Chancer Posted November 13, 2011 Share Posted November 13, 2011 Its desperately boring around here especially in winter and les vacances so in order to have any life at all you have to make your own entertainments, sometimes things dont go to plan and you get rather more entertainment than you bargained for, Friday night was one of them for me.I had planned to mees some scuba diving friends to do a night dive in an abandoned quarry near Arras, now home to an impressive variety of marine life including some huge mutant pike and dumped vehicles in equal measure.We arrived and started to kit up at 8.00 whereapon I found that I had forgotten my wet suit boots, not a good idea when the water temp is 11 degrees and the outside air 8 degrees, I thought what the hell and put back on my hiking boots and socks after squeezing into my wet suit.The dive was OK and my feet did not feel any colder than normal, we kept the dive short at 45 minutes as some of the others were feeling the cold, it was blooming cold drying off and getting dressed again in the car mark and stripping off neoprene hoods, gloves and 2 peice wetsuits is so much harder when you are shivering, once dry and dressed I wrang out my socks, poured the water from my boots and put them back on in the knowledge that my body heat and blood circulation would eventually dry them both out.My French friends then started all the tit tutting, you should not do that, you will catch a cold/flu/pneumonia/die or worse etc etc, i did my usual shutter upper and asked them how did they know, had they ever tried it? Which of course they hadnt, but "everybody knows you mustn't!!" I politely refused offers of a pair of safety shoes 5 sizes too big although if someone had had a pair of socks I would have been very gratefull.We adjourned to a Courtepaille for a quick meal and being near to the open fire grill we all warmed up considerably, we left some time after 11 with them taking the autoroute and me the route nationale to avoid the péage.My vehicle has a fuel computer that shows how many miles remain, it has always been very conservative but 100% accurate, ther has always been a further 100km after it shows zero, probably equating to a further reserve of one gallon, that night my nearly 10 year old vehicle decided to heal itself and start telling the truth, I was 30km from home when it affiched zero miles, it was 11.30 and I was not in the slightest bit worried, I had done this for every tankfull for the last 100000 miles, I ran out of diesel within one minute [:'(].I got the car off the road and considered my options, I had €3 of credit and a signal on my mobile, my diving friends by then would have been a long way ahead of me, to turn around at the next exit to return to depanne me would have more than doubled their return journey, they all had families waiting at home for them so that wasnt an option, my friends where I live would most likely have had a fête for the jour férie (one i knew for certain was entertaining) and I felt if I asked them to come out then they may well be driving over the limit. I had 2 options, walk/run home or stay in the car untill the morning, it was my soaking wet freezing feet that made the decision for me, if I ran I could be home in between 3 and 3 1/2 hours, the exercise should keep me warm and hopefully dry my feet, it always had when i had been travelling and had crossed rivers etc but they were usually warm climates and it was by then 5 degrees and dropping, we were expecting a frost.I was on the route nationale from Arras but there were no footpaths except in the villages and no kerbs or even white lines to delineate the verges, I kept to the side of the oncoming traffic but after a few near misses I realised that I was being used for sport by cars full of drunkards, some of which even did "U" turns to come back for another go or to holler once again out of the window at me, this is something i have never understood in France whenever I have walked reasonably long distances on roads motorists always klaxon me, make gestes etc even when I am on the other side of a dual carriageway from them, my neighbour said that it was to remind me that i should be wearing a gilet de securité and i asked him if there was some special klaxon language for that, if not i was not a mind reader!I digress, anyway I was wearing my gilet this time but as it got later I found that all it did was to give the pi55 heads something to aim for, i was arguably safer taking it off and not being visible and just keeping out of the way of oncoming vehicles, at 5km I finally gave up after a particularly nasty confrontation that I did not want to repeat later on in a more remote spot so I turned around and jogged back to the car.I thought that i had my gore tex bivvi bag in the boot together with a tiny parachute silk sleeping bag liner, with those and several layers of clothing I would be alright even outside, wet feet apart! It turned out not to be the bivvi nag but a gore tex chasseurs jacket and overtrousers so I had to resort to systeme D. I was wearing a lycra sports vest, a long sleeved T shirt, a cheap thin Decathlon polaire and a single shell layer goretex paclite K-way jacket, I put a pair of nylon K-way overtrousers on, wrapped the gore tex jacket around my feet still wearing the wet socks and squeezed into the silk bag liner, it was by then 01.00 and I had to wait things out until 08.00 which would be a reasonable hour to phone a friend.The night passed slowly and it was surprisingly noisy, there were HGV's passing all through the night every few minutes although by then the cars had ceased, I had some ear plugs in my wallet, a hang up from travelling where taxi drivers think you really want to hear their radios, so I used them, by the middle of the night the temp had dropped to 3 degrees and my shoulders were feeling cold so I draped the goretex trousers over them, i didnt actually sleep the whole time but was pretty relaxed and used the time to contemplate certain designs and problems on my renovation.I called my friend at 8am and her husband came out to me with a bidon of gasoil at 9.00, I was jogging up and down the road during that hoir to warm myself and especially my feet up, they were still wet, to my joy when he arived he presented me with a flask of coffee and a pair of socks that she had prepared while he was refuelling the bidon, what pleasure[:)] and what good friends[:D]I worked as normal yesterday, in fact I was redoing his electric gates, I went to bed at 20.00 and must have gone out like a [I] because I woke at 2am feeling more refreshed than I have ever felt in my life, I doubt that I have ever slept so deeply, I read for a while and slept again until 10 in the morning and felt even more refreshed, and the good news, - as yet I am showing no ill effects or signs of a cold. 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suein56 Posted November 13, 2011 Share Posted November 13, 2011 That is impressive; having lost lots of weight recently and having become very fit obviously stood you in good stead for your night on the tyres rather than the tiles. [;-)]Sue[:)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted November 13, 2011 Author Share Posted November 13, 2011 I think for comforts sake at least, that night I would have preferred to have had my spare tyres [;-)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5-element Posted November 13, 2011 Share Posted November 13, 2011 Goodness, some people really do have a sense of adventure!!! You are obviously much younger than I feel, Chancer. And everyone likes a happy ending! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christine Animal Posted November 13, 2011 Share Posted November 13, 2011 There's nothing like plenty of exercise to keep you en forme ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LEO Posted November 13, 2011 Share Posted November 13, 2011 [quote user="Chancer"]Its desperately boring around here especially in winter and les vacances so in order to have any life at all you have to make your own entertainments, sometimes things dont go to plan and you get rather more entertainment than you bargained for, Friday night was one of them for me.I had planned to mees some scuba diving friends to do a night dive in an abandoned quarry near Arras, now home to an impressive variety of marine life including some huge mutant pike and dumped vehicles in equal measure.We arrived and started to kit up at 8.00 whereapon I found that I had forgotten my wet suit boots, not a good idea when the water temp is 11 degrees and the outside air 8 degrees, I thought what the hell and put back on my hiking boots and socks after squeezing into my wet suit.The dive was OK and my feet did not feel any colder than normal, we kept the dive short at 45 minutes as some of the others were feeling the cold, it was blooming cold drying off and getting dressed again in the car mark and stripping off neoprene hoods, gloves and 2 peice wetsuits is so much harder when you are shivering, once dry and dressed I wrang out my socks, poured the water from my boots and put them back on in the knowledge that my body heat and blood circulation would eventually dry them both out.My French friends then started all the tit tutting, you should not do that, you will catch a cold/flu/pneumonia/die or worse etc etc, i did my usual shutter upper and asked them how did they know, had they ever tried it? Which of course they hadnt, but "everybody knows you mustn't!!" I politely refused offers of a pair of safety shoes 5 sizes too big although if someone had had a pair of socks I would have been very gratefull.We adjourned to a Courtepaille for a quick meal and being near to the open fire grill we all warmed up considerably, we left some time after 11 with them taking the autoroute and me the route nationale to avoid the péage.My vehicle has a fuel computer that shows how many miles remain, it has always been very conservative but 100% accurate, ther has always been a further 100km after it shows zero, probably equating to a further reserve of one gallon, that night my nearly 10 year old vehicle decided to heal itself and start telling the truth, I was 30km from home when it affiched zero miles, it was 11.30 and I was not in the slightest bit worried, I had done this for every tankfull for the last 100000 miles, I ran out of diesel within one minute [:'(].I got the car off the road and considered my options, I had €3 of credit and a signal on my mobile, my diving friends by then would have been a long way ahead of me, to turn around at the next exit to return to depanne me would have more than doubled their return journey, they all had families waiting at home for them so that wasnt an option, my friends where I live would most likely have had a fête for the jour férie (one i knew for certain was entertaining) and I felt if I asked them to come out then they may well be driving over the limit. I had 2 options, walk/run home or stay in the car untill the morning, it was my soaking wet freezing feet that made the decision for me, if I ran I could be home in between 3 and 3 1/2 hours, the exercise should keep me warm and hopefully dry my feet, it always had when i had been travelling and had crossed rivers etc but they were usually warm climates and it was by then 5 degrees and dropping, we were expecting a frost.I was on the route nationale from Arras but there were no footpaths except in the villages and no kerbs or even white lines to delineate the verges, I kept to the side of the oncoming traffic but after a few near misses I realised that I was being used for sport by cars full of drunkards, some of which even did "U" turns to come back for another go or to holler once again out of the window at me, this is something i have never understood in France whenever I have walked reasonably long distances on roads motorists always klaxon me, make gestes etc even when I am on the other side of a dual carriageway from them, my neighbour said that it was to remind me that i should be wearing a gilet de securité and i asked him if there was some special klaxon language for that, if not i was not a mind reader!I digress, anyway I was wearing my gilet this time but as it got later I found that all it did was to give the pi55 heads something to aim for, i was arguably safer taking it off and not being visible and just keeping out of the way of oncoming vehicles, at 5km I finally gave up after a particularly nasty confrontation that I did not want to repeat later on in a more remote spot so I turned around and jogged back to the car.I thought that i had my gore tex bivvi bag in the boot together with a tiny parachute silk sleeping bag liner, with those and several layers of clothing I would be alright even outside, wet feet apart! It turned out not to be the bivvi nag but a gore tex chasseurs jacket and overtrousers so I had to resort to systeme D. I was wearing a lycra sports vest, a long sleeved T shirt, a cheap thin Decathlon polaire and a single shell layer goretex paclite K-way jacket, I put a pair of nylon K-way overtrousers on, wrapped the gore tex jacket around my feet still wearing the wet socks and squeezed into the silk bag liner, it was by then 01.00 and I had to wait things out until 08.00 which would be a reasonable hour to phone a friend.The night passed slowly and it was surprisingly noisy, there were HGV's passing all through the night every few minutes although by then the cars had ceased, I had some ear plugs in my wallet, a hang up from travelling where taxi drivers think you really want to hear their radios, so I used them, by the middle of the night the temp had dropped to 3 degrees and my shoulders were feeling cold so I draped the goretex trousers over them, i didnt actually sleep the whole time but was pretty relaxed and used the time to contemplate certain designs and problems on my renovation.I called my friend at 8am and her husband came out to me with a bidon of gasoil at 9.00, I was jogging up and down the road during that hoir to warm myself and especially my feet up, they were still wet, to my joy when he arived he presented me with a flask of coffee and a pair of socks that she had prepared while he was refuelling the bidon, what pleasure[:)] and what good friends[:D]I worked as normal yesterday, in fact I was redoing his electric gates, I went to bed at 20.00 and must have gone out like a [I] because I woke at 2am feeling more refreshed than I have ever felt in my life, I doubt that I have ever slept so deeply, I read for a while and slept again until 10 in the morning and felt even more refreshed, and the good news, - as yet I am showing no ill effects or signs of a cold.[/quote]Its desperately boring around here Is that a decription of France?and confirmed by writing 50 lines of text! 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Chancer Posted November 14, 2011 Author Share Posted November 14, 2011 Its a description of around here, say an 80km radius, must stop before I go to more than one line, you have done enough counting [;-)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idun Posted November 14, 2011 Share Posted November 14, 2011 Question, if a diesel car runs out of juice it will run as soon as it is filled up? I was always told that it was a garage job if I ran out. So I class half full as empty these days for everyday running and keep a careful eye when doing long distances. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salty Sam Posted November 14, 2011 Share Posted November 14, 2011 [quote user="idun"]Question, if a diesel car runs out of juice it will run as soon as it is filled up? I was always told that it was a garage job if I ran out. So I class half full as empty these days for everyday running and keep a careful eye when doing long distances.[/quote]Very much depends on the vehicle. Some require the system to be bled, some have a manual pump, many modern vehicles will self-bleed but require a b****y good battery to turn the engine over and get back fuel into the system.Simple lesson being never to allow the fuel level on a diesel car to ever drop so low. [Www] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulT Posted November 14, 2011 Share Posted November 14, 2011 [quote user="idun"]Question, if a diesel car runs out of juice it will run as soon as it is filled up? I was always told that it was a garage job if I ran out. So I class half full as empty these days for everyday running and keep a careful eye when doing long distances.[/quote]Of course it is a garage job - 'it will take at least 2 hours you would be best off going shopping and then coming back by which time we should have finished playing cards, sorry, bleeding your fuel system that does not require bleeding'.As Salty Sam says old vehicles required bleeding which normally involved undoing a bleed screw, turning the engine over until fuel appears, tightening it and then starting the vehicle.Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted November 14, 2011 Author Share Posted November 14, 2011 My engine, an older generation VAG TDI pre pompe deusche, pre common rail has no manual priming pump (some vehicles have a squeeze bulb) and it needs to be cranked for a bloomin lonng time before it starts to cough and splutter, given that my battery is the original, is close to 10 years old and the vehicle has done 4000000kms to crank for what seemed like 10 minutes on a freezing morning was somewhat miraculous, I had my fingers crossed. Also I had driven it on the starter the night before to get it further away from the road as some of the drivers seemed to enjoy buffeting it all in all I was pretty lucky as usual. Its possible that the pump may have primed quicker had I slackened the union nuts to the injectors.I am going to see if there is a niche under the bonnet where I can store a bidon of gasoil, securely strapped of course, if not then I will be in the market for a good sealed container that is no more than 120mm thick as I have a false boot floor, anyone have any suggestions what I could use?Editted. PaulT I read your posting several times before i finally understood the irony, I thought at first you were having a pop at Idun! i am sure others arent as dim as me but had there been speech quotation marks or whatever they are called I would have got it first time. Very drole and very true.I am also told that that garages will insist on replacing the whole injection system on current HDI diesels at a cost of thousands of euros if there is even a hint that the pump has run dry or the vehicle inadvertantly filled with petrol and the ignition switched on, I dont know whether it is really necessary but I cant see many garagistes questioning a nice little earner can you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salty Sam Posted November 14, 2011 Share Posted November 14, 2011 [quote user="Chancer"]Its possible that the pump may have primed quicker had I slackened the union nuts to the injectors.Yes, quite possibly!I am going to see if there is a niche under the bonnet where I can store a bidon of gasoil, securely strapped of course, if not then I will be in the market for a good sealed container that is no more than 120mm thick as I have a false boot floor, anyone have any suggestions what I could use?You already have a good sealed container. It's called the fuel tank![:)]Editted. PaulT I read your posting several times before i finally understood the irony, I thought at first you were having a pop at Idun! i am sure others arent as dim as me but had there been speech quotation marks or whatever they are called I would have got it first time. Very drole and very true.I am also told that that garages will insist on replacing the whole injection system on current HDI diesels at a cost of thousands of euros if there is even a hint that the pump has run dry or the vehicle inadvertantly filled with petrol and the ignition switched on, I dont know whether it is really necessary but I cant see many garagistes questioning a nice little earner can you?In such an event, I would insist on retaining all replaced components for further inspection.To quote from elsewhere within this forum; [quote]Most things that you read like that are just wistfull thinking on the part of someone who percieves that by someone else profitting they are losing, these thoughts are then perpetuated by well meaning people like yourself, its especially true when the subject is motoring, registration and insurance, cars left at airports etc.[/quote][;-)] [/quote] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulT Posted November 14, 2011 Share Posted November 14, 2011 [quote user="Chancer"]Editted. PaulT I read your posting several times before i finally understood the irony, I thought at first you were having a pop at Idun! i am sure others arent as dim as me but had there been speech quotation marks or whatever they are called I would have got it first time. Very drole and very true.[/quote] I had put ' in.Will admit back in my younger days I changed the back axle on a Morris Minor for someone. They told me what needed doing including bleeding the brakes etc. I charged them for bleeding the brakes even though I just unbolted the backplates on the old axle and rebolted them to the new axle as they were connected by flexible hoses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted November 14, 2011 Author Share Posted November 14, 2011 Hoisted by my own petard [:D]I am a descendant of a long line of hypocrites [:P] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave21478 Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 Sounds like a fun night out!Re the spare fuel - great minds must think alike.....I have 2 litre plastic bottle that contained engine oil originally, filled with diesel and stored in one of the cubby holes in the side of the boot trim of my car.I also have one of the tiny Decathlon sleeping bags stuffed under a seat. Undertaking long journeys nowadays, I avoid overnight stops as much as possible, and grab a few hours in the car at service stations etc.There are plenty of other things rammed into the cars trim which people tend to ridicule, but I have had need for pretty much all of them at some point in the past. [I] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted November 16, 2011 Author Share Posted November 16, 2011 I always knew that we were kindred spirits Dave, when I was younger I used to carry a full tool kit (and I mean full!) including a trolley jack, in those days to rebuild a gearbox or diff at the side of the road was not uncommon for me, breakdown recovery to home had not then been thought of and like you, any lon,g journey needed lots of planning and spares loading.Things are different these days, my car is far more reliable than I could ever previously have imagined a vehicle could be however......................... at 400 thou kms someting will sooner or later let go, all my car repair tools and equipment are in my workshop in the UK but I have gradually got together a bigger and bigger kit of tools and parts etc to carry in the car.Given my cars age and mileage the day that I break down far from home and the insurers arrange for it to be towed to the nearest garage will be the day that I kiss goodbye to the car, that has presented with 2 problems.1, Whilst the insurers (the free cover with my policy) will get me home via train/taxi etc how on earth am I going to transport all the kit with me? One thing I know about garages is these things and personal effects are never there the next day, the vehicle radio, handbook and service history also go walkies very quickly.2. The over-riding search priority for the next vehicle will be to find a replacement with as much or more storage space and cubby holes, I am rather spoilt at present with a smugglers false boot floor courtesy of Skoda.I have made a partial solution to the first problem, I have a pair of folding sack barrows under the boot floor, one of which has a folding container, also a couple of non rigid backpacks that squash down into stuff sacks, as it has now hit freezing here I am going to put my bivvi bag back in the car where it should have been. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idun Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 Snow shovel. Water. jerry Can. Oil. Drinks and a little to eat, choccie biscuits usually. A couple of cushions and sleeping bags. Usuals in our car from autumn onwards. Over the summer the sleeping bags and shovel are taken out.And people have had a few things to say about that little lot, but what the heck, if ever we break down at least we'll be warm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted November 16, 2011 Author Share Posted November 16, 2011 Over the years others, i.e. those that take the p155 have profited far more from my forethought than I have.When I was motor racing I often used to ask myself why I bothered to be so well prepared and equipped, it was usually my competitors that profitted, whenever I was asked "how much do I owe you for those parts/that oil" etc I would reply, nothing but please replace it and bring it along to the next meeting, sadly that rarely happened and often my day was cut short by a breakdown of a part that I had stocked but had previously lent. Of course there were others like myself to balance the equation.I believe in what goes around comes around, probably why I am so lucky most of the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idun Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 Our helping others and we do a lot, has never brought any luck at all. Au contraire, I reckon that we are unlucky in general. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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