The AA and heavy wheels

[thinfourth2]

I have a land rover which the wife uses occasionally. it has a spare wheel which sits on the rear door. Its bloody heavy, its an awkward lift, its an half wit with a risk assessment away from being beyond what a human can lift.

So if she gets a flat and calls the AA will they change the wheel or will they pull out the elf and safety card and feck off into the sunset

[EDLT]

How heavy is it? I think it has to be around 25kg before H&S says you should use some sort of assistance (lifting equipment, another person etc.). It is a limit that is routinely ignored in any job I've had that requires physical effort, though.

[Codswallop]

I would be surprised if they weren't willing to change it. They must attend loads of 4x4s, so it should be nothing new for them.

How heavy do you think the wheel is? Can't be more than 20 kg, and bearing in mind that at airports you don't get a "heavy bag warning" until you get to 25 kg, I'd guess it should be fine. Best phone them and ask though.

[Harrytsg]

Hgv and Psv wheels get changed on the roadside, so yours ought not be a problem?

[jamei303]

The HSE suggest here that 50kg would be the acceptable limit in such circumstances.

[Jakestar]

As someone who works in H&S.. thought I'd add my 2p.

Legally the limit is "only lift what you can safely manage and don't exceed your personal capability". There are guidelines around e.g. 25kg but this is not an explicit limit, each person will be able to manage a different weight.

Back to the question.. I would hope that the AA's H&S department have thought about this issue before, since its relatively likley that they will need to change a 4x4 wheel. Therefore if they deemed it unacceptable for patrol people to change a particualr model wheels they should have thought of an alternative method.

Simply refusing to help would be rediculous. To be fair it would depend how heavy is heavy, but its a relatively infrequent operation and the task is short duration, so even if the wheel is heavy, additional controls might not be needed!

It's the jobsworths that gives us a bad name, I'm in the game to allow organisations to do the tasks they want to do not stop them!

[sebhaque]

These are the safe lifting limits that the recovery folk will have to abide by (Manual Handling regs). However if such a wheel is heavy and at a height where lifting may be difficult, the recovery specialist may ask for help from the driver of the vehicle (I've seen this done in the past). Most of the time if it's a damsel in distress then chivalry kicks in and that wheel's coming down, manual handling or not