Sandy Blight Junction Road - A day of outback welding & bush mechanics (vid & photos)

Thursday 24th July
Sandy Blight Junction Road - Not too far from last nights camp
23 42 7.801 129 17 39.191

A funny day today. Bloody hell it was cold last night. It put ice across the wash basin and froze the billy lid to the car bonnet – more on that later. I was out of bed early having woken before birdsong so I got the fire going to try and coax out the Darlings. Scott and I had decided to drop two leafs out of the springs on my trailer ala what we had done with Scott’s at QDB a week prior. Unfortunately, when we climbed under the trailer, we found that the main frame of the trailer was cracking in front of the rear spring mounts. It had cracked all the way along the bottom and then marched 10 mm up the sides…. bleep !!!! First things first;

After breakfast, Scott and I dropped out the two leafs either side. Having built upon our experience from Rudall river-DQB, we used the channel grips and a vice grip to clamp the leafs together as we removed the retaining bolt. This prevented a lot of the horrendous thread stripping of the retainer. Things went well and after completion we decided that it really was time to try our skills at bush welding, hence, three batteries came out of the vehicles. My main cranker, my engine mounted AGM and Scott’s auxiliary deep cycle that was god knows how old. Thankfully, my foresight in having made a bush welding unit came into play here. Moving from 24 volts to 36 (2 batteries to 3) though, we cut one of the connector cables in half and used vice grips and washers to clamp three batteries into the loop in series.


Returning to the scene of the crack, we used a self taper and a screw driver to slowly drill a hole across the top of the crack to prevent it spreading. Then cleaned the paint off the steel using a sharp wood chisel, a bastard file and wire brush. We grooved out the crack as best as possible using a triangle file and then gave it a go using a 3.2 mm rod. Scotty blew a friggin BIG hole in the base metal of the allegedly 3mm RHS used in the main frame (more like bloody 2mm!) bleep I was worried. Our main problem seemed to be in regulating the ampage we were getting from the batteries. Having prepped them by running the vehicles for an hour, we knew they were fairly well charged. We attempted to regulate the ampage by using three jumper cables between the number one and number two (in sequence of connection) batteries. This worked to some effect but it was still pretty hit and miss. To cover the holes and reinforce both the crack and damage, we welded a plate across the bottom of the mainframe directly in front of the rear sping mount. The heavier metal of the mounts made it easier to weld across to the frame without melting a hole. It then came down to a matter of refining cables to effect the appropriate ampage, rod type (satin craft 3.2mm - general) and letting the rig cool between bursts. Also helped to cut the rods in half and work with a shorter rod, using the bastard file to clean an end of the cut half so it could go in the handle.


We managed to use scraps of RHS to bolster and reinforce the guard mounts. It certainly wasn‘t pretty and the welds were blowing all over the place but it got the job done. As you could imagine we were all both stressed and tired by lunch time. We took the break sitting on the tow bar of the other trailer and looking at each other, the three of us just began laughing. I tell you it was the most amazing stress reliever ever. No one could speak for five minutes as every time we looked at each other, the camp, the trailer, the tools…in fact anything, we’d just break out in peels of uncontrollable laughter. Anyway………


After lunch we greased all the shackle pins, checked Scotties Trailer and at 3:20 p.m. rolled out on the track intent on getting a few more kilometers south. Corrugations, what corrugations? We encountered two more Len Beadell plaques, countless rusting HQ’s and a school bus. We met two journo’s from Sydney, both Sri Lankin boys doing an article for “Australian Traveler “ Sept edition. Took a couple of short cuts, filled with water at the bore, had to retighten the jerry cans and then settled in a clearing late in the day. I was manky and opted for a shower finding that the bore water we'd gotten during the day was extremely salty. A can night called so no dishes but for spoons. We rang Drew and Mark. I asked mark to book accommodation for us in Alice. The old McDonald Ranges Caravan Park once again.

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