Hope this post dosn't upset some people due to it's length, but a little hard to explan some things in a few words.
May pay to check what way the bolts are facing on your tow hitch.A guy noticed his Coromal van was sitting very low, at hitch point.
He found that the two two bolts on tow hitch had snapped. The only thing holding van to car was the back two bolts and possibly the Hayman Reece.If back two bolts had fractured the van would of gone nose into road (can only imagine the consequences )The probem on his Coromal van was that the 4 bolts on tow hit had the bolts going in from top, so nut was underneath,not allowing a visual check at any time, and let us be honest here ,,,who gets down on all 4s to check nuts from below. So effectively the nuts could work loose and then the problem starts.When he replaced the 4 bolts he replaced bolts them with a higher grading and larger size as the ones that there were high tensile and really were too small.When he rang Coromal he was told they were not really interested , as they just sell the vans, and to get in touch with manufacture. Juat a foot note to this a guy when listening to all this went and checked his Jaco and found the same problem.
When replacing bolts they must be CAT 8 hi-tensile as a minimum.An imperial sized 1/2 inch bolt required because the metric M12 bolt is too loose in the hole. The bolt also must be nyloc nutted so to give more TRIand there fore more thread contact,Bolt must also be Nyloc nutted and will require to be fitted with Hi - Tensile flat washer, or preferbly a cone lock nut ( CRUSH TYPE) which allows full tensile strength to be maintained.
I just hope the poor people who were in that crash the other day near SA outback ,did not have this happen to their van.
.
-- Edited by herbie on Monday 8th of April 2013 09:22:35 PM
Hello Dazren, same look here when i said to my wife i'm off to check my nuts..she said ....And may i ask why ,what is the problem .!!!! i said just checking to see if they are tight enough.
-- Edited by herbie on Tuesday 9th of April 2013 02:38:52 PM
the wifes makeup bag comes in play a bit here i know some of us older folk cant bend over or get down on all 4s so heres a little trick i use at work for looking under things and also it sometimes i use it as a torch . shhhh now all ya gota do is pinch her makeup mirror gives you a good view were you cant see and if you got a sunny day you can reflect sunlight to were your looking . i have spent 100s of dollrs on torches that dont work in day light but even in dull light it can show a bit of brightness on the subject
Good post Herbie, ?? an important thing to check !! that i think most of us don't do often enough, ?? I went out and checked mine after reading your post [ all was good ]
Although you did get me into a bit of strife with the Missus ???? she asked me what i was doing ?? and when i said checking my Nuts ?? She Bolted
What a briliant idea re the mirror so sinple but never some thing some one thinks to use ,we all dive for that tourch ,as you say that never works in day light.
When you are in the trade we use a mirror a lot, even shine a torch into the mirror & it reflects back to where you need it.
Many years back I had to lie on my back in the bottom of a fishing trawler, with a mirror & torch behinde my head & count the timing marks on a flywheel while the owner slowly turned the motor around. The markings had almost rusted off, & a reading in this position meant that what I was seeing was actually upside down & backwards. All this to be able to refit a fuel injection pump & I did get it right in one, & once was enough.
JC.
-- Edited by justcruisin01 on Tuesday 9th of April 2013 10:47:25 AM
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