This is my first post so here goes.

I've got a 2010 new shape Doblo 1.6 diesel 5 seater which I bought in Oct 2011. I've had the usual problems - broken coil spring, knocking rear shocks - plus a failed window motor but am still pretty pleased with it, however...

Of course it came with a pump and a bottle of fizz instead of a spare wheel. I've only had 2 flats in the last 10 years or so but both of these were in the sidewall (on a different car) and I would have been stuck without the spare. I've laid out big money for a bare steel wheel having been unable to find a second hand one anywhere. Surely some one's stuffed one in a hedge by now.

I'm not going to buy the hanger to go under the floor but I do need a jack. Will any sort of jack with a slot for the sill do if it has enough lift?

I need 2 new tyres now and a couple more by the winter. The car is still running on the Goodyear Cargo Marathons it was sold with (done almost 30K miles). These are 195/60 R16C 99H van tyres. I've been looking on the web and the choice seems to be between Marathons again or Conti Van Contact 100s. Any recommendations?

Pity I didn't know, I sold mine with a new spare that I bought and a new tyre. I kept the spare in the boot under the lowered shelf. It worked because I had something else there too, and it all fitted. I would have sold/given it to you if I'd known. I never bothered with a jack because the AA uses their own, or they did when I had a puncture three years ago.

But I did fit four new winter tyres and I'm sure they weren't the makes you mention, but I can't remember what they were. I'll try and find the bills tomorrow if you like, not possible today.

Does every Doblo have those problems!

Shame, but there you go. Should've joined the forum earlier!

It's summer tyres I'll be getting. I do less than 8K miles a year and I can't make (the very sensible) investment in winter tyres.

I'll make a box out of ply to drop over the wheel when it's in the boot.

Doblotastic, I can recommend a tyre. When I first bought my Doblo seven seater it had the horrid cargo Marathons on. 1/ They don't grip 2/ The car understeered heavily in roundabouts 3/ They are very noisy. God how I hated them. :bang:

I put up with them for about two weeks before searching for a more modern van tyre in the 195/60 x 16H Cargo size, where there is not much choice. I settled on Toyo Proxes CF1C ('C' is for Cargo- they do a non-cargo CF1 version as well) . Its a modern 5 rib design and the tyre is slightly softer than the marathons so the car is now much quieter and it corners more like a hatchback without the nose running wide. There is no real drawback with them except if you go offroad they won't work in mud or snow as good as the Marathon. I have been completely happy with them and will buy the same tyre when mine wear out.

MyTyres currently list them in their light truck section about £10 each cheaper than the Marathons and the Conti VanContact 100's

An old thread but its relevant to me right now -I've recently bought a new Easy Air Doblo with no spare wheel. It possible to buy the mechanism to store the tyre underneath, but it seems to comprise of several parts totalling around £350 plus the new wheel and tyre. Even Fiat can't tell me which parts I'll need, so I'm thinking of buying an emergency wheel and storing it in a case upright in the boot. But I do find the car very noisy -it's road noise rather then engine noise - on rough surfaces the noise is unbearable -I've fitted sound deadening material to the roof, rear doors, rear wheel arches and under the bonnet -all of this has made it more muffled but its still very loud on some surfaces. Now reading this about the Cargo Marathon tyres made me wonder if changing the front tyres would make a big difference. Looking up the specs the Cargos come out at 70db which is low as these things go. It's possible to find a few 68 or 69db ratings but thats it. Would I even notice a 2db reduction and how reliable are these figures anyway? The Toyo CF1 recommended no longer exists -there is a Toyo CF2S but not in a 195/60 R16 size -there is a 215/60 R16 though which I assume would fit. Anybody got any recent experience of quiet tyres?

I'll answer my own question - I bought a pair of Yokahama Bluearth ES32's as they were rated at 68db, the lowest of any tyres in the 196/60 R16 size. Having tried them I can say they make no difference to noise whatsoever. So if anybody wants a pair of the original Goodyears with hardly any wear, I've a pair going spare. (shropshire)