So, whilst the van was raised on axle stands having changed the tyres that were 6 years old but looking as if they’d been fitted yesterday!! I decided to do a 'belt and braces' job and lower the spare from its telescopic carrier and check the pressure as it probably hadn’t been checked since it was inflated and fitted in 2018. True enough it was 46 psi when it should have been 59 psi.
However, after refitting the wheel to the carrier I found it virtually impossible to slide the carrier back into position. It was jammed solid and refused to budge. The weight of the wheel bent the flimsy telescopic carrier tubes like bananas preventing them from retracting inside each other. If you’ve even tried to do this you’ll know what I mean and it’s not something you can do on the side of the M5!
Even with the wheel / weight removed from the carrier the telescopic rods just couldn’t be slid inside each other even after liberally applying some GT85, which made matters worse so I wiped it off.
Eventually after a lot of wriggling, shaking, twisting and pushing the carrier, after about half an hour I eventually got everything back into place, but what a hassle. Absolute nightmare and after crawling out from under the van I looked like a Welsh coal miner that’d just done a shift. I felt like it too. Surely there’s got to be a better system or was it my technique?
However, after refitting the wheel to the carrier I found it virtually impossible to slide the carrier back into position. It was jammed solid and refused to budge. The weight of the wheel bent the flimsy telescopic carrier tubes like bananas preventing them from retracting inside each other. If you’ve even tried to do this you’ll know what I mean and it’s not something you can do on the side of the M5!
Even with the wheel / weight removed from the carrier the telescopic rods just couldn’t be slid inside each other even after liberally applying some GT85, which made matters worse so I wiped it off.
Eventually after a lot of wriggling, shaking, twisting and pushing the carrier, after about half an hour I eventually got everything back into place, but what a hassle. Absolute nightmare and after crawling out from under the van I looked like a Welsh coal miner that’d just done a shift. I felt like it too. Surely there’s got to be a better system or was it my technique?