I was picked up by a recovery driver and when the camper was taken off the recovery truck, you can not turn the wheels fully. Offside wheel turns half way to the right, while the near side is still straight and won't go any further. Many thanks for any advise P.s. Breakdown was most likely vacuum leak!!!
The recovery driver was probably a complete idiot. He has thrown his brother strap over the front beam. Without being careful he has probably gonna over the steering as well and bent the rods. That's my guess
This....same happened to us, also crushed the steering damper. AA coughed up for the repairs but get some photo's from underneath as evidence.
It happens a lot, show us some photo's of the steering rods. Shame you didn't break down on the Isle of Wight and used the services of @3901mick
Moral of the story. Learn how your van works yourself and step in when so called experts mess with it. It saves a lot of money to gain a little knowledge
My wife was driving last night when broke down,guy did admit didn't know enything about old vw and made my wife drive on the recovery track!!!
At least all the bent bits are DIY replaceable. But the recovery driver has damaged your bus so make a claim.
Even the simplest of simpletons would surely have known that putting a strap round the track rod would end in tears... they should be paying for that. And perhaps being slightly choosier about their recovery staff..
Tow hook if you have one, or any part of the beam you can get to that's not going to foul the track rods / steering damper.
IF you van has solid towing eyes they are fine, I put mine on today using them but normally go over the beam, it was my own van so didnt matter lol. Most recovery people use a strap as pictured. If you were to pull on forwards using the towing eyes the van would be a long way back. I always put on backwards due to the engine being at the back. If you only have one towing eye it also is on one side so the winch cable tends to bunch up, again thats why we use the brother strap. It pulls the vehicle straight on, using a tow eye to one side tries to pull the van one way, an extra unnecessary effort climbing up to correct steering. Do it right it isnt difficult You can see in this photo the triangle shaped loops, that is what you would hook the strap back onto with 2 varying lengths
