Mobile tyre fitting and recovery in GU31 (Harting and Rogate)
Six villages on the chalk, and the road to most of them goes over a hill. GU31 sits on the northern slope of the South Downs, and the climb up to South Harting and Uppark is steep enough that brakes and tyres both notice it.
There is no town in this district, no retail park and no fast dual carriageway. It is lanes, hedges, flint and long views, which is lovely to drive and difficult to break down in.
The A272 and the climb to South Harting
The A272 runs east to west along the bottom of the district through Rogate and Trotton. It is a single carriageway with a reputation for moving faster than its width deserves, and the verges are narrow and often soft.
From it, the road climbs south towards South Harting and Uppark on a proper gradient with bends. That climb is where we see overheated brakes and, on the way down, tyres that have been dragged rather than rolled. Buriton sits off to the west under the downs on lanes that flood in winter at the low points.
The GU31 places we come out to
We work in Buriton, Nyewood, Rogate, South Harting, Trotton and Uppark.
There is very little street lighting anywhere in this district, so at night we would always rather have a pin than a village name.
Questions we get asked about GU31
- Can you work on a car halfway up Harting Hill?
- Only if there is somewhere level to stop. On a steep gradient a jack is not safe and neither is standing in the road on a bend. Better to roll down to the bottom or up to the top, whichever is closer, and let us work on the flat.
- The lane is flooded where I have broken down.
- Tell us the depth if you can judge it. We will not work in standing water, and driving a car with a flat tyre through a flood makes the wheel and the brakes worse. In that situation recovery to firm ground is usually the sensible first step.
- Is this district really within your working ground?
- It is on our list and we attend it, but it is a long run from Cobham and there is no depot any closer. We will tell you what that means in practice when you call, and you can decide whether to wait for us.
Stopped on the downs?
Send a pin and tell us whether you are on the flat or on the hill. On this ground the gradient decides everything about the job.