Good call - Same this has happened to me, GOOD LUCK finding tires for a european car up in rural VT in an emergency.

 

I've had my Defender for over a year now and took the spare and holder off immediately. (well i got the dealer to remove it) You have to remove all screws in rear door panel and there's one in the handle. The techie from the dealer told me it wasn't easy.
As for what to do about flat, none of my other cars have spare wheels. So one day.........

 

I had the first year (2007) Jeep JK Wrangler. When I sold it 11 years later it had the same spare tire it came with, and it had never come down in 150K miles. Never had a flat in all that time.

I have been driving a MINI Cooper lately, it came with run flats but those are a PITA and expensive to replace. I run "normal" tires now and keep a repair kit and small compressor in the hidden storage compartment. Could also work for the Defender, at least put you back on the road long enough to get to a tire store, unless you have a major blow-out or have a tear in the sidewall, in which case you will definitely need that spare tire.

 

I've had two Mini's and multiple other vehicles with run flats. I've only had 1 that went "flat" that caused me to go at the reduced speed. The only difference between a normal tire and a runflat in my book is where you want to wait for help! And my experience on roads is that they are extremely few & far between now that I have tire pressure monitors, rotate tires & replace them as needed. It just doesn't happen that often.

 

Anyone find a better (cheaper) solution than the SWR cover?
Also, I was not able to find the previous thread w pictures NoGaBiker was referencing. Anyone happen to come across it?

 

Hi new here as I'm having issues removing the spare wheel carrier, the only reason I want to do so is I have vinyl wrapped mine satin black and the whole vehicle is done bar the rear door as I cannot remove the carrier to wrap the door. Once the door is wrapped I will fit the carrier back on. I have looked all over the net, YouTube looking for help and also emailed the company which sells the cover plate for any reference but noting. I noticed the post here that someone has a step by step instruction on how to do so but I have looked thru all 88 pages and cannot find it. If anyone can help with a direct link to the post it would be greatly appreciated



QUOTE=NoGaBiker;771223]There was a thread on here about this within the last month, by somebody who had done it and had pictures of everything. I’m not gonna search for you but you should be able to find it easily enough.[/QUOTE]

 

Uh oh. Doesn't look straight forward. Here's what I think you need to do. If you need more details, I suggest getting some help from a 3rd party service company.

1) Take those two bolts off the bottom of the wedge towards the bottom. See the bottom (20) on this diagram. Don't know the size but start with a 10mm and go from there. The torque is on there when you put it back. Inverse all this to put it back.


2) You have to pull all the trim off the inside of the door to get to the support bolt nuts. This is probably a two person game. One on the inside to hold the nuts and one on the outside to pull / unscrew the bolts. Here start with a 10mm or 12mm.
I suspect pulling that trim is just the T-30's. If not, watch the PowerfulUk video re: routing a Land Rover dashcam. At the end when he routes the rear camera, he should be taking off the door trim. Here's the video:
Here's the inside diagram:



3) No idea how much that carrier weighs. After you loosen the inside nuts, be REAL careful not to pull the bolts until you have help removing that carrier or holding it. If it's heavy you don't want to plow the door as it falls down ricochetting off the bumper.

Good luck! Post pics after the wrap.

 

there should be options coming from Asia that are significantly cheaper. it’s literally a piece of plastic that you need to paint on top of it. i have considered Svr but it’s extremely overpriced

see below. gives you an idea on the removal

 

@Ehloo - Great find there! Much better than my lame attempt. Watching the video a few things came to mind:

- LOVE that more 3rd party accessory creators are starting to be found. Not my jam for the product, but I'm loving the variety of options so that people can make the Defenders more of their own.
- I'm not a hater on China products. They are what they are for the price point. "You get what you pay for" and if it works for you, great! (You being general to the community, not you as an individual). With that in mind, I have a love/hate with those plastic bolts. It's a genius design that will accommodate wide variances in production tolerances, but the plastic bolts are a) MUCH too long and b) could easily have the threads stripped. Just be careful not to over torque it. I'm sure there's no torque recommendations and even so would be tough to get a ratchet in there at the bottom.
- If anyone who wants to do this actually reads my post, the guy who took that wheel off is a bright guy. Not his first time at the rodeo. Take the bottom two lugs of first! Trust me on this....