Re: Kenya

Posted by SIMON ARMS on Sep 11, 2014; 11:01pm
URL: http://sundownersadventures.385.s1.nabble.com/Kenya-tp5706989p5706994.html

Hi Mike,  Srinagar doesn't look too good. It is amazing, all those years of Overland Groups and now houseboats ruined by flood water, doesn't seem right.

Mike far be it for me to doubt you mechanical ability but I would need confirmation that it was a "retread" fitted to the front of a Capricorn Coach. I certainly never saw ANY retreads used on any Capricorn (or Sundowners for that matter) Coaches. And really it is RULE #1 NEVER put a retread on a steering axle!!!!
I admit I am wise after the event here as I don't remember seeing a retread while I was overseas but I had too much to do with them upon return to Australia. In the early days of Deluxe we used them on every drive and tag axle and as I was driving Brisbane to Perth and back every week (thats accross the Nullabor twice a week) I had my fair share of problems. The drive axles were a dual application and if the outside one let go the problems were not so great but if an inside one went it would take out the airbag suspension and after about the first twenty I could change an airbag in less than an hour and be on my way. The Tag (single following apart from the American Eagle) was a bigger issue, these tyres  wore out VERY quickly as they were dragged accross the bitumen sideways on sharp turns  and so owners looked to retreads as a cheap alternative but we blew lots of Tags as well.
When I started my own bus business I soon came face to face with these problems and as I bought all my tyres from Bandag in Albury, after a few years I gained a bit more insight into retreading of tyres. Billy was my man in the Albury reatreading plant and if I took a case in to be reatreaded he would take me into the (very smelly) plant and show me the case after it had all the rubber taken off the case, this bloke had been doing it for so long that he could tell how successful a recap would be on a particular case. But what I also learnt was that some trucking operators would retread case up to five times and of course the risk of a problem increased each time it was done.
On my coaches I ran retreads on the drive axle only, and in the winter only, and for ONE retread only and when I started to make some money I used only cleanskins all round and sold used tyres before they were retreaded.

Clearly we had good drivers in Capricorn and Sundowners, the facts are there for all to see, in all the accidents we had, and some of them were spectacular, NOBODY was killed, this is an amazing fact and one that I am proud to be associated with, I have been associated in other operations where for instance two full coachloads died when two of our coaches ran "head on" into each other.

So Mike I am hugely doubtful that Capricon would put a retread on the steer axle (I think of people like Barry Deacon, Greg Paul, Simon Arms, Kit Carr......they just wouldn't do it!) and at this point I would say I am looking for confirmation from the Driver.

Are we going to see you at the Reunion?