Giz us a tug! (The recovery truck thread)

[capsuleboy]

Not strictly being recovered, more recycled. Burgess's yard in Leicester is a proper old school anarchic mudbath...

[alf892]

Not strictly being recovered, more recycled. Burgess's yard in Leicester is a proper old school anarchic mudbath...

Is that a Multipla towcar?

 

If so I think you got the load/tow car mixed up

[oldcars]

Carlton  rip

[Joey spud]

One rotted out Brat taking its final ride.

Smilely Transits are still unbeatable.

 

[capsuleboy]

Yup the Multi was used and abused as a tow car often, but usually with just a Renault 4 or similar on the trailer.

The Carlton was owned by a friends dad since it was 2 years old, but being sat in his garden for 10 years after it failed its MOT on terminal rear rot did not do it any good.

[worldofceri]

Thread Resurrection Alert!

 

POS modern DAF has a hissy fit and throws a few spurious warnings of impending doom up on the dash. Of course, this being risk-averse, fully h&s compliant, eco-friendly Britain, I can't drive it with a Red Light on, heaven forfend. Not even unladen, for forty minutes, straight back to the depot.

 

So I wait two hours for a man with a laptop to come and announce that he can't fix it with a laptop (I could have told them two hours ago that it couldn't be fixed with a laptop).

 

Then another two hours for a man with something resembling a proper lorry to come and tow me ten miles in the wrong direction (because the nearest garage is that way), even though I could proceed in impeccable safety - in that direction or any other - under my own steam.

 

Then another two hours while a lad with a van (who is getting overtime for his trouble, although I'm not) drives me back to base.

 

But at least I have a nice picture to post on teh internetz.

 

[Snipes]

I may as well add some;

 

-Escort when the plastic actuator on the clutch pedal failed. 100% reliable until that point.

 

-Bluebird after "somebody" didn't tighten the spark plugs down properly. In the rain, on the Manchester flyover in rush hour traffic lol.

 

-Not a breakdown but my SORN'd and MOT-less Silvia being moved.

 

-Dead Manta going to it's new home to be restored.

[oldcars]

Why is the Transit on a Q plate? I thought Q was for kit cars but i must be wrong.

[Richard]

Q plates are for vehicles where the age can't be determined, either because it's a Bitza or because there's no proof of the build date. The Transit probably falls into the former category.

[Spottedlaurel]

I found hiring this Transit to be less stressful than using a trailer:

 

1989 Nissan Skyline 3.0SGL + Transit recovery truck by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

 

Skyline was the South African spec oddity found and eventually bought from a Colchester scrapyard when Mrs SL-to-be was trying on wedding dresses.

[Snipes]

What is it? R30?

[Pillock]

My old place had all the warnings up in the breifing room about driving with red lights on too. They threatened that they'd be able to tell how long it had been on, so no driving back to base and "Oh, it must have just happpened" on pain of dismissal. Not sure how true that is, will a fault code reader tell you how long the fault has been there for?

 

I suppose since you can't expect a vehicle operator to know what the lights mean, it's safer to tell them "all red light are bad" than to risk them driving home with no oil in the sump.

[cobblers]

Not sure how true that is, will a fault code reader tell you how long the fault has been there for?

 

Depends on the ECU but with Mercs you can see how many hours it's been run with each code active, a lot of the others will do the same.

[Spottedlaurel]

What is it? R30?

 

R31. Now with a friend in Holland.

[Spottedlaurel]

Why is the Transit on a Q plate? I thought Q was for kit cars but i must be wrong.

 

I think a few ended up on Q-plates after they'd previously been run by the garage on trade plates, and it seems DVLA then required them to be 'properly' registered (I'll guess in the late '80s). Here's another 'Q':

 

1986 Peugeot 309 1.6GR + Ford Transcontinental (John Grose) by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

 

1986 Peugeot 309 1.6GR (1991) by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

 

1986 Peugeot 309 1.6GR (1991) by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

 

My 309 needed a fairly hefty bit of kit to drag it out of a hole beside the road that I ended up in, then a trailer to drag it back to the yard.

 

How embarrassing... by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

 

My beloved 160J SSS about to be recovered back home after the water pump failed on the A14, probably 1996.

 

Camry Estate off to the scrapyard by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

 

#2 Loaded-up by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

 

#8 On the trailer and set for its new home by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

 

Other than the hired Transit, my own efforts have involved this borrowed-from-work Hilux and Brian James combo, ideal for a novice like me.

 

1982 Colt Galant 1600 by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

 

Wuvvum towed the same trailer with his Volvo to collect the Galant when I bought it off Reallyloud (the car that eventually ended up with Hirst via a stint with PC magazine).

 

1986/87 Ford Sierra XR4x4 by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

 

The Mercedes under my mum and stepdad's former XR4x4 belonged to a banger racing friend and he kindly helped me collect a few Datsuns with it over the years.

 

1979 Datsun 240K GT (c.2002) off to be scrapped by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

 

Regrettably, but inevitably, a few of those Datsuns I bought went this way after they'd been stripped.

[worldofceri]

I suppose since you can't expect a vehicle operator to know what the lights mean, it's safer to tell them "all red light are bad" than to risk them driving home with no oil in the sump.

 

Couldn't agree less.

 

If you're employing someone to operate a machine worth tens of thousands of pounds, with the capability of causing death and destruction, unsupervised, in an uncontrolled environment (public highway, as opposed to a factory or whatever) then they should be appropriately skilled, trained and remunerated to make important decisions without constant recourse to someone in an office hundreds of miles away who doesn't have any first-hand experience of dealing with said machine.

 

But lorry drivers are treated as numbers - bums on seats - any training is the minimum required by law, and respect for their abilities is grudgingly given.

 

And if one has to spend seven hours of their weekend sat in a layby (with no facilities, incidentally - what about employment rights?) because 'Computer Says No' then that's just one of those things.

 

 

 

Edit/PS:  Apols for rant/thread drift.  As you were...

[TripleRich]

I learnt to drive in my mums lovely 106.  It was great to drive and surprisingly quick with the 1.4 lump.

 

Unfortunately mum thought the 106 was submersible when presented with a flash flood near one of the local bridges.  It was declared dead and made its last journey of the back of this.  This was at the height of the scrappage scheme so we got £2k for it and mum received a new Fiat Panda.