Club 80-90 Forums

How do others overcome the problem of the Carat Alloy being too big for the spare wheel carrier? Fitted mine today with a spacer behind the bolt to relieve the pressure on anything it comes into contact with but, the safety hook is now defunct and that is a concern. I have been using a 'steely' and carried a spare set of wheel nuts and bolts but would prefer too just carry the alloy.

mine carries my carat spare no problem.maybe some carriers are deeper than others.

Thanks Rob, it will fit but I had to use a jack (I'm such a wimp!) to get the carrier to engage on the safety hook. The front end of the van started to lift too! I would have thought that the carriers are all the same unless the Caravelle with factory fitted Carats are deeper.

I run 225 60 R15s, They wont fit in the carrier, so I have a steel rim with a std tyre as a spare.
T

The metal hoops at the top are deeper for 205 size tyres.

both the carrier and the bars are different for factory fit 205 tyres, not all alloy equipped vans had 205s, and finding a 205 carrier isn't easy, mostly they get scrapped with the van cos peeps don't realise they are different took me 2 years to find one when I wanted one
the bars were still available and cheapish from vw last year and the carrier is still listed too but it's over £150

Thanks folks, I'm using 185 R14C's but the Carat alloy is 0.5 in wider (IIRC) and I expeceted it to fit without too much problem. Since I carry an electric air pump might drop the pressure (i.e 25PSI) in the spare and then inflate it to the correct PSI when needed? Not much chance of getting a s/h carrier from the sounds of it.

E D I T: dropped pressure and fitted a spacer and just fits with the safety catch engaged.

has alloy got it's centre cap on ? could be that that is pressing against the bottom of the gearstick box a 185 should go in no problem even on an alloy rim as the bars are in contact with the tyre not the rim and check the routing of the coolant pipes, if they've been messed with the could be the problem, should be cable tied together in such a way as to allow tyre to fit ok