All too often these signs are 3nored by operators, large
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and mall, for they should trigger off our winter preparation proramme in order to get vehicles 3ady in ample time for the gours of winter proper.
We have all experienced that orrible sinking feeling in the tomach when, having raked ourself from a warm and cosy ed at 4am to get off up to lanchester or some such elightful destination, the first )uch of the button tells you uite straight that you're not Ding to get started.
How many times, though, is quite simply our own stupid 3ult? You know the sort of ling that leads up to such a ituation and while that might e OK in a fleet there is owhere for the owner-driver ) turn for a tow short of getting Jrnebody out to him.
I learned during my fleet ngineering years that there are great many things that stop a ahicle going to work. In the renter, especially if it is very 3vere, like for instance that of 962-63, there is for every 3hicle fault, another that has othing to do with the vehicle :hich will nevertheless stop )u from getting on the road.
We have not experienced a id winter in Britain since then, id, being a bit of a pessimist, I ought it would be timely to ise some of the points that Dre highlighted by it, just in se.
In these enlightened days, it usual to find radiators filled th anti-freeze. Many have the ixture left in throughout the ,ar because the makers tell us at the inhibitors Contained in protect the insides of our 3ter jackets and radiators. I Dnder, though, how many of e vehicles so treated have the -ength of their anti-freeze, ixture checked and adjusted
give adequate protection ould there be a sudden iexpected sharp drop in lbient temperature.
It never ceases to amaze me w each winter seems to come a complete surprise to almost erybody in Britain. We are ually completely unprepared • the smallest fall of snow or of frost.
I recall a fellow operator who d me in astonishment when I mentioned anti-freeze: "I never bother with that rubbish" and then went on to say how he drained out religiously every night when there was the slightest chance of a hard frost. As usual I laid down the law regarding the chances he was taking; all I'm afraid to no avail. Even when I got onto the subject of just how wrong the weather forecasters are more often than not, he still dismissed my well-meant advice out of hand.
That had been about this time of the year and I had quickly earned the reputation and nickname of "Old belt and braces".
A couple of months went by and one mid-November evening I met him while parking up for the night on the lorry park at the side of the River Trent at Newark. It was a freezing cold evening and as soon as we had stopped the motors he scrambled underneath to open up his drain cocks. The rad cock opened easily as did the one on the water pump.
The block tap, however, was a bit stubborn and he produced a hammer (Manchester screwdriver) to knock the plug around. Well, the inevitable happened — the tap-plug handle snapped off and he rummaged about in his not too well endowed toolbox to find a Stilson wrench which was six sizes too large for the job and which could not be brought to bear on the plug crown.
I had already gone to my digs and '• was a full half-hour later whei he turned up looking black, both physically and temper wise, to ask for some assistance. I gave him my toolbox key and he went off to finish opening the valve.
The next time he came back he looked even blacker. The tap had frozen and he was now desperate to get the residue of the water out of the block before it too froze up and damaged the casting.
Very reluctantly, I turned out onto the park to see if I could help.
I had tucked away under the seat, a small Primus stove which, on the odd occasion, was useful for having a brew when stuck out orl some remote site, and with this we thawed out his drain tap and let the remainder of his water go.
As we walked back to the digs I really let him have my opinion of his stupidity in not using anti-freeze, and, for once he agreed.
I was up at six and on my way before my unfortunate friend was awake and it took me a quarter of an hour to defrost my screen with a small salt-bag dipped in warm water. The frost had been extremely hard and I had to drive very gently over the rest of my trip to Doncaster.
Returning later that day I was surprised to find matey still parked up. The frost had persisted all day and he had suffered a whole series of disasters because of it.
He had arrived at the lorry park to discover that in his panic to get the water out he had omitted to remove the filler cap. This was a cast aluminium type with a heavy thread and it has frozen solid and taken more than an hour to get free.
He had nothing with which to turn the broken tap plug and by the time he had found something, another hour had gone by.
There was, of course, no water. The stand pipe was solid and he and several others thought the Trent at that point was salty and so would not use it.
But eventually he had got going only to find that his brake valve had frozen and would not operate.
By the time he had thawed that out, too much of the day had been wasted and he set out about draining out again ready for what looked like being another very cold night.
When winter comes round, don't let it surprise you; next time round, be prepared.