Tyron Bands. They work!
Tyron Bands, They work!
Firstly let me say that I have no connection, and never have had with Tyron Bands Ltd or whoever owns them. I am a retired Police Officer and an advanced motorist, who enjoys caravanning both long and short haul and have done so for over 30 years. For me foreign touring is what its all about and I would like to share a couple of experiences with you.
The first story involves a trip we took toPerpignanin the South of France about four years ago and which included an incident in which I am certain that Tyron Bands saved us from a very serious accident. My rig at the time was a 2005ToyotaLandcruiser Automatic, and a 2007 Coachman 520/4 VIP.
We had departedPortsmouthon an afternoon ferry arriving inCaen(Ouistraham) at about 9.30pm local. We over night’d in a local site, and set off forLa Rochellethe following morning. Arriving at our pre booked site late that afternoon we enjoyed several days of sea food and local wines and cheeses. The bird watchers amongst you might be interested to learn that our essentially rural site was home to a family of “Hoopoos”. A very spectacular bird with a prominent crest on its head.
Our next port of call was at St Jean de Luz further down the Atlantic west coast ofFranceand nearly on the Spanish border. Once again a fairly rural site just out of town but with a very nice lake for fishing and swimming. The local supermarket again ensured that the local wines, cheeses and fish were easily obtained.
After about a week we decided to head across the Pyrenees toPerpignan, calling in atLourdesto experience the atmosphere there. Sadly that visit was a very big disappointment and one I will happily forego in future. To say that the place was over commercialised would be a very serious understatement. The entire object appearing to be to relieve some very vulnerable people of as much money as possible in as short a time as possible! I appreciate that that is a personal statement and I am sure that there will be others that will disagree.
Anyway after a two day stop over we headed East again over thePyrenees, after first giving the caravan and tyres etc a thorough check. The day was getting very warm as we leftLourdesand by lunchtime as we stopped at the summit of a pass for a picnic I noted that my temp gauge showed 34 degrees .
I had planned the descent carefully I thought intending to use engine braking wherever possible in order to prevent the Land Cruisers brakes from getting too hot . The descent proved to be long and arduous and the day was getting hotter and hotter, although I was somewhat oblivious to that important factor cocooned in my air conditioned cabin.
As we neared the bottom of our decent, I started to negotiate a fast sweeping right hand curve, then suddenly there was a bit of a muffled bang and my rig sounded and felt like it was running over a wash boarded surface. A quick look in my left hand mirrors revealed a frightening sight! My left hand caravan wheel arch was giving a very good impression of Concorde’s last take off fromParis. Flames and black smoke were streaming from it!
But the caravan was tracking true with no detectable sway and I was able to bring it to a controlled emergency stop with no problem.
A quick examination revealed that the tyre had completely shredded but had remained on the rim giving me a least a fighting chance of keeping the rig under control. But the real surprise came when I checked the right hand side wheel! It was too hot to touch! I had forgotten an important rule! Engine braking is fine for protecting the towing vehicles brakes but NOT the caravan’s
Over run brakes which of course had been on all the time!
I had become over confident! And my over confidence had allowed me to ignore the effects of friction and very high ambient temperatures. But the Tyron bands fitted to the blown tyre had done the trick, the shredded tyre stayed on the wheel and i didn't lose control!
I changed the tyre for a spare quickly and was soon on my way again. But there was one more, but this time pleasant lesson to be learned. I was conscious that I was a long way from home, and now without a spare. I couldn’t find a tyre dealer with the correct heavy duty tyres. So I phoned the caravan club for advice on where to get one. Imagine my delight when the voice at the other end of the phone said “But you have Red Pennant Insurance, we will courier one out to you within 24 hours” Fantastic! And they were as good as their word.
Our final stop on that trip was to “Oradour Sur Glane” near Limoges. Oradour passed into History on the 10th June 1944 when a German SS division stopped at the village, rounded up all the villagers, put the women in a Church and the men in a barn, and then murdered them all. The village was torched.
The French Govt after the War declared that the village was to be preserved exactly as it was on the day of the atrocity and it remains today as a memorial to mans inhumanity to man. A visit and an experience I will never forget.
My next trip to another part ofFrance’s Mediterranean coast was to see us cut off by a brush fire and rescued by aerial water bombers. My pictures from that adventure featured on the front page of a Magazine!
That’s in the next story!
Lessons learned, - 1. Watch those long downhill sections, be aware of overrun braking systems heating up.
2. Fit Tyron Bands they certainly saved us!
3. Don’t forget your Red Pennant insurance cover!
Tigerfish
