Thursday, Sep 23, 2010 at 19:56
GT,
I burnt out the alternator on our GQ Patrol out near the
dog fence on the QAA Line. Charred the windings in it, not just needed a new set of brushes... LOL I blame the mud! Still got it to
Birdsville though and Peter (from the roadhouse) organized a new alternator for us, had it flown in from somewhere or other, I can't remember. Excellent service though! The roads were closed out of
Birdsville in all directions anyway, so we couldn't go anywhere even if we weren't waiting on bits! There's enough to keep me busy in
Birdsville anyway, the museum, the
bakery, the pub, the
bakery, the aboriginal walks, the
bakery, the pub, the
cemetery, the
bakery.... and I actually went to look at a broken air conditioner for Peter , the mechanic at the roadhouse! Gave him some idea's on how to repair it, and he has since let me know that the repair was successful! They're great people out there!! And I like to think that we fit in as
well! LOL..
We also had a spring drama, not on our Tvan, but on the Jayco that our travelling partners were towing. Their leaf spring broke just down the first section of the
Rig Road, coming from the west. Cresting a small dune and the leafs snapped in half where the locator goes through. I suggested we use a log, and provided a lump of firewood from the Tvan wood rack, and chainsawed it to the shape that Ian, the Jayco owner, wanted. We used fence wire and ratchet straps to hold it in place, removed the shock absorber and used my drag chain between the upper and lower shock mounts and the rear "recovery(?)" point of the trailer. This held the axle in place for front and rear movement, with the log that made that whole side solid. It made some horrible noises for the next 4 days! But that log didn't move, and also didn't get damaged apart from some very slight scarring on the top where the chassis was sitting on it. However, the trailer suffered a bend in the chassis where the log was! Gidyea versus metal box chassis and the gidyea won! Peter, the mechanic in
Birdsville happened to have a leaf assembly that fitted, so they were sorted out just a couple of hours after we arrived in town.
To me it was all part of the adventure, and later in the trip I had to apply that philosophy to our own rig, as at
Quilpie I had a buggered set of brake pads that didn't much like the Simpson mud either! LOL......
But it really is all part of the adventure, isn't it? Nearly 7 weeks of
camping, and I can honestly say that I had the BEST time! The outback is a truly wonderful place in my opinion, and I can't wait for the next trip out there!
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