Richjenns TZD

[gazpacho andulus]

Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2007 4:38 am Post subject: PIcking up Richards TZD

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Organised a trailer which appeared huge and a discovery to tow and found our way to Richard 's neck of the woods. Dartmoor villages were designed for horses and livestock and we threaded our way up to his house leaving the trailer on the main road.
15 minutes and new glow plugs later the little darlin' sprung into life and we drove her back to the trailer and up on. The BX only just fitted by a whisker.
15 minuites later a combination of full bladder and lack of experience caused the driver(not I) to jack-knife us on the A38 going downhill from Kenn on the dual carriage way and the discovery re-designed the reservation barrier.
The trailer with TZD performed a perfect parallel parking manoevre and finished up in the fast lane facing the wrong way. Not a scratch.
The discovery was not in such a happy state.
The nice man with orange flashing lights let us ride in his lorry back to Bristol towing the TZD on trailer and we all got home safely Thanks to R.A.C and whoever is watching over me that there were no other cars near us.
Thank you Richard she is a very sweet little car.
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now I'm listening. Antracite grey TZD Estate

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[Philip Chidlow]

Never a dull moment where a BX is concerned, eh?! Glad no one was hurt. Let's see pics!

[tim leech]

Thats the bit about trailers thats scares me!

[M]

Xantias are excelent for trailering dead BX's back home on.

[DLM]

Glad to hear the BX survived unmarked. Was there much left of the Discovery?

I was in rural a Wiltshire pub a couple of years ago when there was an almighty bang outside and we emerged to find a scene of considerable destruction. In avoiding a head-on collision with a rogue red Mondeo that'd come round a sharp bend on the wrong side of the road, a Discovery driver had demolished a large part of a low brick wall and planter in front of the pub, at the cost of the nearside wheel and a fair bit of frontage and wing. Thankfully all concerned had only minor injuries, but the Discovery looked very sad.

[gazpacho andulus]

The discovery is licking it's wounds waiting for the Insurance inspection and need serious front driver side re-construction. The camera I took has over-exposed most of the pics but I'll try to get one of my Kids to post them for me(show me how and I'll be able to do it myself next time!). The TZD starts on the button with the new glow plugs . I took it for a burn-up down the by-pass and apart from the clutch being right at the top.. as richard said, I'd be happy drive it to Moscow tomorrow (if I could get the heater to blow)

[DavidRutherford]

How on earth can you cock-up towing with a discovery that badly? Granted, I know nothing more about the incident than what's been posted, but a Disco (being essentially a classic range rover with a different body) is one of the best towing vehicles available.

I've towed a lot of different trailers, with an even greater selection of tow vehicles, and never yet had anything more than a worrying wobble that made me re-balance my load.

Something on that towing arrangement must have been wrong. Really really wrong.

Actually... I tell a lie. I once had a trailer push the rear of a BX around rather a lot. So much so that on a roundabout it shoved the back of the BX wide, so it felt like the car was oversteering. Was my own fault for A) not having enough drawbar down-loading, and B) going fractionally too fast on a damp road. Still got there in once piece though.

[docchevron]

My mate, who shall remain nameless, was recovering a 22TRS CX on a car transporter, went round a roundabout, and the whole car slid gracefully off the transporter, glided across two lanes of traffic and came to stop without a scratch! Lucky he was, clever, he was not....

[stuart_hedges]

One of the most terrifying experiences of my life was being transported home after the Rover had caught fire. It was safely strapped to the low-loader, but the guy was driving like an absolute nutter; I swear, he was drifting the thing around roundabouts.

And it had a rear window, so we could see the Rover's snout looming over us all the time...

[DavidRutherford]

Hmm.

I was initially quite glad that modern driving licences don't permit people to tow anything more than a poxy little halfords trailer. Except the test you have to take to allow you to tow big stuff is a load of rubbish. What's needed is a proper test. HGV drivers have a fairly rigorous test before they can tow a big trailer. Personally, I think car drivers should have to do the same.

Just a couple of months ago, I was towing a 25' caravan with my panel van. Overall length of nearly 50' and rolling weight of something like 4 tonnes. It wasn't easy, and there was quite some potential to cause utter chaos on the road. All on a driving licence gained by driving a nissan micra 1.0 for 25 minutes around southampton, 14 years ago. It's not right.

[Philip Chidlow]

...driving a nissan micra 1.0 for 25 minutes around southampton, 14 years ago. It's not right.

I agree it's not right. A Nissan Micra!?!

[DavidRutherford]

A Nissan Micra!?!

Yes. A B-reg Nissan Micra 1.0, with the 5-speed gearbox from a 1.3 fitted to it, and about a tonne of crap in the boot. It barely moved.

It was NOT my car. It was my driving instructor's car. Thankfully it didn't have a silly pyramid on it's roof. It was, however, rubbish.

My driving instructor, on the other hand, wasn't. He had driven just about everything under the sun, with almost every possible category on his licence. Taught me a lot more than I needed for the test, and I still reap the benefits of his experience today.

I did put the world to rights though.. 13 years after the Micra incident, my sister passed her test from the same test centre in a BX TZD turbo, which I taught her to drive in.

Thankfully, she has the sense not to drive anything she can't cope with, and would ask a lot of advice before towing anything. Other people aren't quite so sensible.