Weight prohibition
I took everything possible out of the front
of the lorry to reduce the front axle weight, which you will remember was
caught out by the roadside VOSA inspection I was subject to on my way back to
my yard the other week. I then took the
vehicle to my commercial engineers and they did some expensive things to it for the MOT
and took it to be MOTd. It passed fine
but the front axle was still too heavy. It
is weighed as part of the brake test. It is strange that a vehicle can weigh
heavy at the MOT and yet still pass the test. The nightmare continues.
I believe it always has been front heavy.
Even in its young days in 1985 when it was born as an NHS health vehicle screening
for something. So for 30 years it has
travelled round, front a bit heavy, through quite a few MOTs with several
owners until last week when the Jobsworth put on the Weight Prohibition and I
had to have a police escort back to my yard. It wasn’t a good day. And it all became
worse today.
The MOT station didn't know how to remove a weight prohibition. A weight prohibition has to be removed. There
was no information on the paperwork as to how it can be removed. Eventually a
phone call to VOSA confirmed that it needed a specific appointment at the Check
Point where it had been weighed. I will
spend a couple of days taking out the wheelchair lift that is still in the
front porch/workshop and which I have never used. I am unlikely to need it in
the future (am always avoiding ambulances). This will reduce the front axle weight
a little and maybe enough. If it is
still too heavy after that I will have to have the plate changed from a 6 ton
to a 7.5 ton plate which will certainly be expensive in time and money. Probably new larger tyres and maybe new front
springs. Credit Card job, just when I
thought I was going to be alright. It also meant that I couldn’t drive back to
my yard until it’s all done as if I take it on the road with the Weight
Prohibition is still on it then it’s a £5000 fine. Great.
In the meantime I’ve been staying with
friends in Ruthin. They have a very beautiful
house overlooking the Clwyd Vale. They
also have a weighing machine in the bathroom.
They are the only people I know with one of those. Mind you I don’t know
many people enough to spend a long time in their bathrooms. So I’m sure you’ve guessed
it, yes I’m overweight too. My front
axle needs to lose about a stone if I’m to leap around again as usual this
summer. No more cream or chocolate. At least from tomorrow when I have eaten the
last of my current stash.
My Ruthin friends have also just dropped a
bombshell on me that I can’t stay there again because they don’t like my dogs
in their house. So another prohibition. Why
didn’t they say so before? I’ve stayed
there maybe three times. I keep a very
close eye on Mimi and Blue while we’re there and always have them washed and
groomed before we go because they live in an immaculate house. I scrupulously clean their feet if they go
outside and I’m on their case the whole time we are there because these people
don’t have dogs and some people don't like dogs. The thing is though that
they offered originally to put us up at their house while the lorry is being
fixed. Sod it. Love me, love Mimi and Blue, I say. The guy who services the lorry has kindly said
I can live in the corner of his yard while the problem is sorted.
And all this on Eclipse Day. Very inauspicious changes. Ah well it’s one of those things. Another reason why I have the growing feeling
that it may be time to move on.
Does all this get to me? Not yet but I have this feeling it will. Living in the car on coffee and adrenalin,
rushing round making calls and talking to people about the lorry. Back to the commercial
vehicle yard tonight. I’ve taken the
generator over there with my small trailer so I shall have the tv and electric
light.
And Six Nations tomorrow. It could be worse.
All the best from a road near you,
Mr Alexander