What kit does the recovery vehicle require on board?

FEEDBACK REQUIRED: Fred will have on board his recovery vehicle:-

two or three 240v chargers for topping up depleted batteries overnight at campsites

a pucker 12v powerpack - not the £30 jobbies you get down the market!

heavy duty jump leads

12v and 240v inspection lights

compressor

trolley jack

Hi-Lift (naturally)

ramps

a small 240v arc welder

Add to this a winch front and rear + an assortment of recovery kit, he'll have most things covered. ANYTHING ELSE HE SHOULD HAVE?

A spare disco or two?

A sense of humour!

Short length of scaffold pipe?

A very good wheel nut wrench (compatible with above)?

Electric drill?

Long 'commando' mains lead?

25L drum of 10W50

Bolt cutters, bail money, spare Astra, blank passports, condoms, team spray and thats just for Tom!!!!!

You can always rely on CC for a sensible answer! Trouble is, one item he mentioned is actually sensible - Team Spray.

What's that you may well ask? Quite simple - it's a can of deodorant, essential kit for those little 'personal problems' some folk suffer from. Instead of accusing anyone in particular, when the shout "Team Spray" is heard, then everyone on board makes use of the can, thus no one individual has to suffer the embarassment of being singled out as the smelliest on board. Subtle eh?

Of course ... power drill + good extention lead. Now why didn't I think of that?

Spare Disco or two, another sensible answer, as is a length of scaffold pole - although better utilised to twat French drivers!!!
How about a road sweeper clearing up the 2,300 mile oil slick we'll leave behind.

Keep the ideas coming.

ductape for the bits that fall of, we may need a couple of roles

A couple of rolls? They are Land Rovers Kieran, you mean a couple of DOZEN rolls!

All that is needed is WD40 for stuff that won't move that should and gaffer tape and cable ties for stuff that moves that shouldn't.

LuckyTrucker wrote:

All that is needed is WD40 for stuff that won't move that should and gaffer tape and cable ties for stuff that moves that shouldn't.

Stainless steel cable ties are handy to have about for fixing (things near) exhaust, turbo and engine.

When I got all excited and informed Fred in Tango 1 (in case not everyone's aware yet, this is the new name for Fred's Series I/RR/Defender/whatever it is) that I was in the process of acquiring a 300w inverter to power 240v tools, his reply was that he already had one in his vehicle ... a 1200w inverter! How this is possible I don't rightly know given that Tango 1 is 12v and high power inverters are normally 24v, but there it was before my very eyes.

Guess he could run virtually anything with a 1200w version, so I think he'll have most things covered.

As for "stainless steel cable ties", great idea. I've always recommended packing some steel wire for long excursions, for the very same reason - exhausts, suspension, etc. On the Paris-Dakar I've even seen axles and complete wheel stations bound together with wire as they have limped into the overnight encampment. Amazing what you can do when you have to.

Selection of Tarps and rope/string/bungee to create field workshop in case of wet weather - yes, we are all used to having to do repairs in the wet, but it's so much easier and nicer if it's dry!!

Oil drip tray and some absorbant 'kitty litter' not for the usual oil drips, but in case of a bigger problem or repairs.

Just a lazy thought , how much space has Tango 1 got? i know it says compressor, is it of suitable size for some air tools? Thinking if several people have various jobs to do in the evenings, some air tools may speed things up to leave more time for drinking, eating and partying!

Although of cours hopefully none of this stuff will be needed....

his reply was that he already had one in his vehicle ... a 1200w inverter! How this is possible I don't rightly know given that Tango 1 is 12v and high power inverters are normally 24v, but there it was before my very eyes.
TOM SAID
NOT SURE HOW TO DO THAT QUOTE THING,CUT AND PASTE WORKS


I have i 1000 watt inverter for my old weeser,hopefully to run the lap top and charge the slr camera and the video recorder

Quote :

I have i 1000 watt inverter for my old weeser,hopefully to run the lap top and charge the slr camera and the video recorder

That'll use up all of 100w Batfink, what you gonna do with the other 900w ?


BTW, easy to do the 'quote thing' - once you know how! Simply click on 'Post Reply' in the normal way, highlight the text in a previous post you want to quote and righthand click your mouse and copy text, paste this into the reply box, then highlight this pasted text again but this time click the 'quote' icon above (on the bottom line, second from right). Then type in whatever you want to say in the usual way, then click 'preview'. Hopefully, in the preview box will the the text quoted and your comments below. Hope this makes sense!

As for Tango 1's compressor, I'm 99% certain it's okay for airtools. Always assuming you won't be at Billing, if you ask a specific question about a certain tool within this forum, in turn I'll ask Fred if it's possible. He's not into computers at all so won't be reading this forum - or website - or anything else remotely electronic!

It certainly needs me onboard if my vehicles fecked!!!

Just had thought, will there be a bench vice on board?????????

angle grinder maybe?

axle stands?

Flippin' eck. I thought we were only going round Europe! We had way less stuff in Morocco and everything was just fine (though we did have to find a welder in a small village somewhere to tack weld the nuts on a Disco's suspension turrets as they just wouldn't stay done up).

It's more important to be prepared BEFORE rather than during. Get everything that's questionable sorted out before you go.

Then when you are on the trip, the most important things are a sense of humour, the spirit to take on any "challanges" that come your way and to be creative and adapatable.

Sorry, don't mean to sound boring or patronising! But I know our spirit and humour will get us through!

Rafe

of course all true rafe, but by having the kit available, bu the law of the great sod, means we won't need it! We are sure to need need something we don't have, so this way, the major stuff is dealt with at a different spirtual plain!

What the hell was I eating/Drinking last night to come up with that?

Think also there is the thought of a lot of constant intense mileage to consider.


:arrow:

theshortwayround wrote:

of course all true rafe, but by having the kit available, bu the law of the great sod, means we won't need it! We are sure to need need something we don't have, so this way, the major stuff is dealt with at a different spirtual plain!

So by taking the difficult stuff, sod's law means we'll actually need something that's trivial to obtain away from home?

I like the theory!

Rafe

yep, in fact thinking of that, must pack the toilet paper!

Rafe wrote:

So by taking the difficult stuff, sod's law means we'll actually need something that's trivial to obtain away from home?

...so long as it comes in Metric sizes...

We all know it's impossible for X number of vehicles (can't catch me out) to go from A to B without something going wrong, let alone A to Z like we're doing. It's not like anyone's going to be stranded in the middle of nowhere, but by having a dedicated recovery vehicle it means the crew of that broken down vehicle will suffer the least amount of inconvenience and get back on the road as soon as possible. It’s your holiday after all, so spending it at the side of a road is not on.

It’s for that very reason Fred and Jimbo in Tango 1 are carrying so much gear … just in case.

Strewth, went all sensible there for a moment ... pass the port!

Hope the recovery vehicle doesnt break