| It was an early start on Sunday morning, setting off from home with an empty trailer. I was heading off to Northampton to check over and potentially collect another Jeep. This time, it wasn't for me! A friend had been after a Jeep for some time and finally, he spotted one that looked promising, both within his budget and appearing to require little maintenance. The Jeep was another Hotchkiss M201, just a little younger than my own, but that had been fitted with a replacement Willys MB tub. We found out why later, but not for any bad reasons. The drive down was going well, until
near Grantham, where an acident closed the motorway and we were stuck,
almost stationary for an hour an and a half. Eventually we crept
forwards far enough to find a small road off the motorway and cut across
country, until rejoining the motorway further South where it was clear.
After almost five and a half hours, we made it to the seller, got a bit
to eat and started looking around the Jeep. There was a pause in
proceedings as the Pacific Ocean descended on the area for a good 20
minutes or more before finally clearing up so we could go for a test
drive. |
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After a drive around the area, all seemed well with the Jeep, with no bad noises, clouds of smoke or fluids leaking out. So while my friend started on the payment and paperwok, I got the canvas roof down and started sorting the trailer ready to load. During this the owner tried to get the radio working to show it did, but there was a problem somewhere, so we gave up so we could get away. We were already a couple of hours behind where we wanted to be. |
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We set off home with the light fading and with the clocks also changing to Greenwich Mean Time that weekend, it wasn't long before it was dark. We stopped at Wetherby services for a quick bite to eat before continuing to my friend's house. The trailer ramps were set up and I went to start the Jeep - nothing. A click of the starter solenoid and that was it; batteries flat. A couple of seconds later, it dawned on me. The previous owner had left the radio power supply switched on after his attempts to operate the radio and it had drained the batteries all the way home. While the Jeep had an isolation switch wired into the batteries, the radio was connected up to the permanently live side of the isolator! We pushed the Jeep off the trailer
and I managed to jump start it rolling down the street, so we could drive it
into the garage. I packed up the trailer again and drove the last 30 minutes
home, rather tired. The addition of this Jeep to our little group now brings
the vehicle total to eleven, with six Jeeps, two Dodges, A Weasel, a bulldozer
and a motorcycle. |
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