Mileage: 28,119 – 21/06/2003 – Kool Boxes and Tyre
Pressures
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ince
my last entry, things have been relatively quiet in the House of Derv. The countdown to the John
O’Groats to Lands End trip is now down to under two weeks as I write this,
and remember people, I’ve been planning this for about seven months now. So, all up, there’s been a lot going on
outside of Kermit.
However,
I did spend a little money and bought an in-car powered cool box. Or, I suppose, an in-Ka powered Kool
box. I just had to check it out, so I
grabbed Charlie and took her to the koast, the kool box in the Ka. Unfortunately, the cord is about three
inches too short for the cool box to sit in the boot, however it was always my
plan to get another power line and accessory socket hooked up for the boot.
So
how does the kool box perform? The instructions
imply that it only has a maximum cooling effect of -20°C and when we went to
the koast, the air temperature was approximately 23°C. This feels subjectively about right: the
inside of the kool box was seriously kold!
It was sat on the back seat, wearing a seat belt, and in the air
konditioned Ka kabin I admit, but even so there was a little bit of ice forming
on the kooling blades.
The
kool box has a couple of fans to aid it when it works, so in use there’s a
subdued hum from the unit. However, the
box is large enough for at least four two litre bottles, and some sandwiches,
or other food in there. One slight
concern is that it draws four amps of kurrent, so I need to be careful about
leaving it in the Ka, plugged in, for too long.
Given
that we’ve ordered some new tyres, and we’re probably
going to be needing new ones for the fronts, I’ve been studying the wear
patterns. Although Kermit’s tyre
pressures have been at the correct pressure, the wear pattern 
looks as though the tyres
are underinflated. With this in mind,
I’ve done some digging as to the correct pressure to use. Ford quote that in normal use for the 2001
model, the tyres pressures should be set to 31 PSI up front, and 26 at the back
- which is what I’ve been using. With a
heavy load - that is, three people or more - the pressures should be set to 37
PSI all round. Or, Ford’s “optimised
fuel economy pressure” of 37 PSI up front and 41 PSI at the back. Now it’s quite possible that my gooning has
been solely responsible for taking the shoulders off the tyres, but in any
event, I’ve decided to try increasing the tyre pressures to 36 PSI, and seeing
what difference this makes to the handling.
So far, and I’ve not really /cough/ tested them properly, they seem
largely indifferent. I’ll have the
chance to check the fuel consumption over the next few weeks.
Mind
you, I noted that for more recent Kas wearing 165/60/14s, Ford have recommended
the front tyre pressure be increased to 33 PSI.
Finally,
just back from the trip to Stonehenge to see
the 2003 Summer Solstice, which was fun, although not quite what I had in mind!