Moving on to the next 'big trip' for The Jalopy. similar to the last one, visiting the 'crinklies'.
Southern Brittany to Calais (tunnel).
Folkstone to Belper
Belper to Silloth
Silloth to Belper
Belper to Oakhamton
Oakhamton to Weymouth
Weymouth to Folkstone (tunnel)
Calais to Southern Brittany (home).
Lots of stop-overs of course & with running around these trips are 2-2.5k miles.
All was going so well. TJ flew (well not quite
) up to Calais. Then began the trek heading northwards. Bowling along the M20 around 65-70mph & BANG. What the ......everything felt right after, but had eased right off the gas. A passenger in a car passing was pointing down to the right front wheel. Limped onto the next junction which fortunately was very close. Pulled over to find:
One of the 'many' who had hit a pothole then, great!
I went to get the supplied bottle jack to change the wheel, but found it too high to go under the sub-frame, presumably due to the flat tyre.
So onto the French breakdown then. Well, chocolate teapots are more useful! We were on the outskirts of London, but they could not find a recovery - they insisted that it had to be an Iveco garage & that there wasn't one anywhere near
No matter how many times I explained that any garage could sort it they continued that Iveco's go to Iveco garages & Fords to Ford...... yes they really are that 'blinkered'. In the end I said I'll sort recovery & send them the bill once back in France. This they agreed to.
So I found a garage. They sent their recovery chap & told us to drive to them afterwards for a safety check. Sure enough, the chap arrived. He struggled to get his heavy duty trolley jack under, but lifted it a bit further aft. Then put the spare under the centre of the sub-frame. Lowered it onto the spare. This held it high enough to get the jack under the frame near the offending wheel so he could change it for us.
He then led us to the garage.
These guys were brilliant. They took TJ straight in & fifteen minutes later confirmed zero damage (save for the wheel). They put some air in the spare and said we were 'good to go'.
Great except we were now 3 hours behind
Oh I said these guys were brilliant, guess what when I asked to pay - no charge at the garage for the safety check. Recovery call out of 60 quid. I took the bill to send to the brake down company.
We set off once more. But didnt get to Belper as planned as it got too late. So found a little site on a farm, I think in Warickshire. Next morning continued up to Belper with no issues. What a day that was!