Spare Wheels
II bought a new Benimar Motorhome in Dec 2018 and part of the package was the inclusion of a spare wheel. Like many it is a thing if your lucky you will never use. However if you do you expect it will at least fit the vehicle. Unfortuantely my didn't. It seems the Ducato family of vehicles come with two different PCD fittings 118mm and 130mm on the same 16 inch wheel. PCD is the diameter of the circle through the centres of your wheel studs. I would recommend anyone who has not checked that their spare will fit to do so and not just assume that just because it came with a new vehicle that it does. Mines didn't and it caused me some grief to get things sorted I am just glad I wasn't somewhere too remote when it happened. Spare Wheels are not necessarily provided by the vehicle maker but by the motorhome manufacturer, in my case this was Benimar and even featured in their advert as full spare wheel and tyre included. Even though the wheel was unused, the vehicle less than three years old I did not get an automatic replacement as it was out of warranty. I contacted the retailer The Motorhome Company Auchterarder Perth, who advised me that Benimar would as a "gesture of good faith" provide a replacement wheel, sadly that was six months ago and nothing. I have now given up and sourced a spare myself, but hoping that this bit of advice might save someone grief.
Comments
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The two different sizes relate to the supplied chassis...light or heavy.
my van came on the light chassis, which has a PCD of 118mm. However. It also came with a 16" wheel upgrade, so these also had to be 118mm.
the heavy chassis vans come with a PCD of 130mm and 16" wheels as std.
so, you can see how a 16" Fiat wheel can have either measurement for the PCD.
However, now you know why😉👍
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In my view the supply of the van with the wrong spare wheel is a breach of contract by the supplying dealer on the grounds that it is clearly not fit for purpose, one of your statutory rights under The Consumer Rights Act. Furthermore the fact that the vehicle is out of warranty is irrelevant because it is the liability of the supplying dealer to make good your losses for the breach of contract (and it seems that they accept what has happened).
Your losses may include the cost of acquiring the correct wheel, the cost of fitting the tyre to that wheel, possibly some inconvenience and/or specific losses.
It is not unreasonable that a dealer should seek assistance from a manufacturer but they have had more than enough time to do that. It is not unusual for some dealers to bounce a customer between themselves and a manufacturer until the customer gets fed up and goes away.
I think it is worth at the very least sending a strongly worded recorded delivery letter to the dealer.
Good luck
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thanks for the info, after a bit of research I managed to like you get to the bottom of the issue but only after I needed to change the wheel, or not as it turned out when it came to light. I just wonder if mine is a one off or are there loads of motorhomes out there with wheels supplied by the Motorhome Builder which are wrong, how many of us would even think to check it fitted.
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Aye your right and I quoted the "not fit for purpose" bit to them but the hassle to get anyone to resolve this isn't worth it for me as I really dont like travelling without a spare and I am sure suppliers rely on us taking the approach if they delay long enough we will go away, so I will put it down to experience but by highlighting the matter hopefully will give a heads up to anyone with a Benimar to take a look and check it out before they get caught out likw me
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I understand your altruistic motives although it's a poor show by the dealer.
Personally I would never travel without a spare wheel either especially as we go to some out of the way places.
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