Tired (and emotional) wiper motor

You don't need wipers anyway for snow driving, least ways when it has fallen! LOL

On or around Wed, 4 Feb 2009 21:21:06 -0800 (PST), Rory enlightened us thusly:

shows the proper spirit. I has to admit that when I went out the other day it was in the Rangie with the heater on.

OK now you're just being mental ;-)

I did some laning on Monday night in the pinz, up over the hills of Mere where the snow was pretty deep, for some strange reason the green lane was packed with teenagers in their euroboxes! Presumably sledgers from the way they were trekking back across the hills.

After a few more lanes I emerged at Maiden Bradley, where I was stuck in heavy traffic due to the camber of a hill making heavy vehicles slide sideways into oncoming traffic, took me 1.5 hours to get out of that. The roads were fine, it was just having to drive at the speed of the least capable vehicle in front of me that made it slow.

Hi-Jacks thread.

Had to go and collect someone from Nenthead to go to a meeting this morning. They live above Nenthead and the road up is narrow, cobbled and steep. The back road was a little better than the 6 to 8" of snow/slush on the steep cobbles with a sharp bend and not very friendly looking wall and house at the bottom...

I did chicken out to lo-box 2 on one of the bendy packed snow covered decents on the back road where hi-box 1 runs away.

Also around here two days ago:

On topic as there is Landi in shot on a few of those. B-)

Surprised you could get around

I was playing in the snow above Malham on Tuesday

Some idiot in a Green Pick up abandoned it and caused a snow drift

( Looked mighty like a National Trust or Forestry Commission pick up )

I thought the local farmer would have pulled him out

Next a shiny new jag trying to get over Settle High Sides stuck on a hill

(A short cut from Bradford to Settle so he told me (Sat Nav to blame!! ))

Idiots the lot of them , Me as well perhaps

Still I had some fun and then fish and chips in Settle

DieSea

The ones on the Nenthead back road where taken about 1330, the road had improved considerably since I drove in and out at 1000. Must admit I did better than I thought I would. The tyres I have on are most definately road tyres (Hankook Ventus ST, not my choice they were on the car when I bought it) and they are very poor on snow, almost no sipes and quite large blocks.

I just have to remember that if I'm on snow or slush and there is a hint of up not to be too keen with the right foot (I don't mean flooring either, just too keen) in 2nd they will just spin. Or if going down *do not* under any circumstances touch the brake pedal at all or you'll just slide...

Anyone know anything about Vredestein tyres?

Oh for some proper snow to sort the buggers out. What's with the local councils these days?

Just been over the A635 to Holmfirth for Compo's fish and chips, both directions have multiple road closed signs and there's bugger all snow on the road save for about 2" for about 100 yards on the top. When I get there the bloody chippy is shut!

Martin

I'm pretty sure it's the Police that close the roads and the council just put the signs out under instructions. It's also worth thinking about your insurance if you go past a ROAD CLOSED sign, it may no longer provide yuo with cover.

Now that is not on.

A new 'get out of paying' appears every day

Damn right mate, but they are the losers as I went to the next chippy further down the road, and they have improved somewhat since the last time I went, which bears thinking about.

I do have some sympathy with them when it comes to closing roads, the problem is that if the roads don't get closed, most people will be sensible but there'll be one daft mouth-breather who shouldn't be allowed anything sharper than spongue who will go for a drive and will block the road, stranding everyone. Until it becomes easy to identify in advance who it is and for them to be put in chains, they'll be out there causing chaos that the authorities aren't set up to cope with.

Round here the roads seem to be open despite snow still coming down, so I'll be off to Frome soon, via the green lanes and back roads!

Yes, I'll go along with that, but I was hungry and went to check it out, half expecting to turn back, and the road was clear enough with not a single abandoned car etc.

You should be so lucky, they will have been closed off, but not because of bad weather. It pays to check their status every single time you want to go.

They were closed due to bad weather, there's a lot of hills around here and the first one I came to I spotted a tail of traffic and a truck at the head of it so turned back. An hour later I tried again, the road was closed, 2 hours later I tried again and the road was open again and was still icy but there was enough tarmac showing through to get grip. There were a few abandoned cars along the length of the road, and even a few in the centre of Frome (which is built on a very steep hill).

On the byways there were occasional very deep snowdrifts, good fun blasting through those, I travel the lanes regularly so know where the bumps are so provided there was nothing under the snow that was new I was happy to drive them. I met a chap in a series 1 coming the other way with his 5 year old having a good time. At the end of one lane there was a delivery van stuck down a small lane with a farmer trying in vain to get him out with his toymota, a quick pull with the pinz got him on his way but he got stuck again, so pulled him out but he got stuck yet again when trying to turn around to get back to the main road. Took about 20 mins to get him on his way.

Dave, Not on a LandRover, but did have some Vredestein Wintracs (or possibly Snowtracs?) on the old Merc Estate a few years back. The only snow tyres I've ever had and they made a _tremendous_ difference compared to the standard Uniroyals on ice and snow. Turned the thing into a snowplough forcing it through 18-24" drifts on one occasion. They were a bit noisier than the standard tyres on tarmac but not bad. Wearwise they lasted for about 6 years doing about 2-2.5k per winter and were about a third worn when I sold them (having swapped the car to a

5-series) Now, there's an interesting car in the snow! Please reply to group - email address is not monitored Ian

In article , SpamTrapSeeSig writes

Update: it's the brushes on the motor - shot to pieces, although commutator and bearings are good for another 18 years. This is really annoying, as I checked out a Britpart replacement on Thursday: wrong side of 60 quid.

This is stupid for the sake of three small bits of carbon block. Does anyone know where replacement brushes might be had? If I can even get roughly right-size blocks I can make up new brushes to suit, I think...

Fuming,

S.

Only that their winter tyres are brilliant. SWMBO drives an untreated high moor road to work everyday, and in 3 years has only once had to turn back. Whilst local farmers Land Rovers fail to climb the first hill her Forester fitted with Vredestein winter tyres simply carries on with no drama.

Mike

In article , SpamTrapSeeSig writes

Further update: after much Googling, I found spare brush plates, complete with brushes and wiring:

This looks just the job, and at 11.50 all-in, it's a much better alternative than a new motor!

Meanwhile, have cleaned and fettled commutator with Dura-glit then scraped the grooves clear & degreased the paxolin plate. All working fine now - two speeds plus parking.

So I'll change the brushes in due course, but have a fix for now.

Thanks guys thats the sort of thing I like to hear. There are very favourable customer reviews on a few tyre websites as well. The size I need for the set of wheels I have (255/55R18) means I have to get the Wintrac 4 Xtreme. And there is a place in Whitehaven that sells Vredesti= en and their web site has 'em listed at =A3105 each. Now what is the bettin= g that if I manage to stretch the finances for a set, the snow will instantly disappear and not be seen for the rest of the winter...

Thanks guys thats the sort of thing I like to hear. There are very favourable customer reviews on a few tyre websites as well. The size I need for the set of wheels I have (255/55R18) means I have to get the Wintrac 4 Xtreme. And there is a place in Whitehaven that sells Vredestien and their web site has 'em listed at £105 each. Now what is the betting that if I manage to stretch the finances for a set, the snow will instantly disappear and not be seen for the rest of the winter...

Go for them, the snow may melt but they are also brilliant on ice.

Mike

Yeah but I'm not... B-(

Though if I have tyres that are less likely to "let go" on black ice it's probably not a bad idea.