Our Touring Past

You meet the nicest people on a Honda.
With a bit of know how it could be changed to an old pommy bike transporter.

Alwaysgetsabite

Why have a Honda that wont run and cant transport the rider .. let alone transport a pommy bike....
That sounds a bit "strugglebrook"to me........aka: Just doesnt make sense


Hurry.. rare and collectable 1928 Camper trailer for auction...
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28 watching..
Price reduced... dont miss out..be quick
Bid now.

Alwaysgetsabite

The little camper is off to South Australia next week with its new owner.
Looooonnnnggg road trip.
Waiting for the weather to cool off a bit so i can get down the shed and check / repack the wheel bearings and double check the shackles .
New owner bringing 2 wheels with good tyres..
Most of you that have been around vint vans for a while will know the bloke .
Tow home with "NSW RMS Permit to move"......



Reddo

Wow . That will be a great adventure road trip!!.Hope all goes well.
He's certainly acquired some very early unique Aussie V Vanning history.

Dave arrived here on Tuesday arvo. Had a good run up from Mt Gambier.

He and a mate from Charlestown checked out the van and then went back to Charlestown for the night.
Dave came back wednesday morning and we went and got 2 new tyres fitted to the camper before he headed off.. back to Charlestown for another overnight stay.
I rang later in the day to see if the van towed OK ??

Apparently it starts vibrating at around 60KPH
The tyre service that fitted them didnt have the gear to balance 1936 Ford rims that have a large centre like an FJ Holden or VW rim ??
Dave has a pair of 16" Ford wheels at home with good tyres on them that are balanced... but he didnt bring em with him
If we had known we where gunna have trouble with the balance we could have even left the tryes that where on it ... on the trailer.. i had already tried towing the van with those tyres on it and it sat comfortably at 90 KPH and probably would have done the job back to Mt G.... but we figured new tyres would mean one less thing to worry about.. !!

I rang a few places here in Newcastle to see if anyone knew of anyone could balance them .. had no luck so far.

Its now friday 19th Jan and the NSW RMS Permit to Move expires on Monday 22nd....
Its beginning to look like Dave might have to hire a car trailer for a one way hire and take the van home ??

Leaves me wandering what all the VW , FJ, and early ford owners do to get thier wheels balanced??
I am gunna call in an see my mate Stewie the rod builder today and see if he knows of anyone local that can help Dave??

No fun and games here.. just frustration

Reddo

If some one down that way has a tyre service with an old fashion bubble balancer out the back or out the front as I have they can use that. When we had our FK ute I ballanced it`s wheels using that much to the amusement of the young blokes, but it worked.

JD.

Yeah,that's all we used at Preston Motors where I did my apprenticeship in the late 60's.....now it's a major drama to get even basic balancing done on regular steel wheels ( around here at least) I have one of those bubble balancers stashed away and will be having a go at using it again. It used to be common to have wheels balanced on the car,but that's another good thing that's also vanished .....

Reddo,what you could try ( and it's rough and ready ) is to jack up the trailer and if the wheel bearings aren't too tight,you can give the wheels a turn and see where they stop....mark it at the bottom with chalk and fit a balance weight opposite that spot...spin them again and see if they stop in the same spot again...keep experimenting with the weights until they just stop randomly.....then see how it works on the road.

Hi JD and Col

I remember the bubble balancer at the Golden Fleece servo across the road from where i grew up. Could never figure out how they balanced a wheel while it was laying on its side/horizontal ??... and i still dont??... but i am just a mere Electrician.

I rang Dave and told him that Marathon Tyres at Sandgate on the North side of Newcastle have an On Car / truck wheel balancer. There is probably others closer to him.. just a matter of googling or phoning the individual outlets until he gets a positive result!!
Havent heard any more from him. To my knowledge he is still at Charlestown .. so hopefully he has had a ring around and found someone to do the job.

The next problem i see is that the leaf springs are soft as sulky springs.. any out of round in the tyre will cause the wheel to hop as the little camper is lucky to weigh 200 kg

Reddo