How things can go wrong

I was up around the Flinders a few weeks back and about 10ks off the main road on a dirt track when I pulled up at a dry creek bed. As I got out of the Patrol I heard the front right tyre deflating.

Plan A: No worries, I've got a good spare on the back BUT I had padlocked it on. For the life of me I could not find the key. Even the missus couldn't find the key.

Plan B: Out comes the tyre repair kit. I jacked the truck up, turned the wheel so I could get to the hole and fairly easily plugged the hole. Out comes the you beaut 4X4 air compressor (made in a big foreign country)- connect it all up and within about 20 seconds WHAM goes the 30A fuse. well I had a few spares but the second fuse blew in about a microsecond.

Plan C: I opened up the compressor and found that the live wire had only insulation tape covering the connection and in the heat (plus shoddy quality) it had come off and was grounding. Easily fixed and reassembled. The missus still talking to me at this stage. Connected the pump and on getting to about 10bar the pump went very quiet. Checked the air flow and found it would not even blow a feather.

Plan D: Disassembled the pump (this time the whole thing) and found that the little valve on the piston had broken off (did I say good quality).

Plan E: Thank goodness a fellow traveler came along and with his compressor and we were up and off in no time.

The following morning the tire was flat again and with a pair of borrowed bolt cutters I managed to reclaim my spare.

I headed down to Hawker and there the good guys fixed my puncture (properly) for me. Said the the hole in the tire was more like a cut and too wide for a single plug.

The moral of the story is that no matter how prepared with backups I was, I still needed a helping hand from another kind 4X4 bush lover.

Note: Name changed from Fred L (too many Fred's around these days!!!)