Couple of weeks ago Jane and I were invited by a couple of friends to join them in a little trip down the S/West of W.A. as they were doing a shakedown trip in their new van.
We agreed and stocked the van up all ready for the off....everything was set up and we set off to their place to leave together on the trip.
The walk around was done and we set off.......
We had not even covered 500 meters when we noticed a vibration as we drove off... I immediately pulled over and got out of the tug wondering what might be wrong (I thought it might be a wheel bearing given way)
Everything yet again seemed OK so off we went again, but the vibration seemed to be getting worse and Jane said "I can smell rubber burning"
I said "don't be silly, there is nothing that could be burning"
She kept telling me to pull over...so I did, and got out again for a check and yes I could smell it too.
Where the hell was it coming from ????
And then I looked down and saw that I had not retracted the Jockey Wheel when we took off....
The rubber wheel had disintegrated.
Feeling a little sheepish I took the jockey wheel off (or what was left of it) and stowed it in the back of the tug.
Climbing back into the tug I said to Jane "no probs luv I fixed the problem" and away we went.
When we got to Clay and Deb's I showed him the remains of the wheel....and as luck would have it, he had a spare Jockey Wheel in his shed.
MORAL OF THIS STORY.......
Make sure you do a proper pref light check.... (sorry...ex Pilot)
We now have a checklist that we have printed out and add to it as we go along
Never done that one before but on our shake down trip which was to a CP only 5kms from home I did experience a problem on the way back. On the way there I didn't fill the water tanks then on the return leg I decided to fill them to see how much difference it would make. We only got a couple hundred metres down the road and I told my wife that in future I will have to drop the water as it feels like I'm pulling a brick. I persisted and when we finally arrived home I went to disconect and found despite both of us doing all of our checks some fool had left the van's hand brake on lucky no real damage was done.
Yes. However, I only got as far as the caravan park gate when a kind person pointed it out to me, although the solid jolt passing over a speed bump made me aware that something was wrong.
But when we had the pop top I forgot to latch the roof down THREE times. Luckily, we only travelled a relatively short distance each time before other drivers alerted me - headlight flashing, horn blowing and waving and pointing.
When I first started caravanning in early 1999, I left the door of the van open but fortunately only drove about 800 metres before someone alerted me to the fact just as I was about to pull onto the Gateway Motorway in Brisbane. Needless to say I felt more than a bit silly, having held a HC license for over 30 years and having driven Buses, semis and heavy rigid trucks.
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Dave (Nutgrass)
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Carpe Diem - Seize the day!
You never get a second chance at a first impression, so make the first a good one.
I once towed my ski boat home to rural Echuca from the main town boat ramp without clicking the towball handle locking thingy into place .I hit the hump in the main street and the trailer popped off the ball with an almighty clunk and I attempted to come to a very slow stop ,however at the last moment the ute stopped but the nose of the boat rolled gently forward and totally caved the tail gate of the ute inwards by 150 ml ! Needless to say 50% of the entire population were watching ! I was given a bit of buggery that week at the pub ! Cheers
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Westy. Some people I know are like slinkies. They look really funny when you push them downstairs !
