Post by atefooterz on Aug 5, 2014 18:01:41 GMT 10
Heya firstly how & where does one measure a caravan? I guess this is 16feet as it looks similar to the Arrow on another thread.
The history, from the guys i bought it, was that she*? lived in a caravan park somewhere in Victoria & was bought from Goulburn Valley Motors by their family in the early 1980s, it was based near Sale on 300acres of dairy farm & used 1-2 times a year for a couple of weeks, normally around Eden way. Last Vic rego sticker says 1985 and permits only used since then. I drove this van from Sale to Albury, it was mid July when some freaky weather was going down! Listening to radio national about all the severe warnings in Vic plus punching into 30-50 knot headwinds. ( i bought a 2004 transit turbo as a tow vehicle) The van was able to keep the Arrow on the straight and between the lines so was happy while pressing on. Heading up the Hume freeway the wind was now abeam and for the first time my van was feeling some lean on however dispite the strong winds and occasional heavy downpours pressed onwards towards Albury and the carrot of NSW Rego. At 1am approx a bang & noise turned out to be a vintage car tyre blowing, the vendor had thrown in a spare, I had picked up the van at 5pm but after trying to get the dodgyest of expired original light systems working and locating the bolt for the jockey wheel without success with now "sort of" legal lights, soo it was almost 8pm when leaving Sale and now was just concerned about the 40 degree hill slope and 100KLM+ speed of passing trucks and cars. Unfortunately i had not thought ahead enough to bring a tool kit so when i grabbed the lightweight looking jack & wheelbrace out of my newly aquired van i discovered it was for truck size nuts & not the small Holden/Ford size of an old van, this was just past a sleeping Violet Town, so headed back to a 24hr servo at Euroa, no joy all, small cars and no one apart from truckies on rest stops who were unable to help but sympathetic. After a few more coffees drove up to the Benella 24hr to discover an equally non existent collection of car tools for sale and no one around, decided to call it quits and slept until about 9am. ( I have now since lived in this handy roomyTransit van for 1 month)
Entering a bustling Violet Town, about 10am, i discovered no joy from the mobil mechanics but enticed a chamion engineer, from his business, who brought along a 4 way T brace & 2 ton floor jack for the 1/2 KLM approx journey to the stranded van. Remember i had no jockey wheel bolt? and since my stroke last year was not strong enough to uncouple the cara from the van, so used the transit jack to lift the ball high, undid the chain & electrical plug & drove off, most dangerous part was finding a tree brach to grab the jack and allow the v part to slam on the tarmack, i really expected someone to steal the van so did not want to loose my jack as well! After the engineer had changed the tire & helped re couple onto van towball he suggested i go to Benella & see the tyre folks, as the spare was rather flat and the kerb side tyre way past it`s prime! After a few too many hours, as they were also very busy and wanted to fit tyres in 2-3 days time and parting with cash, i now had 2 smart small truck tyres replacing the retread & 4 ply baldie, now feeling much happier, Arrow was even more tame to tow, so headed off to tick over the 180ish KLM up to the N.S.W. boarder...
On the radio about an hour later a weather guy was saying the reports of snow on the Hume were being confused with Ballaratt, suddenly the B-Double, i was following, put on his hazards & slowed right down, we were now surrounded by a white winter wonderland, driving on melting snow i gazing at a collection of P platers & 2 others who had sped by earlier, accross the road were 4 Ambulances and what looked like 7 cars in dissrepair. "Lucky!" Later checking into Albury/ Lavington, i was depressed to discover everyone was busy and at least 1 -2 weeks before they would look at let alone fix anything! I had a side trip to Euchuka to pick up an eBay bargain of stained glass windows for a mate planned,so thankfully found an auto electrician, who was willing to grab my cash, to fit new lights and rewire where required, so parted ways with the Arrow for a day. Later that night i phoned ahead to my trusty mechanic & blue/pink slipper in Sydney and made an appointment and continued to Arndell Park. He has renewed a heap of stuff while looking over her so finally today i am street legal & not on a fear induced by Police or M&R folks mission for obtaining road worthy or getting weighed. (0.95KG)
Soo to continue this thread i can measure the correct spots & know what size this critter is plus do you really want the slow loading & site bandwidth hungryness of full size pics or can i use clickable thumbnails?
* Is a caravan a she?, Discuss...
The history, from the guys i bought it, was that she*? lived in a caravan park somewhere in Victoria & was bought from Goulburn Valley Motors by their family in the early 1980s, it was based near Sale on 300acres of dairy farm & used 1-2 times a year for a couple of weeks, normally around Eden way. Last Vic rego sticker says 1985 and permits only used since then. I drove this van from Sale to Albury, it was mid July when some freaky weather was going down! Listening to radio national about all the severe warnings in Vic plus punching into 30-50 knot headwinds. ( i bought a 2004 transit turbo as a tow vehicle) The van was able to keep the Arrow on the straight and between the lines so was happy while pressing on. Heading up the Hume freeway the wind was now abeam and for the first time my van was feeling some lean on however dispite the strong winds and occasional heavy downpours pressed onwards towards Albury and the carrot of NSW Rego. At 1am approx a bang & noise turned out to be a vintage car tyre blowing, the vendor had thrown in a spare, I had picked up the van at 5pm but after trying to get the dodgyest of expired original light systems working and locating the bolt for the jockey wheel without success with now "sort of" legal lights, soo it was almost 8pm when leaving Sale and now was just concerned about the 40 degree hill slope and 100KLM+ speed of passing trucks and cars. Unfortunately i had not thought ahead enough to bring a tool kit so when i grabbed the lightweight looking jack & wheelbrace out of my newly aquired van i discovered it was for truck size nuts & not the small Holden/Ford size of an old van, this was just past a sleeping Violet Town, so headed back to a 24hr servo at Euroa, no joy all, small cars and no one apart from truckies on rest stops who were unable to help but sympathetic. After a few more coffees drove up to the Benella 24hr to discover an equally non existent collection of car tools for sale and no one around, decided to call it quits and slept until about 9am. ( I have now since lived in this handy roomyTransit van for 1 month)
Entering a bustling Violet Town, about 10am, i discovered no joy from the mobil mechanics but enticed a chamion engineer, from his business, who brought along a 4 way T brace & 2 ton floor jack for the 1/2 KLM approx journey to the stranded van. Remember i had no jockey wheel bolt? and since my stroke last year was not strong enough to uncouple the cara from the van, so used the transit jack to lift the ball high, undid the chain & electrical plug & drove off, most dangerous part was finding a tree brach to grab the jack and allow the v part to slam on the tarmack, i really expected someone to steal the van so did not want to loose my jack as well! After the engineer had changed the tire & helped re couple onto van towball he suggested i go to Benella & see the tyre folks, as the spare was rather flat and the kerb side tyre way past it`s prime! After a few too many hours, as they were also very busy and wanted to fit tyres in 2-3 days time and parting with cash, i now had 2 smart small truck tyres replacing the retread & 4 ply baldie, now feeling much happier, Arrow was even more tame to tow, so headed off to tick over the 180ish KLM up to the N.S.W. boarder...
On the radio about an hour later a weather guy was saying the reports of snow on the Hume were being confused with Ballaratt, suddenly the B-Double, i was following, put on his hazards & slowed right down, we were now surrounded by a white winter wonderland, driving on melting snow i gazing at a collection of P platers & 2 others who had sped by earlier, accross the road were 4 Ambulances and what looked like 7 cars in dissrepair. "Lucky!" Later checking into Albury/ Lavington, i was depressed to discover everyone was busy and at least 1 -2 weeks before they would look at let alone fix anything! I had a side trip to Euchuka to pick up an eBay bargain of stained glass windows for a mate planned,so thankfully found an auto electrician, who was willing to grab my cash, to fit new lights and rewire where required, so parted ways with the Arrow for a day. Later that night i phoned ahead to my trusty mechanic & blue/pink slipper in Sydney and made an appointment and continued to Arndell Park. He has renewed a heap of stuff while looking over her so finally today i am street legal & not on a fear induced by Police or M&R folks mission for obtaining road worthy or getting weighed. (0.95KG)
Soo to continue this thread i can measure the correct spots & know what size this critter is plus do you really want the slow loading & site bandwidth hungryness of full size pics or can i use clickable thumbnails?
* Is a caravan a she?, Discuss...
