Your fleet running reports

[Matty]

You know I don't think I've ever had a wheel alightment done on any of my cars other than the Lotus's.

Can they do a proper alignment in 10 mins?!

[JonMad]

Probably not but only the toe was out. Everything else was within spec.

[Jimmy Choo]

Booked the Fabia in for a couple of weeks' time to see if they can make it go round cones faster.

Would it be worthwhile deliberately getting the front toe put out of spec? Would a bit of toe out help turn in at the expense of straight line stability?

[mik]

Nothing you can do to put a couple of degrees of negative camber on? Is that prevented by regs?

[JonMad]

Indeed, I’m thinking toe out at the front and maybe the rear too, if it’s adjustable (but would need to be careful on the road then if it becomes unstable under braking).

Hopefully camber can be adjusted. I don’t have adjustable top mounts on the suspension, which the chap asked me.

edit: I don’t think there’s anything in the regs against that but worth a look.

[JonMad]

Be nice if they can corner weight it as well (at least measure, if not adjust).

[Sundayjumper]

Agreed that a smidge of toe-out on the front helps.

Negative camber is only useful if you have enough grip to load up the tyres when cornering and make use of it. Rally (loose surface) cars don’t run camber anywhere near that of a circuit car. The trade-off with camber is that you lose some traction for straight line braking / accelerating.

That said, apart from the toe-out, I’ve never bothered fiddling with the alignment. I’m too lazy.

[integrale_evo]

I’m presuming the Fabia is similar to the Mk2/3 golf/ mk3 onwards polo etc.

You can adjust camber where the strut bolts to the hub, it’s held by two bolts, the upper hole is usually larger or slotted to allow you to tilt the hub relative to the strut before clamping it up.

No adjustment at the rear as it’s a one piece beam.

If you really wanted to you can fit shims between the stub axle and beam, usually used to add camber but no reason why they couldn’t be used to alter toe too, although it’s not a quick simple solution and would take some trial and error.

[McSwede]

The other day this happened.

[JonMad]

I’m presuming the Fabia is similar to the Mk2/3 golf/ mk3 onwards polo etc.

You can adjust camber where the strut bolts to the hub, it’s held by two bolts, the upper hole is usually larger or slotted to allow you to tilt the hub relative to the strut before clamping it up.

No adjustment at the rear as it’s a one piece beam.

If you really wanted to you can fit shims between the stub axle and beam, usually used to add camber but no reason why they couldn’t be used to alter toe too, although it’s not a quick simple solution and would take some trial and error.

Thanks Harry, really helpful info.

[V8Granite]

It’s quite a moment when you release full Family Travel mode

This is camping with small dogs but no bikes. Fridge, food and table in the boot with the dogs. The children do have their own seats but as the trailer is teeny then I use them as a reversing aid.


This is camping without dogs but with bikes.


It’s not camping heavy, apart from a big tent and fridge we don’t pack too much. It’s just that we never put anything in the passenger compartment.

Next family car will be a Unimog 4300 double cab.

Dave!

[mik]

Roof boxes are the shizzle.

I’ve had the same box and bars (with different feet used) used on multiple cars.

Mounting to one side as opposed to the middle was essential for access on the Disco3 and 4. Plus it meant I could put 2 bikes on there too….



@V8Granite your kids-on-trailer idea is superb. I assume they wear goggles when you are actually moving though? Safety First!

[Broccers]

I never realised how useful they could be.

[mik]

And continuing the modern theme - your Mini one is clearly bigger than my Kamei.

[Sundayjumper]

Are we doing roof box photos again ?

681D483D-D472-47C2-9501-8E14BA43EC24.jpeg (125.28 KiB) Viewed 1748 times

[McSwede]

I'm now a roof box convert.

[DeskJockey]

Are we doing roof box photos again ?


681D483D-D472-47C2-9501-8E14BA43EC24.jpeg

Can't be bothered with a photo of the Galaxy with the roof box on bit I've got a similar setup. Bought a Thule bike carrier to fit with the box and I'm very impressed.

[DeskJockey]

Galaxy update: won't be doing much about the paint, it is a family bus and I should probably just accept it (although it still annoys me).

It is perilously close to 100k miles, will tick over in the next few weeks I reckon.

Bought another OEM radio for it as the last one wasn't DAB+ and therefore couldn't get the kids' favourite station. Streaming around London is fine, not so much once you're away, so I found one that was listed as DAB+ (no way to tell from the outside). Sadly it has a rather tatty knob (oo-err), so took them both apart and swapped the fascias over.

That just leaves the CD drive dust thingies which are shredded. The old one has good ones, but I've not got a set of miniature torque screwdrivers to take it out. So, will buy some.

Other than that it once again took all five of us away for two weeks, carrying a ton of stuff.

[Matty]

It’s quite a moment when you release full Family Travel mode

This is camping with small dogs but no bikes. Fridge, food and table in the boot with the dogs. The children do have their own seats but as the trailer is teeny then I use them as a reversing aid.

I believe it's a legal requirement for them to wear seatbelts at least.

[Beany]

Only if they were originally fitted. Not happy about those booster seats though!