It seems every week there is a TV image of a barely damaged roadside tree that has been hit by a car. The outcome is usually a crushed car and dead or crippled car occupants.
I can understand the scenic and environmental value, but not why they are still being planted at about a yard from the roadside.
An example is where a new road has been built round the edges of an industrial estate. It sweeps down from a ridge (Albert drive off the A638 Junct 40 MI) OK its a 30MPH zone, but if ever there was a place for a kid to speed or race, thats it.
Now someone has planted a row of trees about 1 yard from the pavement both sides of the road as it goes downhill round a bend.
This road is high and exposed in winter and the trees now a few years old are thickening nicely.
Another few years and there will likely be bunches of flowers fastened to one of them. Why are such obvious hazards placed there in modern times? Read more

Thanks to the incompetence of my local dealer, the front passenger wheel of my wife's car came loose today. Thankfully she managed to stop before the wheel detached itself fully and the car is now back at the dealership.

Does anyone have any experience of what the likely collateral damage is going to be (bar the new wheel/s) and how to play the situation (knowing that my wife doesn't want to go near it again)? Read more

www.whatcar.com/news-article.aspx?NA=223556

Maybe worth checking if yours was missed in the recalls hi-lighted above. Read more

Can I just ask the moderators whether it is or why it isn't possible for the forum users to have an edit button to edit their own posts.

We increasingly seem to see extra posts added on from the users, correcting things that they should have said in their previous post and I do include myself when I say this. Also it is not uncommon to see obvious spelling errors which once the post has been submitted are impossible for the user to correct.

Most other mainstream forums these days have not only the edit options, but spell checkers and the ability to quote other peoples comments within their own post.

I'm not complaining, I'm just interested and intrigued as to why the Honest John Backroom lacks a lot of these common features. Read more

As we are approaching the season of snow & ice I would like to share an experience with Back roomers and ask their advice / opinions on the use of Anti-Lock Brakes (ALB) under very difficult conditions.

In January 2006 my wife set off for work at about 07:00 one snowy morning, just as the temperature was starting to rise above freezing point. We live on a hill which varies from 1 in 10 to a steepish 1 in 5 and outside our house it is about 1 in 8. She set off down the hill in her (old shape) Yaris 1.3 equipped with ALB and Brake Force Distribution: she might have well as set off on a sledge.

My wife set off by reversing out of the drive, up the hill, stopped and then gently, at a walking pace, began to roll down hill (in 2nd gear)

The car was uncontrollable, she could neither stop nor steer. She tobogganed down the hill, over a (deserted) crossroad, into a cul-de-sac, knocked down 4 metal bollards and came to rest after hitting a substantial fence head-on. Maximum speed was under 10 mph and injury, apart from to pride and self-confidence was nil.

Throughout this experience, which I observed from our driveway the ALB functioned correctly and made a noise like a demented machine-gun / hammer drill, but was totally unable to stop the car. The car also was unsteerable, slaloming across the road from side to side. What did stop the car were the aforementioned bollards, not the brakes.

I have previously personally experienced something like the above when driving a Toyota RAV on smooth snow, pushing the brake pedal so hard that the seat-back bent and producing only a very slight braking effect with non-existent steering. Fortunately I did eventually stop without hitting anything. The speed at the start of this escapade was less than 15 mph.

My conclusions are that ALB is less than useful under extreme snow conditions and is actually potentially dangerous as it seems to prevent a wedge of snow / ice building up in front of the wheels. In days gone by, I drove Land Rovers under ?difficult? icy conditions and found that pumping the brakes rapidly seemed quite effective. The ability to actually lock the wheels seemed helpful, but with ALB the wheels do not lock.

Anyone who has seen a demonstration of ALB allowing the car to brake and steer and thinks that this will really work under all conditions is living in a fool?s paradise.

Sorry to have gone on a bit, but two questions:

1) Have other BR?s experienced the above?

2) What should (could) my wife have done (I suggested using the handbrake)?

SPOSP




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