Incredulous!!!

[Lazy-Ferret]

Wow.... scary... that is one of those situations where you can never actually say how you would react, and having weapons to hand would have probably made the situation worse.. With any luck it will have put the fear of life in the guy who broke in, realising how close he was to getting caught.

I was just reading a story about a Guy who was mugged for his phone, he fought the mugger off, and then when the mugger ran away, went to call the police... as he dialled the mugger came back and shot him dead. The mugger was high on drugs..

As said, get some security products in there, only need a few time switches, and a couple of break glass alarms.

[rustic]

We just read his statement, and the scum bag actually smashed a wine bottle against the large double glazed window, smashing both panes, so now he has to get that fixed...
Hopefully Landlords insurance will pay for that...

[Lazy-Ferret]

Well today is one of those first the good news, then the bad news types of day....

Late last night, I had an epiphany, I suddenly remember about 2 or 3 years ago, while at the Great Dorset Steam fair, I purchased a new jockey wheel for the box trailer I have been sparsely working on. So first thing this morning, I set to work finding where I had "safely" stored it. I eventually found it, weirdly stored inside the trailer it's self... Should have looked there first really...

Result, a nice shiney puenmatic tire jockey wheel. It still had the price tag on... £20... So the tyre was flat, but a quick fire up of the compressor and that can be fixed... I check it on the caravan and it fits perfectly... I am so lucky..

So, I pump the tyre up, 30psi, and stand it just inside the garage door. I decide not to actually fit it to the van, until the collar I have ordered to make it harder to remove, has arrived.

I then get on with finishing the Boot end of the wiring I was doing on the car, and dropping the tow ball into the lower holes on the towbar. I have been working on the car for about an hour, when there is this huge bang... I can honestly say I did jump big time. I look around for what could have caused such a bang, and as I am doing this, Suz comes flying out the front door, plus several of the neighbours, asking what the bang was, and was I ok... I explain that it was not me, and I have no idea what it was, and then suddenly think about the Jockey wheel, which is laying on the floor of the garage 10 feet away, with the tyre and inner tube lacerated...

I have no idea why it decided to explode, there was nothing near it, but I do know I have several more grey hairs, and are back to the drawing board as far as a Jockey wheel goes..

[rustic]

Looks like the jockey wheel was for the high jump lol..
Are you sure it was 30 psi and not 30 bar lol....?
I know you wouldn't make that error...

Good job it didn't explode as you were inflating it, flying debris, and possible hearing loss could have been the outcome.
You were lucky.
I wonder if the tyre had reacted to any chemicals in the area.
I had a pair of shoes once, I left in a boat locker, and the following year, the soles were simply dust... I assumed the volatiles still in the GRP were to blame... but never proven.

[Lazy-Ferret]

Thats interesting, the sides of the trailer are fibreglass sheet, and the floor is that rubber coated resin board they use for horsebox floors. The wheel has been standing in the corner of the trailer for 2 or 3 years. The trailer is water tight, so it was not getting wet and pretty dark, so it is not the sun that got to it.

I looked at the tyre, and it has exploded, from the middle of the tread. One of the rips has gone nearly right to the bead on one side, and obviously, the inner tube has shredded.

When I was at collage, we had to watch a health and safety video on the dangers of inflating tyres, but I did not think a 8" tyre at 30 PSI was going to be much of a danger. WRONG... as you say, if it had gone when I was holding it and inflating it, I would have had sore fingers, if I was lucky!!

[perelaar]

Not much fun that! Would it be possible to replace the inner tube and tyre?

Had the same once inflating the front tyre on my mountainbike. At the normal pressure the aluminum wheel rim burst, metal fatigue most likely. Gave me a big scare, and made my change all the rims on all the bikes in the house.

[rustic]

There is a lot of stored energy in compressed air, say compared to a hydraulic system.
With a hydraulic system you don't have to release much fluid to depressurise it, but with air... there is a lot of stored air.

It is always safer to pressure test items with liquid, than air.

Now go back half a century, and think about steam trains, here you have compressed steam at high pressure and temperature, that is far more dangerous than air on it's own.
Added to that, you have a massive fire burning flat out, that can continue adding more energy to the system.

[Lazy-Ferret]

Originally Posted by perelaar

Not much fun that! Would it be possible to replace the inner tube and tyre?

Had the same once inflating the front tyre on my mountainbike. At the normal pressure the aluminum wheel rim burst, metal fatigue most likely. Gave me a big scare, and made my change all the rims on all the bikes in the house.

When I first started caravaning, I was told to get a pneumatic jockey wheel as they were so much better than all the others, allowing the caravan to be pushed into position a lot easier on grass etc. I never had any issues with the normal type, so never bothered.

Then I got a motor mover, and was again told that a pneumatic one was better for the mover, as it gave it less work, which in turn saved your battery, so I finally got one. I can't say if it made the caravan any easier to move, as far as I could see, it was just another tyre to have to keep checking the pressure on and a dam fiddly one at that.

We have a small step/ramp from the road, down on to the drive where the caravan parks, and as the caravan goes in front first, the Jockey wheel has a little bump as it goes down this. I used it all summer with no problems, then one freezing cold night, I was returning the caravan to the drive, and as the jockey wheel went down the little step, it blew out, shattering the plastic rim with it. I actually always assumed that the plastic rim had failed by going brittle in the cold as it was about minus 10, and was that year when the temperature had not got above freezing for about 10 days. Anyway, what ever gave out left me with a caravan half across the road, in the dead of night, with no way to easily move it.

After that, I went back to the good old trusty wide plastic wheel for many years, and have not had any problems.

The only reason I bought this pneumatic one was because it was brand new, and cheap, plus at the time, I just wanted something to make the trailer easier to move round as I was building it, and then never got round to using it.

Anyway, I have managed to get the old plastic wheel into the new pneumatic frame, so with a bit of help from Mr Heath Robinson, I have something that will work.

[AlexD333]

Back on burglar subject, as weapons may not be a good idea, if your gonna leave a trace that is

Then Fort Knox is the next best thing.

Make the house impregnable

What you really want is a pig farm... Then just some hydrochloric acid for the remaining teeth