It looked so complicated to us, what with covering a lot of miles abroad, we got it taken off when being serviced, and carry it in the transit.
Cath
Cath
RayS said:
If you could find a scrap first generation Sorento they had a winch to lower and retrieve the full size spare wheel. It worked very well and it was a large heavy spare too.
I was away on site last year. A couple arrived in their car minus their caravan. This turned up a few minutes later on the back of a low-loader!
Turned out they'd had a puncture on the way. They couldn't remove the spare from the Al-ko carrier as it had seized. The owner and the recovery driver were both big burly chaps and they couldn't budge it. He ended up cutting it off with a hacksaw.
Seeing that and reading this thread, I'm glad mine sits in the gas locker!
Turned out they'd had a puncture on the way. They couldn't remove the spare from the Al-ko carrier as it had seized. The owner and the recovery driver were both big burly chaps and they couldn't budge it. He ended up cutting it off with a hacksaw.
Seeing that and reading this thread, I'm glad mine sits in the gas locker!
Tourer-Ted said:
Despite the Alko carrier being a badly designed piece of kit it still requires maintenance. Your story tells me that unless the spare wheel had been fitted with a valve extender I suggest that they clearly had not checked the spare tyre pressure. Otherwise they would have discovered that the tubing had seized up. But I also wonder how many users will take their car spare out to check its pressure?
I googled "spare wheel winch" and there are several options, many for land-rover vehicles, of the LR winches there are two types, one uses a socket drive the other has an eyelet that a hooked winder handle will fit to, the one with the eyelet would be my preference.
If you google "spare wheel winch" then click on the image tab for more ideas.
Example of winder handle below, actually the Bailey one, my caravan came with the winder missing so I made one myself, but you can buy the Bailey for £8.00 or so: https://www.primaleisure.com/product/1490454/winder-handle-for-spare-wheel-carrier.
A quick look tells me that the LR Discovery type have the eyelet design, I am sure that there are other options for different vehicle brands.
So if a bit of DIY is your thing then a new winch can be had for 1/3rd to 1/2 theprice of thePrima Leisure Bailey offer, a second hand used one then obviously expect to pay less.
I attach a video to give an idea of how they are set up, bit long but I only include it for illustration purposes; fitting something similar to a caravan would be on the same principle.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzJzjBvQZws
If you google "spare wheel winch" then click on the image tab for more ideas.
Example of winder handle below, actually the Bailey one, my caravan came with the winder missing so I made one myself, but you can buy the Bailey for £8.00 or so: https://www.primaleisure.com/product/1490454/winder-handle-for-spare-wheel-carrier.
A quick look tells me that the LR Discovery type have the eyelet design, I am sure that there are other options for different vehicle brands.
So if a bit of DIY is your thing then a new winch can be had for 1/3rd to 1/2 theprice of thePrima Leisure Bailey offer, a second hand used one then obviously expect to pay less.
I attach a video to give an idea of how they are set up, bit long but I only include it for illustration purposes; fitting something similar to a caravan would be on the same principle.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzJzjBvQZws
While we are on about spare wheels etc, does your service agent always remove the spare wheel to check pressure etc as that should be part of the service? We do not have the ALKO bracket on our current caravan, but found out the hard way that on the previous caravan this was never checked!
Further to the last part of my original posting in which I said i had referred the problem to Coachman, I have at last had a reply which states that i should contact my dealer as they ( Coachman) have not heard of this problem before !!
I have replied indicating that this is a constructional problem over which the dealer ha no influence and have asked for the matter to be referred to Technical Director Coachman.
If you have the patience - watch this space.
I have replied indicating that this is a constructional problem over which the dealer ha no influence and have asked for the matter to be referred to Technical Director Coachman.
If you have the patience - watch this space.
These days my spare wheel is under the bed, it seems that in many cases the spare wheel never comes off the carrier what is needed is plenty of grease so the carrier comes apart easily, the other problem is that caravanners are not familar with jacking up a caravan with a flat tyre, last one I had was years ago,
I thought everyone took their spare wheel home to prop up the bed,, joking apart the spare is in its own wheel cover under the fixed double caravan bed, just need a flat now to prove a point that it is a lot easier to have your spare under the caravan bed 
Having referred the matter back to Coachman, I have received a further reply which fails to reply to most of the matters i raised and again requests I consult the dealer. It also contains the statement that the carrier has been used for some 15 years and this is the first complaint received.
Many others must be better at recognising a lost cause than I am.
I do not have the inclination or energy to take this further but I am actively investigating alternatives.
In the correspondence there have been quite a number of statements about greasing the tubes to ensure ease of movement. In the AlKo manual on the spare wheel carrier supplied with the caravan is a paragraph headed MAINTENANCE. The final sentence reads 'The tubes should not be greased'
Thanks to all who have contributed
Many others must be better at recognising a lost cause than I am.
I do not have the inclination or energy to take this further but I am actively investigating alternatives.
In the correspondence there have been quite a number of statements about greasing the tubes to ensure ease of movement. In the AlKo manual on the spare wheel carrier supplied with the caravan is a paragraph headed MAINTENANCE. The final sentence reads 'The tubes should not be greased'
Thanks to all who have contributed
We have a contradiction here now, in the handbook for my 2013 fitted ALKO spare wheel carrier, on page 5 under maintainence it states that the tubes Should be cleaned and greased every time the carrier is extend. The carrier now lives behind one of the garden sheds.
Phase 2.
Decided to investigate type of winch used on Bailey caravans Looks ok but appears to be only available from Bailey dealers who - up to now - appear to be extremely reluctant to sell it to a non Bailey owner, with all sorts of caveats about taking no responsibility, may damage floor etc. and not being prepared to confirm it is suitable for a wheel which - from website details - appears to virtually identical in size and tyre to those fitted to current Bailey vans of equivalent weight to my Coachman.
I assume the winch fits under the floor, bolts coming up through the floor and then into a load spreader plate with locknuts at the top ?
I would be most grateful if any Bailey owners who have this device could confirm this assumption and perhaps give some idea of the size of the load spreading plate.
A much cheaper alternative would be to use the Range/Land Rover type winch available on ebay. But cannot find any fitting or dimensional information. Assume in both casess the winch body has to fit into the deeper recess in the spare wheel - i.e. that which is on the insdie of the fitted wheel.
Again would appreciate any ideas from ownersof such vehicles.
Finlally - no surprise - my letter to Technical Director AlKo UK has not been answered.
Decided to investigate type of winch used on Bailey caravans Looks ok but appears to be only available from Bailey dealers who - up to now - appear to be extremely reluctant to sell it to a non Bailey owner, with all sorts of caveats about taking no responsibility, may damage floor etc. and not being prepared to confirm it is suitable for a wheel which - from website details - appears to virtually identical in size and tyre to those fitted to current Bailey vans of equivalent weight to my Coachman.
I assume the winch fits under the floor, bolts coming up through the floor and then into a load spreader plate with locknuts at the top ?
I would be most grateful if any Bailey owners who have this device could confirm this assumption and perhaps give some idea of the size of the load spreading plate.
A much cheaper alternative would be to use the Range/Land Rover type winch available on ebay. But cannot find any fitting or dimensional information. Assume in both casess the winch body has to fit into the deeper recess in the spare wheel - i.e. that which is on the insdie of the fitted wheel.
Again would appreciate any ideas from ownersof such vehicles.
Finlally - no surprise - my letter to Technical Director AlKo UK has not been answered.
I have a Volvo XC90 for towing the caravan and on some models they have a wind down winch for a space saver tyre. Mine didn’t have a spare, only a puncture repair compressor, although the space was there. I bought the winch, fitted it and now keep my spare under the Volvo. As it’s a very small unit, it could be easily fitted under the caravan, so looking now at the best location for this.
Attachments
All the suggestions for a replacement are all very well, but how to use it if its all you have. Well for me the answer is fairly simple. Before wrestling with the thing, stick your ramp in front of the wheel and tow it up. Its the safest way even if your flat is on that side and it will give you clearance to work. Also its pays to grease and operate the thing regularly so it slides easily when you need it.
The thing that concerned me, was not the unloading, as you say, pull it up on a ramp, it was more the indentations to the tyre
Agree with that. Put if you only use it for a very short journey and take your time, you should be fine. Also, you could keep less pressure in it, and inflate it fully when fitted. Its not ideal but its the best workaround i can think of.
I always treat my caravan spare as if its a space saver anyway.
I always treat my caravan spare as if its a space saver anyway.
If you have run the caravan on a fully flat tyre, then you have probably damaged the side wall of the tyre, And would need a replacment.
Yup. I'm surprised others had not mentioned this way back in the thread.
The indents made into the tyre sidewall by the carrier are pretty scary. This was one aspect of the contraption that persuaded me to give the wheel a new home in the front locker.
Anyone contemplating this will find that the central "wing nut" taken from the carrier is ideal for securing the spare against the bulkhead. I glued and screwed a piece of timber to my bulkhead to strengthen the support point and after a couple of years everything is fine and the wheel itself in as new condition.
For some positioning the spare wheel in the front locker could make setting the nose load trim more difficult.
Prof, We should rely on the folk doing that to know that their nose weight is correct. Dont diversifie. To nose weights.
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