As we travel we find most trades people we use good and helpful; some are very expensive. Often when our vehicle needs a service (we supply the filters and oil) we come into a town and want it done straight away so we can continue touring. Often workshops tell us they are fully booked for a week or two. We look for someone who will fit us in. Our needs are not always confined to mechanical servicing, and some not mentioned hereunder probably should have been, but they may have been a bit dearer than expected, or our purchase minimal. Although I haven’t included everyone who gave good service, those worthy of special mention were pleasant and customer focused, helpful, did a good job at a very reasonable charge, and fitted us in promptly. These include:
Katherine East Autos,
Katherine NT, Darren Rouse 0889711700 who serviced our vehicle at short notice, charge very reasonable, pleasant and helpful, offering local knowledge including cheapest fuel in town and local fruit and vege
shop.
Hobbit Auto Electrics
Katherine NT 0889722188, who checked for an intermittent fault with the indicators and changed the faulty connection plug on
the spot.
Coollines (Beertech Pty Ltd) Winnellie,
Darwin NT 0889471889 who repaired our caravan air conditioner after being honest enough to say probably not worth repairing as it would cost $xx per hour for how ever long it took to find the gas leak, and that even if they found it, it probably would leak again somewhere else, due to age and wear. We still chose to take a risk. Technician worked promptly to find the break, repair and re-gas. It is still working
well.
LP Gas Solutions, Winnellie,
Darwin NT, who charged us $55 for a new 9 kg gas bottle including gas fill, as ours was out of date when they went to fill it and it was marginally cheaper to buy new than have them service and re-certify the bottle. The are off the main drag, opposite the above refrigeration workshop. As both our gas bottles were the same date, we later tried to purchase another bottle and I the northern parts of Australia and found the bottle alone cost more than we’d paid for this one including the gas.
Hirst Mechanics
Longreach, Qld. This busy heavy duty mechanical workshop had two trucks booked in that day and were short staffed. They still changed the magnets, arms and one backing plate on our caravan brakes that day, without us having to come back. We supplied the parts.
Tyre Plus Armidale, NSW 0267727012, who did a tyre rotation on the F250, including using our spares, one of which had to be put into the hub all for $25. The fitted us in on the day.
Greg Forbes Automotive,
Gloucester NSW 0265589022. He was very helpful in checking and adjusting our caravan brakes, as one would occasionally lock up and squeal for a very reasonable charge. He did the job when we called in unannounced, cheerful helpful, and let us fill up our caravan tanks from his tap.
Willy’s Tyre Service,
Wentworth NSW 0350273422, who had just arrived back from a call out to a fire as a volunteer fire fighter when we called in. It was lunch time, and he cheerfully spent some time with us, swapping around our tyres as requested when we purchased two tyres from him. We’d just had a blowout, and a few days previously a repaired tyre let us down, and that tyre was
well worn so not really a prospect for another repair.
Motherhen