Nuts and bolts

We were looking at equipment for a future trip, mine having travelled to Nairobi on a recce for a Cape to Cairo trip but some essentials stayed at home as they would be useful around the house and to help others ( I recently had to change a battery and needed a spanner ).

Older members swear by the “Pipe wrench” or “Bobbejaan Spanner” and it is essential to their kit. I have only needed one when we had trouble with the taps on a trip to the Waterberg but the owner of the facility obligingly fixed the taps and replaced the headsets.

I ended up cleaning the mess that the two taps made.

In my opinion, a pipe wrench has little value off-road unless you are a plumber. It is heavy and takes up space, whilst the jaws are adjustable it is not easy to get tight closure making it only useable for large nuts.

It may help if you want to remove the nuts on a tow ball but once again that would not be first prize.

A suitable ring spanner set would be best coupled with a “Vice Grip”

Afterwards, I added a “Vice Grip” to my small tool roll which now fits into my duffle bag and goes on every trip, 

it is an extremely useful piece of equipment, its locking jaws are adjustable making it indispensable. Size is important as if it is too large it takes up space and weighs a lot. It can override conventional pliers if the size is correct.

.Mine is smaller but it can accommodate small to medium nuts, in any case, a larger version would not cope with large nuts such as wheel nuts, here I prefer a socket set. Yet the Vice grip should be part of any tool kit.

Then a pliers is important as well, especially if it has a side cutter and needle nose. In this case however a “Super Tool” would offer all such functions and many more.

A good plier remains extremely useful in many cases and I carry two, one has offset jaws which work well in difficult-to-reach spots. They are extremely durable if you buy good brands, in my case mine have been passed down the family line but they still work well. They are better than anything sold today.

Then we get to the deal breaker the “shifting spanner”, it is simply an adjustable wrench or adjustable spanner which can be used to loosen or tighten nuts and bolts. it works due to its screw mechanism which allows you to adjust the size to accommodate various sizes of nuts and bolts. The adjustment is made by a screw fitted into the head of the spanner.

The versatility makes it an extremely useful piece of equipment.

Mine goes everywhere. It is useful around the house, the car and even the bicycle. Depending on its size it can even be used for minor plumbing tasks.

You simply use the screw mechanism to open and close the jaws and fit the nut to be closed or loosened.

A “ vice grip” works similarly but you have to determine your favourite as the “shifting spanner” is smaller and lighter.

The shifting spanner and vice grip don’t take up much space so you should keep at least one in your “cubby hole “.

Travel safely at all times and check your insurance with us!