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I saw someone changing an offside wheel on the hard shoulder of the M25 - are you allowed to do this? Visibility was very poor due to low sun, they were lucky not to have been clipped by a passing vehicle.
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No idea if its legal but it's certainly stupid.
I have an inkling that it's not legal, but I can't be certain
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It's not illegal, but as patently says it's stupid. To attempt any repair on the hard shoulder you need the protection of a high vis decaled breakdown truck with flashing ambers. And even they get hit.
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Always told to move the car as far to the left as possible, and keep an eye out. If something big is heading your way - move it pronto! Not illegal, though.
Have never had a puncture on the motorway - if it was offside I'd probably leave it to the rescue people, if the nearside I suspect I'd take a shot at changing it myself.
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So you get a puncture on offside, you have a spare and tools, you're not in a breakdown club, what do you do???
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So you get a puncture on offside, you have a spare and tools, you're not in a breakdown club, what do you do???
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A very good question to ask BEFORE it might happen.
I would suggest two options
Put hazard flashers on then get passengers over the Armco barrier immediately or away from the hard shoulder and tell them to stay there. Walk to a phone, watching the traffic all the time and call for help. You will have to pay of course when the truck arrives.
Else.
Drive slowly along the hard shoulder to the nearest exit.
Park up and the change wheel. You may well have trashed the tyre and maybe the wheel but far better than risking ALL on the hard shoulder. Obviously the risk remains that someone rams you from behind en route to the exit.
I suspect it is illegal, with a vehicle in this state, to pass a service centre to get to an exit
Most people cannot work it out that you can drive on a flat tyre. I have pointed this out to several people including my daughter that it may be safer, on any road, especiallly at night, to ignore other drivers and continue to a safe location.
I have bought a high visibility tabbard to go with my jack etc. Every little helps. I value my skin.
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Not sure about driving slowly on the hard shoulder.
A friend got 3 points for driving slowly down the hard shoulder when a trailer tyre got a puncture. Changing an o/s tyre on the hard shoulder isn't my idea of fun either but it would appear options are limited.
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Not sure about driving slowly on the hard shoulder. A friend got 3 points for driving slowly down the hard shoulder when a trailer tyre got a puncture. It would appear options are limited.
Just out of interest, what was the offence?
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Henry,
contacted him but it was 10 years ago and he cannot recall the specific offence, his recollection was that if he was moving he should have been in the inside lane rather than the hard shoulder. (Sounds like a driving without due care and attention to me).
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I now have a Honda Accord which comes with IMA (instant mobility accessory) instead of a spare wheel.
This is basically an aerosol of puncture repair plus a 12v air pump.
At motorway speeds I'd be lucky to get on to the hard shoulder without trashing the affected wheel, let alone the tyre.
Should get through most of my cd collection waiting for the truck to arrive ;-)
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Just checked the Highway code (Rule 252).
Do not attempt even simple repairs.
Whilst the highway code isn't the law, it is quoted in the courts as a guide.
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Yup had a puncture on the motorway (M4) offside front wheel.
Changed it there, and yes its a scary place to be.
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Well, I would try and limp to somewhere suitable, like hard standing to the left of the hard shoulder such as those left over from when Police vehicles patrolled the motorways, or where there is an armco, just after that, but tucked behind it if possible. Whatever happened I would be as far from the traffic as possible, and if someone was with me, they would be lookout!
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A warning triangle wouldn't go amiss either 50 yards back up the hard shoulder - if you can get it there. On the subject of high vis jackets I got one for each of our cars - motor/cycling accessory shops v. expensive but a local workwear shop had a good variety at all sorts of prices and styles
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About 3 years ago, the entire sixth form went on a trip down to Bourneville - yes CADBURY'S WORLD!
The coach was huge and as you've probably guessed, we got a blowout. We were overtaking trucks in the middle lane and because I was facing backwards, it was difficult to judge the speed but I'd say 60+
TO his credit, the driver handled it superbly - got it over to the hard shoulder. 100 kids get evacuated (I felt sorry for the teachers responsible) and the driver changes the wheel...more like a turbine given the size and off we go.
He only did that because he called his company and they couldn't send anyone out; the kids started getting stupid so it was safer to fix the wheel and get them on the go again.
P.S - it was the nearside wheel.
--
Adam
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Where I live a situation like this is horribly dangerous (unlit trucks parked in the fast lane at night getting their wheels changed etc).
But I'm surprised no one's mentioned those aerosol tyre inflators. Saves calling a truck, works in a minute or so and gets you to safety. Worked for me more than once.
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Greenham Trading are a good source of hi-vis workwear. If you're feeling nervous also get a hard hat - it won't do you much good if you have a close encounter with a high-speed vehicle but for a woman on her own, combined with the jacket, it makes her invisible and a lot less vulnerable.
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A warning triangle wouldn't go amiss either 50 yards back up the hard shoulder - if you can get it there. On the subject of high vis jackets I got one for each of our cars - motor/cycling accessory shops v. expensive but a local workwear shop had a good variety at all sorts of prices and styles
Yes of course deploy the triangle but assemble it first and then walk with it in front of you.
I bought a tabbard as a compromise between it and an overcoat type. It folds up small enough and can be quickly and easily put on over most clothes.
Idealy of course the triangle and tabbard should be IN the passenger compartment. My tabbard is in the car but the triangle is not. I think the MB idea of storing the triangle in the boot lid and showing its reflective surface is excellent.
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An excellent idea used in NSW: on freeways where there is an emergency phone there is a break in the armco barrier with a small
run off area which you have to pull backwards into (ie pull over onto hardshoulder and reverse into gap.) The barriers overlap so you are completely covered by armco barrier.
Not proof against a truck hitting full on but a great deal safer than working on the hardshoulder. We should adopt this idea at emergency phones...driving slowly for up to a mile isnt going to be a problem with a flat tyre.
Not too expensive either, overlap in the barrier and a flat gravelled area.
Another idea:
As well as high visibility jacket, torch, also consider carrying a small board of thick plywood....just large enough to stop the jack sinking into soft gravel/grass. Say 12*6 inches will fit in with the jack and spare wheel.
StarGazer
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Couldn't you get a thing which you slid under a flat tyre that allowed you to drive very slowly on it?
Remember reading about it some years ago, but may be completely mistaken!
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Couldn't you get a thing which you slid under a flat tyre that allowed you to drive very slowly on it? Remember reading about it some years ago, but may be completely mistaken!
Like a skateboard, you mean? It might work on a non-driven wheel.
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Should make an Ital handle better.....!
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Had a puncture on the M1 about 15 years ago (blowout really) offside. Car moves a lot when the lorries pass and the warning triangle had moved about 20 feet when I walked back to pick it up.
As has been mentioned - get as far to the left as possible, use a triangle placed well away from the car (the bang when he hits it will wake a dozing driver). Don't stay there any longer than you have to!
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Have just returned from holiday in Italy and noticed that they have parking bays behind the hard shoulder where the emergency telephones are located - the phones also have a wire mesh barrier around them to protect the user from the windlash from passing vehicles. Also, as high visibility jackets are compulsory, the hire car had one in the glove compartment. Ideas well worth copying in this country.
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I used those M way emergency phones once or twice in pre mobile days (one after a frightening 80mph rear blowout) and the biggest problem I found was you could hardly hear a thing the operator was saying because of the noise of the passing traffic. Must be a real problem for the hard of hearing, so some sort of screening round the phones would be very welcome.
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Now consider that soon if you are travelling on the M42 south of Birimingham during the rush hour periods there is going to be no hard shoulder to use in emergencies. Along this stretch of road they are building the emergency refuges that really and truely constitute no more than a layby every so often so that they can use the hard shoulder as an extra lane to ease traffic congestion at peak periods. Imagine your bus full of people now in the middle lane getting a blow out with no hard shoulder to pull over on to, just a small layby to aim for somewhere a bit further up the motorway.
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I once read on one of the police websites (and i think in a book somewhere too) that if any repair is to be made on your vehicle on the hard shoulder, in particular on the offside, the police must be called from one of the nearby emergency telephones. They will be dispatched in order to act as a high visability warning and shield for you while change the wheel .
I saw this in action once: car with puncture, traffic cop behind with all lights a blaze whilst poor bloke jacks up his car.....etc
As for the warning triangle, doesn\'t the highway code advise against using them on a motorway. Looking on their website ( www.highwaycode.gov.uk/24.shtml#249 ) at point 218, bullit point 3, it says \"never use them on a motorway\"
Interesting, as the police and the AA etc, all recommend using a one.
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You've misread that one, Roberson.
It says not to use one if you CANNOT get your vehicle onto the hard shoulder and are stranded on the carraigeway.
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Doh
Its just when it said "dont use them on motorways" it took that as dont use them, per se.
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I had this happen on the the M6 on the road north just before last Christmas.Tyre was wrecked by the time I got on the hard shoulder so no can of foam would have helped.I had prepared before leaving and had instant access to the spare and tools.My partner departed behind the barrier with instructions to keep her eyes peeled.It was offside but I had it changed before 'er indoors had finished her fag!By the way I also had a high-viz jacket although I personally doubt the value of these under those circumstances....
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Aerosols are fine, but it rather depends on whether there is any tyre left to inflate! When I had ablowout at 70 the tyre was shredded.
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"tyre was shredded"
Ditto. At 75 mine ended up looking like the the fringe on Growlers Hells Angels jacket
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It was offside but I had it changed before 'er indoors had finished her fag!
>>By the way I also had a high-viz jacket although I personally doubt the valueof these under those circumstances....
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In such circumstances having an empty boot, the correct torque on the wheel nuts and non corroded hubs helps.
The first job on any S/H car with alloys is to take them off at leisure. I have had to hammer off alloys on both recent S/H purchases.
Re the high-viz I think that it must reduce the risk a little especially at night.
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Good point about the alloys Henry K.
My wife has chaged many a wheel but got stuck in a car park with a flat as she couldn't get the wheel off the rim. She called the RAC and the guy had to lie on his back under the car (really safe!!) and kit it off from the back.
Following weekend I took the wheels off and put some copper based grease on the hubs and I've done this with all cars I've owned since.
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Yes, good point HK.
Another one is to free the spare wheel. Some years ago I took a Pug 405 off a colleague at work. I knew that he wasn't mechanically minded* so I made sure that I checked every inch of the car.
The spare was in a cradle slung beneath the boot; you turn a bolt head in the boot to unscrew it and release the cradle. Except that the cradle was rusted solid onto the screw and absolutely would not release. Had to take it to the dealership. They tried for a while, but eventually took a hacksaw to the bolt.
I was very glad that I discovered that on the driveway, not on the hard shoulder in the puring rain at 2am....
-----------------------------------
*the car had 70k miles, so I asked if he had changed the cambelt. Answer: "What's the cambelt?"
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I think I posted on here at the time - It sounds like something I would have done but when I had the fiesta, I was turning into a quiet street about 1 minute away from my house, bang, scrape, - is that my tyre on that roundabout???
The tray underneath the car had snapped, dropped the tyre over the roundabout and the tray was scraping along the floor.
To echo Patently,
I was very glad that it happened at home and not on the hard shoulder in the pouring rain at 2am.
--
Adam
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I was very glad that it happened at home and not on the hard shoulder in the pouring rain at 2am. --
My mum had the ultimate bit of good timing. A clutch cable snapped and the car lost all power. All she could do was coast to a halt. But where to pull over??
Ah yes - the garage on the left in 50 yards with the sign saying "Clutch Specialist" will do nicely...
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Ah yes - the garage on the left in 50 yards with the sign saying "Clutch Specialist" will do nicely...
Hope fuly not the same "specialist" discussed in another current thread: www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?f=2&t=26...3
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Well - funny you should say that.
We had a 405 some time back - it was G reg and we had it from new - tells you how long ago. Goes in for it's MOT. Passes.
Turn the corner...*shudder*....clutch cable snapped. Had to get towed home from Liverpool to St Helens by a Citroen BX - with a 2 foot bar.
--
Adam
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The spare was in a cradle slung beneath the boot; you turn a bolt head in the boot to unscrew it and release the cradle. >> I was very glad that I discovered that on the driveway, not on the hard shoulder in the puring rain at 2am....
Lucky the spare had not been stolen.
Another routine check. Do I have a spare in the cradle?
There are aftermarket replacement securing devices but they do not stop bolt croppers applied to the cradle.
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Typical read this Monday & just get onto M20 J5 this morning @ 06:00 and bump, bump rumble, rumble. Struggle to get from middle lane to h/s & find a bit with out cones, also to get on straightish bit. Absolutely Peeing down, pitch black and continental trucks rushing by!!
Get out & OSR flat, luckily not shredded.
Roll very gently to emergency phone police contact AA for me. Also phone AA to make sure call has got through (used to work for AA and been caught out before!)
Took AA 45 mins to get to me and quite happy to swop wheel but then left me nailed in all the traffic to Bracknell.
Happened a few years ago on the M11 just up from Bishop Stortford, same circumstances, OSR, on curve and had to argue with Emergency phone operator who said just change it!!!!
This time no issue either with EPO or AA.
Now I've got to go find new tyre 205/55 x 16 as replacement and probably a pair of fronts as they're getting near the 2mm mark, just been quoted £ 64 all in each, for either P6000 which I have already or Goodyear so bang goes the budget for this month....
Jim
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I heard of a recent proposal to convert hard shoulders on our motorways into extra traffic lanes and construct emergency lay-bys every quarter or half mile, can't remeber which. These lay-bys would be separated from the carriageway.
At first I thought this a bad idea. But on reflection one can usually limp or roll to the next lay-by, like people try to pull up by an emegency phone. Sometimes vehicles break down so catastrophically that they're stranded in the lane the'yre in anyway, especially in tailbacks.
The lay-bys would be safer than the hard shoulder IF you could get to one, although it might be difficult to rejoin a busy motorway with nowhere to build up speed before joining lane 1.
cheers, Sofa Spud
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It won't make much difference as Mr or Ms suzuki swift will still cruise along happily at 56mph in any lane other than the inside. It will confuse the ones that like to sit in the middle lane though! :-)
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one can usually limp or roll to the next lay-by, like people try to pull up by an emegency phone.
>>I would bet that the average bod would have no idea about immediately dipping the clutch when the engine dies so that some momentum was maintained. It would still need an average of 200yds to roll to the next lay-by. A tall order even on the flat?
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