Sam Watson - The Over Lander

A puncture in the middle of nowhere can leave more than just the tyre deflated. Sam, as usual, offers wise words – and some bitter experience

Had a bit of an issue this week, which is worth passing on to you here. After some rock crawling in the mountains of the UAE in my Discovery, I drove back to my apartment and parked up – and got a puncture.

I couldn’t help but smile at the irony – all day I’d been bouncing over knife-edged rocks and scrabbling for grip on sharp gravel ascents, where you’re almost waiting for the inevitable puncture. I managed to survive that, only for a nail on the waste ground outside my flat to deliver the fatal blow.

The Michelin LTX tyres that the Disco wears at the moment are great on the road but lack a bit of toothiness for rough stuff, although they were solid when they picked up the nail outside my abode. The problem only appeared later in the day when I was three miles from home on a grocery run. A slow puncture that was so gentle I hadn’t even noticed it turned into a quick one, as the nail came out of the sidewall from inside the tyre – making a second, much bigger, hole.

This is where the swearing started. I’d taken my Hi-Lift jack off the Disco to lubricate and clean it – and hadn’t replaced it before ‘just nipping out to the shop’. Well, who on earth needs a Hi-Lift jack for a quick trip down to the local supermarket…?