Hot new rubber.

Remember my Jeep? Not mentioned the old girl for a while, but it’s still here, ready for combat at the drop of a flag. I’ve finally dug deep and bought a new set of tyres. The ex (very ex) Range Rover 205-16’s wobbled their last wobble a week ago to be replaced by Michelin ZXL’s. Pals dave and Roger Tilton helped out on Bank Holiday Monday and we wrestled with black rubber all afternoon. A test run at about 5.00 confirmed they were a delight and no trace of wheel wobble. When we removed one of the old tyres it transpired I had trapped a section of inner tube between the halves of the rim. So, no wonder they could not be balanced. My fault and not repeated this time. Split rims are a learning curve. Not sure about them yet, but they are fine right now.

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.