Breakdown cover with dog

HillStreetBlues

lisyloo said:

HillStreetBlues said:

Since when do you need a recovery to local garage (or home)  for a flat tyre?
Is it common practice?

We were on the hard should and the wheel in question was on the motorway side just a few feet away from fast traffic which as we know is juggernauts at high speed.
I did not feel it was a safe place for an amateur to change a wheel with amateur equipment I.e. handheld wheel brace.

we were considered high risk on the hard shoulder and were watched with a camera and visited by the highways patrol.

had it been on the kerb side of the car then sure, we would have just changed it.

You do know people get killed there right?

You misunderstood my post, I didn't make it clear enough. I totally agree you did made the correct decision in calling them.

My issue is with the breakdown people talking first about a recovery to garage, will all the hassle it involved for you and the issue with your dog.
They finally decided to change tyre at the roadside  as the final option,  but in past that I know off  this is  the first option.
Either change tyre there  or move you to a near safe place to do it (so dog could stay in car).

WellKnownSid

lisyloo said:

had it been on the kerb side of the car then sure, we would have just changed it.

In my youth I did once change a wheel on the side of a motorway in Spain, but that was in broad daylight with two warning triangles and everyone else out of the car wearing fluorescent jackets keeping a very good lookout.

Looking back it was probably the dumbest thing I've ever done and could have easily turned into a Darwin moment in just a second or two.

lisyloo

HillStreetBlues said:

Since when do you need a recovery to local garage (or home)  for a flat tyre?
Is it common practice?

I wouldn’t say it’s common, but if you are in a dangerous position then they (recovery/police) may decide it’s safer to recover you than change the wheel in-situ.

In our situation the recovery operator chose to do it on the hard shoulder. He was personally less 2 feet from motorway traffic. Personally I felt that was somewhat risky but I presume as a professional he did his own risk assessment.

had the wheel been on the kerbside then we would just have done it, but I felt it was too risky on the motorway and having seen him do it, I still hold that opinion (regardless of the difficult to restrain rescue dog).

lisyloo

Car_54 said:

HillStreetBlues said:

Car_54 said:

HillStreetBlues said:

Since when do you need a recovery to local garage (or home)  for a flat tyre?
Is it common practice?

Since spare wheels were no longer standard?
Getting a replacement tyre of the right size and spec - especially out of hours - may be a struggle.

But the OP had a spare,  totally understand if the car hasn't got one.

Yes, and "in the end they came and changed the tyre on the hard shoulder.".

The professional changed the wheel in about 5 minutes with professional equipment. I didn’t think it was a very safe position for him to do that but it was only a few minutes.

it would have taken us at least 20 minutes as we would have been removing wheel nuts manually etc. I didn’t think it was safe and I continue to hold that opinion.
we also had a large (39kg) rescue dog with us who likes to be near his owners so he would have been continually pulling to be near the person changing the wheel very close to the motorway. I could probably have restrained the dog but the risks are obvious as he has no traffic sense and can’t judge the speed of traffic.

lisyloo

HillStreetBlues said:

lisyloo said:

HillStreetBlues said:

Since when do you need a recovery to local garage (or home)  for a flat tyre?
Is it common practice?

We were on the hard should and the wheel in question was on the motorway side just a few feet away from fast traffic which as we know is juggernauts at high speed.
I did not feel it was a safe place for an amateur to change a wheel with amateur equipment I.e. handheld wheel brace.

we were considered high risk on the hard shoulder and were watched with a camera and visited by the highways patrol.

had it been on the kerb side of the car then sure, we would have just changed it.

You do know people get killed there right?

You misunderstood my post, I didn't make it clear enough. I totally agree you did made the correct decision in calling them.

My issue is with the breakdown people talking first about a recovery to garage, will all the hassle it involved for you and the issue with your dog.
They finally decided to change tyre at the roadside  as the final option,  but in past that I know off  this is  the first option.
Either change tyre there  or move you to a near safe place to do it (so dog could stay in car).

I agree it’s confusing so let me add some context so it makes a bit more sense.
autoaid (who are an insurance firm) said they would recover the car & humans but not dog. I believe They were talking in the context of insurance policy coverage.

recovery company then said they’d recover to safe place, change wheel somewhere safe and dog could stay in car.

they show up, check position and decide to do it in-situ. Personally I would not have been happy with my husband or son doing that but there may have been similar risks in attaching tow ropes that he took into account with his risk assessment or he’s just less risk averse than me.

facade

If it was the rear wheel it would be hugely difficult to move the car unless they had a beaverback, because that spectacle frame thing would need to lift the back, and would either need the car to face the other way or the breakdown van, which is very difficult if not impossible on a motorway hard shoulder.

They should have figured this out when you called it in though, and sent a beaverback, then I guess it comes down to the operator, I'd have thought there was less risk (but more time) winching it on and moving it off the motorway than changing an offside wheel.......

HillStreetBlues

facade said:

If it was the rear wheel it would be hugely difficult to move the car unless they had a beaverback, because that spectacle frame thing would need to lift the back, and would either need the car to face the other way or the breakdown van, which is very difficult if not impossible on a motorway hard shoulder.

They should have figured this out when you called it in though, and sent a beaverback, then I guess it comes down to the operator, I'd have thought there was less risk (but more time) winching it on and moving it off the motorway than changing an offside wheel.......

 I would agree with the beaverback is less risky.
Trouble is there are idiots everywhere that don't pay attention
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-us-canada-65770238

lisyloo

Yes it was the rear wheel and a 4wd car (don’t know if that makes a difference).
I agree that moving the car is not risk free so what he did probably made sense.

as an aside having large brolly was very helpful for a sun shade.
I would have been sunburnt and the dog would have been very hot without it. I think the highways man had some stuff but we didn’t need it.

Ditzy_Mitzy

lisyloo said:

Yes it was the rear wheel and a 4wd car (don’t know if that makes a difference).
I agree that moving the car is not risk free so what he did probably made sense.

as an aside having large brolly was very helpful for a sun shade.
I would have been sunburnt and the dog would have been very hot without it. I think the highways man had some stuff but we didn’t need it.

Four wheel drive does make a difference, but such cars can be towed using specialist equipment.  It would probably have been possible to drag it a short distance with the rear wheels off the ground too, in-extremis.  

lisyloo

The operative that turned up was in a van - normal transit type.
I’ve had the situation before where they turn up to try to rescue prior to sending out recovery, however I’m a bit surprised as they knew we were priority due to the heat/dog/position.