Tuesday 17 March 2009

Hors de combat.




The new rims I bought for the Jeep are called ‘Combat Rims’, presumably because splitting into two parts should make it easier to change tyres. Well. I’m jolly glad I wasn’t in the field of combat when I changed all five from the big 235-16’s to the recently purchased 205-16’s. Despite attempting this job in a state of tranquil calm, (cup of tea at the ready, good play on Radio 4), after half an hour sweating over the first one I was ready to surrender and wave the white flag. A second attempt the following evening with far more washing up liquid to lubricate the tyre/rim interface I got it down to about 20 minutes a wheel. just under two hours for the whole job. About the time it took Jerry to take a small village in Normandy! The end result was a far better ride and handling, if that is the correct term for hurling a Jeep around a bend. A run to Northamptonshire on Sunday, with son Will following in his car confirmed that the Jeep was cruising happily at about 55-60 and generally keeping up with the flow of traffic. The ‘new’ Hotchkiss engine purring sweetly under the bonnet, or ‘hood’ as the Yanks called it.

6 comments:

Affer said...
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Affer said...

It certainly looks nicer with the smaller tyres. That lower shot is terrific - really shows off the front suspension articulation!

Diplomate said...

Marvelous agricultural scene, pond filling up with debris as land-fill tax goes up again - lumps of concrete etc. Great Jeep. Have you tried booting those split wheels without splitting them ? Oh yes - washing up liquid has a tendency to rot the inside face of the rim, if you can't get any proper tyre slop you should try a bit of rendered ox fat which I presume you keep in the garage for rubbing into leather spring gaiters on the series 1.

Ron Combo said...

Can't you see if you could rent out the Jeep to a porno film producer? The split rings might prove popular.

Peter Ashley said...

Why does it always get round to porn with Ron?

Toby Savage said...

Thanks for the ox fat tip Diplo. Naturally I have a stock somewhere, but I have used it for other things a la Ron.