General Chat

My daughter and her boyfriend should have arrived here for the weekend this evening (from Sheffield to Somerset) but rang to say their vehicle had broken down and they were waiting for the AA. They were hoping it would be an easy fix and they could still be on their way.
They have just phoned back to say the repair man just jacked up their campervan and the wheel dropped off!
I am so relieved it didn't happen while they were driving down the motorway.
The van only had its MOT a fortnight ago!

So they are going back to Sheffield and will come tomorrow morning instead in daughter's car.

Very scary Sue!
Weird that it broke down so soon after an MOT - but fortunate!

I think they heard strange noises and decided to stop and get it checked out.
For the wheel to have dropped off as soon as the vehicle was jacked up it would have been about to do that any moment I suppose.

Boyfriend is an engineer and really careful about maintaining his vehicles so he will not be pleased that they have only just had it checked and it has such a serious problem.

It could have been if the wheel nuts weren't tightened properly & came loose.

I made this error myself 20yrs ago & was alerted by a horrible banging sound coming from the wheel. Fortunately I stopped in time, jacked it up and found the wheel just about hanging on with the nuts at the end of the threads.

Another possibility if the bearings had sheered.
But this would have to be either due to a sudden high load shock ie hitting a large pot hole at very high speed. Or due to corrosion in the joint itself.
If it was the later, then the MoT insp should have found this & are possibly liable.

Steve
:o)

Glad they are safe even if their trip is delayed, I would be wanting answers and a refund from the garage who did the MOT.

Hope their journey will be ok today and you enjoy spending time with them.

Lizx

Hope they have arrived today Sue and also that they have taken up the problem with the garage who did the MOT. Thank goodness they stopped when they did.