Be Excellent To Each Other

That is a real one, rather than just a tin of 'fix it'

Well, no, a real one is one that matches the existing four.

Do any modern cars actually come with one of them any more?

The M5 did, as did the E65 7-Series'ss's's's that I've had. Can't think of any other cars in my list that did.

None of my last 3 company cars have had a non space saver

Rover 25 does.

Modern cars, he said modern cars

It is a 2004 mdel!

That is virtually a horse and cart

I wonder if Land Rovers do.

I think they do..

Newer than mine!

I also have a full size spare wheel.

My wife has a full size spare matching alloy wheel!

#ThugLife

When I bought both of my cars they were trying to fob me off with some repair kit, not good if you shred your tyre

So I insisted on a proper one in each car which they gave me as part of the deal .

In my 26 years of motoring I honestly don't think I've had even one single puncture that required immediate roadside attention, let alone shredded a tyre. So I tend to regard spare tyres or the lack thereof as something that's not that big of a deal. I suppose now I've said that I'll have a massive blowout and have to call the AA or something.

Current advice is to call the AA anyway, and not change the tyre on your own.

Why? Don't know.

Probably because other drivers are ignoramuses and will generally think nothing of plowing into your car because they're too busy checking their phone.

First time I ever went on a motorway, my front left tyre exploded. That was exciting, I can tell you.

Fortunately, due to the way the car didn't feel too cheery (many vibrations) I was in the Inside lane going at a somewhat reduced speed.

My car is 2002.

A Modern Classic.

Still plenty of life left in my 2003 Leon.

The Boy has been invited to a Christmas Party at Downing street next week. Sadly however, I can't get away from the office so the COO is taking him instead.

Got the tree up yesterday, this morning my son has broken 3 baubles, 2 of them just by hurling them at the wall.

Also opened all the presents under the tree (which were for adults) and tipped the tree over

All this by 6.30am as he was up at 5.15am

Its like I have a pet fox living in the house

How long was he on his own for?

5 minutes he was in and out of the room, these incidents were not at the same time!

We are stripping the tree of any baubles that are glass or sharp plastic which is all of them and I will get some safer ones tomorrow from the Range.

It was the Sailor Sue episode of Old Jacks Boat on Cbeebies tonight.

Gets me every year.

Why on earth did you put glass baubles on the tree with a small child in the house? It's like you're asking for trouble.

You know, I remember you mentioned this last year (maybe the year before even, actually), and I specifically set up a series link on my TiVo to catch the bugger, which I finally did last Christmas.

Anyway (waffling, sorry)... It was quite lovely, but just made me too sad which isn't good for me, so I couldn't watch it again. But yeah, it is lovely.

You can normally find it on iPlayer, too.

I think it's because the man in the street (repairing by the side of the street) is unlikely to correctly torque the wheel nuts to within the recommended parameters (and in fact, won't have a torque wrench at all - I know I don't), and it's also perceived as dangerous without the full gamut of high vis coats, Health & Safety etc.?

Range Rovers can be supplied with a full size spare wheel but you have to pay extra. (I did, having had two full blow outs on motorways)

I make sure I have a few hi viz in my emergency kit night boot.

Surely you don't need a torque wrench to change a wheel?

It helps. It torques you through it.

(kill me, kill me now)

Oh!!

It's political correctness gone mad, is what it is.

Anyone that doesn't have a hivis waistcoat / jacket in their car should get onto fixing that.

You can buy them with your name on!

Being a builder-y type I always got my faithful hi vis coat and PPE. Sod ringing the AA to change a wheel.

The subaru is a pain as you have to jack up the suspension sag, then the car, and the wheels are heavy. MrsA could probably not do it.

Once you jack up the suspension, do you hold it in place with a tie of some kind?

A bow tie?

Never thought of that.

So what do you currently do? I'm confused as to what "jacking up the suspension" is.

On armoured 4x4s with miles of travel, you sometimes see people with a suspension tie (I don't know the proper name so I can't find a picture, but it's basically a 18-inch length of rope with a clip at each end) to hold the bottom of the spring to the chassis, so that when you jack the chassis the wheel goes with it. If you're really desperate you can do it with a winch, too.

Hardcore armoured ones just pick the appropriate wheel up themselves with hydraulics, which is far easier:

He didn't say jack the suspension, he said jack the suspension sag - so jack the chassis until the suspension isn't still keeping the wheel on the floor.

Oh, maybe. Technically you do that with all cars, though.

yeah but scoobys are extra saggy so you run out of jack. I'm guessing.

Yeah, it seemed to take ages. Not doing that in the rain.

But if you run out of jack without some way of strapping the spring up then you're buggered.

using a strapon can bugger you too

Just cram the jack under the axle. No way for that to go wrong.

Or get some BURLY HELPERS to tip the car onto its side.

PROHINT: Fold the fucking wing mirror in first

Jack up car, when you run out of jack put bricks under sill, let down jack, put bricks under jack, repeat.

Then run off with expensive alloy wheels #Glasgow

For the last 4 or 5 days my wife has been complaining that the garage smelt of cat piss.

So came home early to sort that and some other jobs out.

First suspect was the cat carry case, so I picked it up and yes it smelt of piss, its a week old if that .

So job done, cat was obviously a bit upset by her trip to the vets and paid me back, stuck the case in the greenhouse with a mental note to wash the cushion over Xmas

Go in a few hours later and still the garage smells, so I start looking at all the things I've moved in there over the last few weeks that the cat could have pissed on.

Then I get a strong smell just by the door. I have a water tap in there that has never worked, but it managed magically to fill a plastic dustbin with water.

Inside that dustbin was a old wicker laundry basket that I used to store paddling pools over winter.

A combination of those ingredients had produced 50 litres of water that smelt like sprouts all the way to rotten eggs depending on how much you moved the water about

So I tipped that out on the flower bed, cleaned the dustbin with bleach and moved all the other stuff to the bottom of the garden

My stomach hurts form retching. although I skipped lunch so wasn't sick