Diary of an Ordinary Van

[ake]

there will be a celebration soon!

Tea and biccies

Please

[Vee4]

there will be a celebration soon!

Tea and biccies

Please

Tea and biscuits are always available at Transit Towers, including but not limited to Hobnobs, Garibaldi and the occasional Pink Wafer, useful for constructional projects or soaking up oil spillages. All served from the back of a Transit, of course:



Planning for the next virtual celebration is well under way, but it involves disguising Transit Towers as an entire city block, so please be patient ...

In the meantime why not visit NiceCupOfTeaAndASitDown.com and participate in their fig roll (that's Fig Newtons for our US readers) survey?

[ake]

We bought fig rolls as the treat of the week whilst at Morrisons

[Vee4]

We bought fig rolls as the treat of the week whilst at Morrisons

The simple pleasures are the best: an Ordinary Van; a nice cup of tea; a fig roll or two, or three, or four ...

[transitandy]

We bought fig rolls as the treat of the week whilst at Morrisons

The simple pleasures are the best: an Ordinary Van; a nice cup of tea; a fig roll or two, or three, or four ...

Even 5 or 6

[nila]

in my case packets i looooove fig rolls .a nice cuppa and a packet of figys

[Vee4]

While we're on the subject of food

Having just passed the 20,000 mark on the hit counter, the mention of fig rolls was not a gratuitous attempt to hype the Diary and 'go viral'. How could I compete with this hilarious YouTube clip which has over 25,000,000 hits?

Ultimate Dog Tease

Transit content? I'm not sure - it's American and they do have Connect over there don't they?

[madmark_50484]

While we're on the subject of food

Having just passed the 20,000 mark on the hit counter, the mention of fig rolls was not a gratuitous attempt to hype the Diary and 'go viral'. How could I compete with this hilarious YouTube clip which has over 25,000,000 hits?

Ultimate Dog Tease

Transit content? I'm not sure - it's American and they do have Connect over there don't they?

I love that video I have watched it a few times myself.

Maybe you could say that a dog is a great extra for your transit

[bigjohnthomas]

that video is a vile Anthropomorphicism demining to dog kind

[bigjohnthomas]

this is better they crack me up them crazy apes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWI1f2Nk1OI&NR=1

[Vee4]

That video is a vile Anthropomorphicism demeaning to dogkind

This is better they crack me up them crazy apes

In my defence, I must say that the link to Ultimate Dog Tease was sent to me by a long-time friend from the USA who is a serious dog owner. The PG Tips advert is a classic of its time - what price anthropomorphism now? I am drinking a PG Tips brew as I write and having managed to abstain for many months, I just had to buy some fig rolls to go with it. The local convenience store has the Irish brand, Bolands:


Image courtesy of Poundland (other budget stores are available)

I wonder if HM Queen enjoyed one of these with her tea during her recent historic visit to the Republic?

Anyway, time for some Transitional matters ...

[Vee4]

Treading carefully

In the Spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of tyres. It's Tennyson, Locksley Hall if you were just wondering, "I know that line - where's that from?" He didn't write one about Transits but he did write The Charge of the Light Brigade so we'll let him off. You can hear him reading Charge in a wax cylinder recording on the Wikipedia link - extraordinary!

Tennyson thinking:



Anyway, taking advantage of the better weather, I swapped round the tyres to even out the wear. Here is the story so far:

From June 2010:

The Ordinary Van Tyres: Pirelli Citynet Plus 195/70 R15C 104/102R 8PR (factory fitted)

Handbook recommended pressures:
Normal load: 52 (3.6) front, 61 (4.2) rear
Full load: 54 (3.7) front, 61 (4.2) rear

I have been running 55 (3.8 ) front and 55 (3.8 ) rear, with good results. I rarely run with a full load.

This is the first FWD van in my ownership, so I was interested to see how the wear would even out between front and rear. On the Mk5, it was quite even, and any changes or rotations were as a result of punctures.

Tread depth at 13,000 miles:

Front: 8.5 mm
Rear: 9.0 mm
Spare: 9.5 mm (unused)

October 2010 update at 21,000 miles:

Front: 7.5 mm
Rear: 8.5 mm
Spare: 9.5 mm (still unused)

Thus the wear rate on the front is approximately 1 mm per 10,000 miles, and approximately 0.5 mm on the rear.

I will need to rotate the tyres (yes, I know they do rotate on their own) soon if I'm going to keep the full set for the longest possible time. To keep things even, it would need to be done quite regularly - the handbook recommends 9,000 to 12,000 miles, front to rear. But then what to do about the spare ...

March 2011 update at 28,000 miles (the date is correct - it's taken me a while to do the write up):

Because of certain 'recent events', there are two nearly new tyres to go on the front, and the two from the front to go on the rear. Working out the wear rates becomes more complicated once you start juggling, so I set up a spreadsheet to do the calculations and work out the projected life of the tyres. It is difficult to measure tread depth with an accuracy greater than 0.25 mm, but it does seem that the left front has the highest wear rate:

Left front: 0.982 mm per 10,000 miles
Right front: 0.804 mm
Left rear: 0.536 mm
Right rear: 0.536 mm

Based on these wear rates and current tyre positions, the first tyre to reach 1.6 mm tread depth will be at 85,500 miles and the last at 110,100 miles. However, I should be able to increase the overall mileage of the set to somewhere near 100,000 miles by future rotation(s).

I'm now running 58 psi at the front (weight of engine) and 55 psi at the rear (light loading).

A delivery of new Transit tyres:

[Vee4]

Out and about in the early hours

While I'm out on the highway in the Ordinary Van (not necessarily lookin' for adventure or whatever comes my way) I like to keep an eye on the infrastructure. After all, it is my money they're spending: taxes; utility bills; etc.

I recently came across the excellent Pylon of the Month website, another great celebration of ordinaryness!



With this in mind, on a run down the M1 in the early hours, I noted how a set of pylons had been moved sideways to allow for widening near Flitwick as part of the 'improvement' scheme between Junction 13 and Junction 10. This is the first section of the M1, built in 1959, and one of the pylons was already close to the side of the hard shoulder, with a brick retaining wall.

Then there's the Sundon Supergrid Station just south of Toddington Services ...

Impress your friends with your pylon knowledge using this handy guide to UK pylon types provided by The Pylon Appreciation Society.

We'll be down and dirty with some more infrastructure notes in the weeks to come.

[ake]

My R reg Mk5 was used by Pylon painters before it came to me, the back was covered in Yellow primer, and silver topcoat

[Vee4]

My R reg Mk5 was used by Pylon painters before it came to me, the back was covered in Yellow primer, and silver topcoat

You were obviously in the vanguard of vehicle fashion since metallic silver seems to be the default colour for cars now, just as white was the default colour for vans!