Northants remove rear wheels and spare

I have experienced difficulty in removing rear wheels on my Northants due to the wheel arch moulding being so low. I cannot get a definite answer as to best place to jack up the van. Any suggestions to overcome this problem would be welcome
Also want to fit a spare wheel but reluctant to reduce size of water tank. Has anybody else had this problem and overcome it ?
G Gooden

This might be of some help .... My Rienza has quite a low wheel arch skirt and is rear wheel drive. I use a commercial bottle jack under the front spring hanger and raise it to a suitable height. Then, a second jack under the spring shackles at the axle, and raise the wheel just enough to clear the ground. The user manual instructs just using the heavy duty scissor jack provided with the van but I was not happy with that. Must say. I looked at a Northants recently in a car park and the thought struck me about difficulties in removing the wheel ... okay in a driveway or back yard but not a job for the hard shoulder on an M-way.
With regards to a spare wheel, a friend who fitted a tow bar to his coach built - (not an A.S.) moved his wheel from the rear to a spare space behind the nearside skirt, just to the rear of the passenger door.

May not be of use to you but food for thought.

regards Bob

I've never had to remove any wheel on our Windsor, and I don't intend to if I can help it. It does however, have a spare wheel mounted under the rear floor, accessible by winding it down using a four feet long extension to the jack!!! Getting it down is OK (ish), but once it's on the floor it's a (several expletives deleted) of a job dragging it out from under the van, and an even harder task to get it back under, harnessed up and wound up again. I did this once, in the driveway, to check the condition of the spare (and no doubt will do so again for the same reason), but if I ever need to change a wheel by the roadside I shall phone the AA and make a nice cup of coffee...

Seriously, the prospect of doing all this by the side of any road let alone a motorway, in the rain or darkness, does not even stand serious contemplation. It's reassuring to know the spare's there, but it's more reassuring to know my membership of the AA is current .

Tony