Hint- always carry spare water!!

[Andrea_374395685]

Hello,
After returning from a slightly hair raising journey to Pembrokeshire I am advising people to carry spare water!
We had only been on the road an hour when the cars temperature guage was going up and up an up and very close to the red. we pulled in at a lay by and my hubby stuck his head under the bonnet with some steam coming out. My first thought was oh my god, we've overheated and started panicking. Do we call the RAC? what happens if we cant get to the site!!! I evantually left my hubby with his head under the bonnet and walked a mile along a VERY busy and dangerous dual track, think I must have been mad. I got to a garage and then paid an extortiante £8 for 5 litres of water. I evantually got back to the car with my hubby now looking look he had been dragged out of a pit! He had found the problem, one of the radiator pipes had split and we had been losing water. Thankfully we have a small tool kit in the caravan and we were able to fix the problem on the side of the road. We were then able to carry on to our destination without further hickups.
We usually carry a 25 litre water container for emergencies etc, and i cannot think for the life of me why we did not put it in this time. So, after our experince, i am urging fellow caravanners to carry extra water rather than pay sky high service station prices!!

 

[foshy]

Andrea,
Good idea to carry some water. Can you clarify - did you purchase drinking water in bottles eg 5 x 1 ltr bottles or similar or did the garage charge you £8.00 for tap water?
Dave

 

[Rita1]

we always carry 2 x 5 litres of water so can always make a cuppa where ever we are enroute

 

[Rioja]

we always carry 2 x 5 litres of water so can always make a cuppa where ever we are enroute

Cuppa !!!!!!!!!!!
That's a bucket full !

 

[Parksy]

..... I got to a garage and then paid an extortiante £8 for 5 litres of water....

How times change!
There was a time when you could have knocked on the door of the nearest house and they'd have been happy to help you. Even service stations would have given you water from their tap as long as you had something to put it in even if you had to buy a fuel container.
On a cautionary note it's not a good idea to put cold water straight into an cooling system that has overheated if you do carry water. It is possible that hot cast alloy components could crack preventing you from continuing your journey even if you repaired the original leak so let the engine cool down first.

 

[colin-yorkshire1]

On a cautionary note it's not a good idea to put cold water straight into an cooling system that has overheated if you do carry water. It is possible that hot cast alloy components could crack preventing you from continuing your journey even if you repaired the original leak so let the engine cool down first.

assuming you are with the van and have a gas kettle cold water is not a problem 2 kettles full of boiling water added to 5 ltrs of cold water will raise the temp enough to aviod the risk. also in an emergency the toilet flush fluid drained from the holding tank can be used the weak pink chemicals used will not harm the components of the engine if used for a short distance.
but it is not recommended that you boil this in the kettle ,:O)

 

[Dustydog]

Hi Andrea,
Sounds like you were charged for Welsh Spring water! LOL.

 

[chrisbee1]

Andrea, I take it from your post that you're a member of the RAC? Why didn't you just phone them and let them sort it out?

 

[Andrea_374395685]

Why? When my hubby is perfectly capable of sorting it himself and then for us to charged extra for our RAC next year?!!

 

[chrisbee1]

Because A You wouldn't have had to endanger yourself walking the busy road
B Your hubby wouldn't end up filthy
C You wouldn't have to get ripped off buying water
Why don't you look at other breakdown services that don't load your next year's policy just because they have done what you have paid them to do?

 

[whitetop]

Forget the cost of the water.....the filthy other half etc etc........
You walked "along a VERY busy and dangerous dual track" ........are you mad....
As a Traffic cop of over 15 years I have to say that your course of action is really stupid.
Get all passengers out of the vehicle and well away from the road...call the RAC, AA or whatever...and live to tell the tale....
Breakdown is cheap.....life is not.......