After my Bicycle Conveyance Contrivance posting a couple of days ago, I have been thinking about the modification needed to make sure the jockey wheel cleared the bike rack. My original Idea was to simply remove the roll pin holding the handle onto the inner threaded rod and replace it with a “R” type clip. However, on removing the roll pin, it was obvious that the cranked handle was designed to hold the threaded rod in the upper shaft of the jockey wheel. Right, plan B then.

The top of the Al-Ko jockey wheel

I have always thought that if you can slow someone down that is going to try to deprive you permanently of something, then they will look somewhere else. With that in mind I thought if there wasn’t a handle on the jockey wheel, it would be an inconvenience to someone who thought they deserved our caravan more than us. As the steadies require the use of a 19mm socket attachment in the power driver or the cranked winding handle… and as it happens, the Al-Ko wheel lock also required a 19mm socket, by a bit of logical thinking, I thought “A-ha a nut that uses the same size 19mm socket could be a way forward.”  Well, if the truth be told, I opened my big divided tray of assorted nuts… looked at one and thought “that looks about right,” then thought “I’ll bet that is the same size as the steady nuts.” Continue reading →