The day the wheel came off
It had been a great week staying in Somerset, sun shining, BBQ with friends, only lost the puppy once and fairly quickly found it in lost property.
Just as we were leaving we happened to meet a new family with children about the same age as ours, nice people, but I bet they wish they had never met us !! (their first mistake)
We left about 10 minutes before them and headed out towards Bristol at a steady 30mph. We had only gone about 3 miles when there was a terrific bang and the one side of the caravan dropped down (single axle Bailey). I thought we had had a blow out and steered into a near by pull-in. Can you imagine my surprise when I discovered we no longer had a wheel on the passenger side of the caravan. For some reason, not only had it come off, but it had rolled backwards up the road and into a ditch. It took about 10 minutes to find which was just about the time that the new people we had just met happened to come down the road and pull over when they saw it was us. (This was their second mistake.)
The bolts (studs) had sheared off and were nowhere to be found, so they offered to drive me to find a shop that could sell me knew ones. All I could find was a set of locking studs, but armed with these we were soon back at the van. Now this is where it got embarrassing, the only jack I had was a scissor jack, we have never been light packers and my arm had been playing up, there was no way I could operate that jack and had to ask my new found friend to help.
Well it nearly killed him, sweat was pouring off him as he struggled to make every small turn and the filthy looks he constantly gave me told me that he didn't really believe there was anything wrong with my arm at all, and to be honest, I couldn't blame him, I looked and acted ok, I have no idea what was wrong with my arm, it felt like I had dislocated it, it worked ok until I tried to raise it.
He eventually managed it and we were on our way again, we treated them to a meal at a Little Chief, but I'm not sure he ever really forgave me.
After that I bought a twin axle and always check the tightness of the studs, as I understand it, the vibration on the kerb side of going in and out of drains and potholes works them loose, which is why on lorries they now have those plastic pointers on them to easily and quickly detect a loose stud. Who would have known !! (my dad apparently) I also now carry a trolly jack and joined the AA.
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In 2010 we also suffered the frightening experience of a Bump, Bang, screech sound on the M25 as the nearside wheel overtook us on the hard shoulder. I somehow got the lot onto the hard shoulder to be told by the policeman that I had been extremely lucky !!!!!!!! Not what I would consider luck. The mover across the axle had slid along the M25 surface, keeping the van upright. He was right.
Guess what? Our van was a 3month old Bailey Pegasus and I was accused of not tightening up the wheel nuts. Strange, how it is part of our "Take-Off checklist" every trip. Thankfully the caravan insurance covered everything. Big Ad for the club insurance, they are terrific. Helped us all the way through the nightmare.
The moral of all this is, are manufacturers of vans kidding us about the safety of their own designs or is radical change needed. When was the last time you heard of a car wheel coming off. We had to return from Surrey to Cheshire with no van and shaking like a leaf.
I wonder how many caravans, not just Bailey suffered a similar fate around this period. Don't you find it curious that whenever you have your van serviced, or taking delivery of a new one, the dealer will not let you have it back until you have signed a disclaimer exonerating them from wheel loss blame.
Don't forget your nuts, chaps.
Les
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