Challenges at Newark (1 Viewer)

[Thepips]

As you may of noticed it rained just a little bit on the Saturday night. When I woke up on the Sunday morning I guessed I was in a little bit of bother as we were now sloping side to side. Sure enough, we'd found the only soggy patch in the showground. We tried extricating ourselves by gently rocking backwards and forwards but no luck, so I tried a bit more throttleoh:. Ian managed to struggle out by taking the car of the trailer but we were well and truly mired.
Many, many thanks to Jim for the tow with the Landie, Geo for having a decent tow rope, Ian for the loan of a strop to extend the tow a bit further so Jim was on hardstanding. In just a couple of minutes we were back on firmer ground.
I drove up to the main road but Gladys (our Monaco Knight) didn't feel right. The nearside outer was completely flat and virtually off the rim. We called the RAC who sent an ordinary van who told us "I can't do anything with that!". No Sh*t, Sherlock! We'd told them that when we called. After a few minutes chat and not a lot of help he went off and we settled down to another evening on the showground.
Monday morning we quickly found a local company in Newark that had the right size tyre but we did have to drive all the way to Travelworld for the special box spanner for the wheel trim. It's only a 200 mile round trip. Still, I've got it now and bought a few other bits and pieces as well! We were back at the showground at 2:30 and the tyre fitter had the new tyre on by 3:00! Astonishingly he didn't even take the wheel of the RV, just two tyre levers and the tyre was done.
Turned out the tyre wasn't punctured, the fitter surmised that all the tyre spinning in the mud had undone the valve extenderoh:
Despite the weather and the problems we had a great time and look forward to meeting up again.

Regards
Doug 'n Bar

 

[olley]

Hi Doug, glad you got sorted, never gave the box spanner a thought, I have one in one of the lockers. oh:

You were brave driving 200 miles on a single, I would have been too afraid of popping the other one.

Heres hoping were don't get stuck at Peterborough.

Olley

 

[Thepips]

Hi Olley,
Didn't move the RV more than 100 yards, we took Farty (our Fiat Seicento) instead. Thank goodness for A Frames! We needed the spanner so I wasn't too concerned about driving to Telford and back.
Hope you've cleaned all the mud off
Cheers

Doug

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[olley]

hi Doug, cleaned the roof still need to blast around the wheels, that should make the Rv about a ton lighter.

Olley

 

[GJH]

Perhaps there is an advantage to a little Autoquest 100.

We had a sea view when we woke up and it was a good job I had me welliies but we were able to drive off to solid ground OK as the front wheels were out of the water.

Good to see you got sorted anyway Doug.

Graham

 

[Thepips]

Thanks Graham,
When I waded out to the back wheels they were in 6 inches of water and the jacking boards sunk 4 inches into the mud. A couple of minutes trying to get her out and we were 9 inches into the mud and needed the Landie.
Once upon a time I would have had a ground anchor and a tirfor jack. Armed with those I could recover just about anything.

Regards
Doug

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[olley]

Hi I considered bolting a winch on the front, (Makro had one on special) but how far do you go? Its only the second time I have had a problem, and as a last resort I could have put the snow chains on.

Makes you realise how little purchase tyres get on wet grass, it was flat where I was and the van hadn't really sunk in, even with the trailer off it was still touch and go. Maybe if I ever replace the tyres I ought to get town and country ones if they do them.

I remember about thirty years ago getting stuck in a bedford CF van out in the wilds when I worked for BR. I had plenty of rope so I put a loop around both rear wheels and a tree, and wound its self out, it worked a treat, just had to be careful the rope stayed in the middle of the tyre.

Olley

 

[TestPoster]

Glad to hear that you all got out of the lake...... It sounds like it was extremely wet where you guys were, anyway good news you got out.

Keith

Ps, It was really nice to meet up again Olley, looking forward to Peterboro, hope that you are going?