon. Via the RAC, we learned that nobody around there had even heard of Vredestein, and there was also a problem with the Wintrac Extreme's "W" rating, which even the local Audi garage claimed did not exist. (Although obviously it did as it was written right there on the sidewall.)
So as no replacement winter tyre was available, we had to get 2 new summer tyres instead.
(Tyres on the same axle have to match in France).
At this point I was so desperate to get back on the road that I probably would have agreed to just about anything!
The car was ready by 5pm, and we made it back to Eurotunnel just after midnight and caught a late train back to the UK.
Finally got home Wednesday morning, 3 days later than planned, with both of us going back to work a day later than expected!
So, lessons learned:
1. The RAC were very good and well worth the annual fee.
2. The insurance company were not.
3. The bottle of goo in the boot is not very useful, and I need a better solution for future trips.
Any suggestions?
Does anybody else carry a spare wheel for road trips?
Where does it go?
I was thinking maybe in a roof box?
Comments appreciated
Cheers
Rich
(All the pumps on my driver's side were occupied).
This particular piece of curb was damaged, pointy & sharp, and ripped a hole in the sidewall of my Vredestein Wintrac Extreme tyre. It was completely flat in less than a minute, and obviously not repairable with the bottle of tyre repair goo in the boot.
We called Audi assistance Europe (which is actually RAC France).
They advised us that because the french motorways are privately owned, it's the local breakdown service that have to recover the vehicle, and we have to call them out ourselves.
We did that and the recovery truck came shortly afterwards. We were taken with the car to the local recovery depot.
The RAC spoke to the people in the depot, and informed us that because it was an "unusual" tyre, and a Saturday lunctime, there would be no chance of getting a replacement tyre until Monday.
The RAC put us up in a local hotel for the weekend where we passed the time and waited for Monday.
In the meantime, the RAC said that from this point forwards, they were only responsible for the passengers, not the vehicle. RAC said the insurance company were responsible for the vehicle.
I called the insurance company, who were completely disinterested.
Their overseas department was closed on the weekend (useful!) and the advice from the UK office was to:
"sort it out yourselves, and then claim it back"
although,
"by the time you've paid the compulsory excess, there probably won't be much point"
Fortunately on Monday their overseas department were more helpful, and began to make arrangements to have the car towed to a garage with tyre fitting facilities, and replacement tyres.
In the meantime the RAC had asked us to check out of the hotel room, so we were literally hanging around in a hotel lobby surrounded by our luggage waiting for phone calls and updates.
At 4.30pm in the afternoon, after keeping us waiting ALL day, the insurance company called back to announce that
1. they'd managed to find a clause in the insurance policy
2. tyres were not covered
3. the car had not been towed anywhere,
4. and they were not going to help us after all.
I called back the RAC, who were just as surprised & outraged as we were about the waste of time with the insurance company. As we were now completely stranded again, the RAC decided to make an exception and help us with the vehicle. But because it was so late in the day, nothing could be done until tomorrow.
On Tuesday, a tow truck finally came and took us to a Bosch service center near Lyon. Via the RAC, we learned that nobody around there had even heard of Vredestein, and there was also a problem with the Wintrac Extreme's "W" rating, which even the local Audi garage claimed did not exist. (Although obviously it did as it was written right there on the sidewall.)
So as no replacement winter tyre was available, we had to get 2 new summer tyres instead.
(Tyres on the same axle have to match in France).
At this point I was so desperate to get back on the road that I probably would have agreed to just about anything!
The car was ready by 5pm, and we made it back to Eurotunnel just after midnight and caught a late train back to the UK.
Finally got home Wednesday morning, 3 days later than planned, with both of us going back to work a day later than expected!
So, lessons learned:
1. The RAC were very good and well worth the annual fee.
2. The insurance company were not.
3. The bottle of goo in the boot is not very useful, and I need a better solution for future trips.
Any suggestions?
Does anybody else carry a spare wheel for road trips?
Where does it go?
I was thinking maybe in a roof box?
Comments appreciated
Cheers
Rich