Guest pelmetman Posted December 21, 2010 Share Posted December 21, 2010 Thought I'd prepared for everthing :D hi viz jacket, spare bulbs, snow chains etc, etc, even a new set of tyres *-) Set off yesterday all fine and dandy..............halfway along the A14 a banging sound and the van wobbling................great I thought flat tyre >:-( Stop have a look nothing looks wrong :-S So drive another 50 yds banging starts again, so this time I take of the wheel trim, and inside I find one of the nuts and all the others about to fall off >:-( The steel wheel is shot as the holes have been wreaked, called out the AA who fits the spare. In the mean time our friends who we stayed with last night manage to book us in first thing for a new wheel, which they sourced from a scrapyard as Ford no longer stock parts for our age of van >:-( Fortunatly all sorted :-D now sat at the tunnel with a 4 hour delay at least 8-) I get the feeling this holiday ain't going to go to plan :D Well at least we are comfortable, just put the kettle on for another cup of tea :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JudgeMental Posted December 21, 2010 Share Posted December 21, 2010 17 deg C in Alicante....... :-D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest pelmetman Posted December 21, 2010 Share Posted December 21, 2010 Probably be ruddy snowing by the time we get there *-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lennyhb Posted December 21, 2010 Share Posted December 21, 2010 Who last fitted the wheel & were the nuts torqued up properly? Had it happen to me in the seventies on a Cortina after getting tyres changed that's the reason they have to be torqued up by hand now, noticed they don't do it in Belgium they just use the air gun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ips Posted December 21, 2010 Share Posted December 21, 2010 JudgeMental - 2010-12-21 2:43 PM 17 deg C in Alicante....... :-D Thanks for that........not :-D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
747 Posted December 21, 2010 Share Posted December 21, 2010 Many years ago, my wife was convinced that I tried to murder her by loosening off the wheel nuts on the car. She never mentioned anything for a long while and then she blurted it out during a tiff. When I ran her through the events leading up to her driving on 3 wheels, she agreed that it was her Father who had fitted the spare wheel and forgot to tighten the wheel nuts. When I said I would call the Police to have him arrested, she conceded that it was a mistake on his part. :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnP Posted December 21, 2010 Share Posted December 21, 2010 It is recommended that the wheel nuts should be re-torqued up at 50 miles after refitting a wheel. Have a good holiday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted December 21, 2010 Share Posted December 21, 2010 Reminds me of when hubby had been doing the brakes on our old caravan before we went to a microcar rally. He re-fitted the wheels and we packed the 'van. He went ahead in the Commer Camper with our microcar in tow on a trailer, I followed with our car and the caravan (we used to organise the rallies so needed to take loads of stuff *-) ). Anyway, there was I nicely tootling along and the caravan started to wobble, not sure why so I stopped and checked round it, everything seemed fine and dandy so thought it must have been the lumpy road I'd just gone through (street calming surface), so I got in and drove about 20ft and again it wobbled. Stopped and had another good shuftie and everything seemed okay ... then I decided to 'touch' the wheel nuts ... I could undo them with my hand! Fortunately we had a brace in the caravan (for the steadies) so I used that to tighten them all up ... got to the rally and I'm sure you can guess at the 'conversation' that ensued! :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest peter Posted December 21, 2010 Share Posted December 21, 2010 Had that happen to me in Austria with a Triumph Dolomit sprint. Buggered the wheel and wheel bearings. Fortunately it was tipping it down with rain and we only had a few miles to go, you should have seen the steam coming out of the wheel bearings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JasmineAnders Posted December 22, 2010 Share Posted December 22, 2010 Once had the front wheel fall off my Bond Minicar- and it only had one front wheel. Managed to borrow a wheeled jack from a fire station to pull it to a car park. It was past midnight and the noise from the metal wheels of the jack on the road was horrendous. Discovered that when it had been serviced the wheel nuts had not been retightened with the car back on the ground. One had fallen off then the rest sheared. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted December 25, 2010 Share Posted December 25, 2010 Off topic - Hi Jasmine - what type of minicar was it? We used to have a Bond Mk G Estate! :-D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sshortcircuit Posted December 25, 2010 Share Posted December 25, 2010 Having a sit in the sun at Cancale this year and looked at the back wheel. one wheel bolt (French "boot") short on my Fiat 2.8 JTD Kontiki ???? Check all the others and are tight so I have some questions. Went to the main Fiat dealer in St Malo who said it was no problem and he could get in three days, as it was an alloy wheel, which over the weekend meant we had to stay 5 days, which again was no problem and stayed at the seasonal aires at Rotheneuf which is 5 star. Big problem was at 14 euros each I had to buy a set of 5, 70 euros, anyway I felt I would be more secure with the 5 but 4 would not have been a problem. Went back on the Monday, "Not obtainable", they could not supply, so decided I would take it easy and keep checking for tightness. Fortunately my son and grandson were coming out to stay with us for a week at La Rochell. Sent email about our problem and he brings a single nut out at £7.50, off the shelf from local Fiat garage. I was lucky as I noticed the shortage and did not damage my wheel but I think I was about to have been ripped off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest pelmetman Posted January 3, 2011 Share Posted January 3, 2011 Captains log.................star date 2011 :D Le Shuttle finally landed on planet Frog 8 hours late! by then we were cream crackered and as it was thick fog in frogland we decided to park up round at the City de Europe for the night. Next day as we were not as far ahead as planned, and the weather looked dodgy with a lot of snow piled up, I broke a habit of a life time and used the toll roads, cor......nearly 30 quid from Calais to Britanny 8-) You have to hand it to the French though they build some lovely roads, and not a bit of snow on the road, all 3 lanes cleared. Britanny was freezing, and even with electric hookup and the electric heating on the gas froze, but at least the water didn't. Sue gave me a lovely cold for Christmas (next year she wants to get me the norovirus!) and I had some pyjamas :D very fortuitous, first time I've worn them in over 30 years. Our first stop heading South was at Niort (79000), an excellent aire right in the middle of town next to a park, ideal for walking the dog, plenty of restaurants and the covered food market was a delight to see. The aire it self was nearly full, I think it was Kelly who said every french man seems to have a camper now days. The book said 6 euros the sign on the notice board said 7 euros :-S........... but nobody came to collect any money so it was free :-D I suspect it is quite a popular aire so will fill up early. The next stop was Cadillac (33410) it says a walled city in the book, but I suspect the cities were smaller in those days, its more of a small town size and I would think in the season very nice, again there is a handy park next door for dog walking. One other thing the electric is a 2 euro coin only not 2 x 1euro as I tried and lost!!!Although the parking was free. We had tried another aire at St Jean D'Angely (17400) but found it has moved to the other side of the river next to the skate park and was closed so carried onto Cadillac. Our final aire before Spain was at Biarritz (64200) where we spent New years Eve and found the SUN! it was packed and just managed to get one of the last spots, but even so vans still piled in and parked all over the place. We decided to spend a couple of nights there and managed to get electric the next day when some vans left. The aire was a couple of minutes from the beach and a delightful promenade, with a restaurant. A Leclerc is 5 mins up the road and the bagette man calls every morning about 9. Biarritz centre is a good 20 min walk up hill, and there is some road noise. Here again the book said 10 euros a night, but nobody bothered to collect it :-D a popular aire so arrive early. We tried Dax (40100) first, lured by the prospect of the floating restaurant which seems to have sunk without trace 8-) Plus it is right by a busy roundabout with lots of traffic so moved onto Biarritz good call B-) Now sat in the sun at camping "Kiko" at Olivia south of Valencia. A very nice site by the Med for 15 euro a night, with nice weather forecast for the rest of the week up to 20 degrees by Thursday B-)they even have a beauty spar here.....not that I need it (lol) The only other thing of note, I seem to have some kind of compulsive disorder and feel the need to check my nuts on a daily basis *-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corky 8 Posted January 3, 2011 Share Posted January 3, 2011 The wheels on our Motorhome are alloy and the wheel bolts are /were really rusty looking,so I took them out Three from each wheel,wire brushed them using an electric drill with wire brush attached, then I hamerited the bolt heads a slight smear of copper greased on the shaft,s but not the threads and replaced them and torqued them up to half the recommended 190 Nm did the same to the remaining bolts then torqued the lot up to 190 Nm which sounds a lot for alloys but you realise it isn't when your actually applying the torque, I will re-torque them after a good run, so hopefully there's nowt wrong with my Nuts sorry bolts. "Dave and Sue" enjoyed your report, Safe journey,s Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest pelmetman Posted January 7, 2011 Share Posted January 7, 2011 Picture of Camping Kiko hopefully :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest pelmetman Posted January 7, 2011 Share Posted January 7, 2011 Oooh it worked :D It's a lovely site by the sea although set behind a sand dune type bank, facilities very clean and tidy, there is a bar on the entrance road where we had a meal and drinks 27euro, there is also a posh looking restaurant on the site where I paid over 70 euros for the worst meal we have had in living memory *-) It would not put us off going back though' as hopefully they will have found a chef by then :D The site is right next door to a marina which had its own restaurant. Currently we are at Carchunna/Motril (1776 ACSI), if you have a polytunnel fetish then this is Shangri la :D I reckon we were on the road for about 4 hours to get here from my old mans place in Orihuele, and the further south we got the more plastic we saw *-) Considering Spain is a Catholic nation I wonder if the pope is aware that most of southern Spain appears to be wearing a giant condom (lol) Maybe its to protect themselves from contamination by Gibraltar (lol) We saw our first little bit of rain today, not enough to wet the van but it is a few degrees warmer still :-D Hope to make it to Gib to visit my old haunts before we turn North and head home, I expect to clock 50,000 miles on the way there 8-) thats 2 and a half k for every year of our campers 20 years................poor thing must be knackered (lol) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest pelmetman Posted January 9, 2011 Share Posted January 9, 2011 Now parked up at Parque Botanica Tropical, 6km East of Estapona. There seems to be a distinct lack of camp sites down on the South coast of Spain, only found this one by trawling the net :D Its about 10 min walk from the sea, the site itself is a former nursery, pitches are a bit muddy with the rain they had before we got here, there is a indoor swimming pool in one of the old green houses :D Other facilties include a small shop and restaurante/bar. Showers toilets are clean if abit dated, and the owners are very friendly B-) A nice touch - there is a basket outside the shop with oranges, grapefruit, lemons and clementines which are free :-> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
747 Posted January 9, 2011 Share Posted January 9, 2011 That's all very well Dave but have you checked your nuts lately? 8-) :$ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest pelmetman Posted January 9, 2011 Share Posted January 9, 2011 Yep...............on a daily basis 8-) .........Its getting embarrassing :$ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arthur Brown Posted January 9, 2011 Share Posted January 9, 2011 Hi Love your comentary whilst travelling south. Would like to hear more about the weather - like the sun is shining and the temp is 20+. (I can live with the truth) Setting off this next week for similar area and keen to know what to expect. I appreciate that I need to check my nuts but it seems the squirrels have got them. Keep up the report. Art Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bojitoes Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 Hi Dave I echo Art's thoughts. we are heading down in a couple of weeks and would appreciate knowing what we are heading into and expect. We were thinking of a couple of sites from the Acsi book on the south coast and maybe C&CC rally at Castillo de Banos. We are taking afternoon train and will stop at Cite Europ first night- how long did it take you to the Aire at Niort? Hope the suns still shining Bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Syd Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 Slightly off topic but checking nuts is the relevant bit Bought a Dyson Ball cleaner hoover the other day but sadly I misunderstood It's purpose and how to use it and that is why I am posting this from the A & E Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest pelmetman Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 Arthur Brown - 2011-01-09 9:15 PM Hi Love your comentary whilst travelling south. Would like to hear more about the weather - like the sun is shining and the temp is 20+. (I can live with the truth) Setting off this next week for similar area and keen to know what to expect. I appreciate that I need to check my nuts but it seems the squirrels have got them. Keep up the report. Art Sun is coming up, not quite reached our pitch, forcast for Gib today is 16 degrees, its warmer back in Valencia at 20 8-). We have been quite comfortable weather wise since Biarritz which has caught us out, as the boss only packed a couple of pairs of shorts and T shirts :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest pelmetman Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 Bojitoes - 2011-01-10 12:03 AM Hi Dave I echo Art's thoughts. we are heading down in a couple of weeks and would appreciate knowing what we are heading into and expect. We were thinking of a couple of sites from the Acsi book on the south coast and maybe C&CC rally at Castillo de Banos. We are taking afternoon train and will stop at Cite Europ first night- how long did it take you to the Aire at Niort? Hope the suns still shining Bob We went to Niort from my sister in laws place in Brittany so it was not too far. From the tunnel the Google maps reckon 6 and a half hours from Calais, but we are finding the satnav prediction to be way off as it thinks I can do 75 miles an hour (lol) I have discovered France and Spain seem a lot bigger when you can only do 56 mph. Have a nice trip down Bob, we haven't seen many brits down here except on this site funnily enough :D PS. Syd, hope your back from A & E, I've heard those Dyson's can give you a nasty suck (lol) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bojitoes Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 Thanks Dave, thinking you were coming from Calais I thought it seemed a long drive for one day! I too do around 52-56mph. How much is the diesel in both France / Spain at the moment? Current prices in UK incline me only to have fumes in the tank when we arrive in Calais1 Bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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