Mildura Good Samaritin

On my way from Adelaide to Canberra we called in at the Mildura Golden Arches for lunch. As we got out of the truck we could smell something that had clearly overheated. On checking around I found that the left side wheel bearing on the trailer was a smoking mess. I immediately had visions of being stuck there for a week waiting on parts etc.

I called a few places to see if they could help only to be told "next week is the earliest we could do anything". One of them suggested that I try Country Wide Tyre and Automotive on 15th Street. I gave them a call and talked to Tony the owner who said that, even though he had a backlog of work, he would try to help me out.

I had replacement bearings, but the damage was so bad that the failed bearing had welded to the axle on one side and scored a groove in the hub. It is an ALKO system in which the hub and brake drum are a single unit, so I had to get a new hub. I managed to do this fortunately. There is no way that I could have removed the old bearing, they had to use an oxy torch to get it off.

Bottom line is that within about 2 hours, everything had been replaced, except for the axle which suffered minor damage when the bearing was removed. I managed to get safely home and will have the axle replaced shortly.

I am very grateful to Tony and his team at Country Wide for helping me, a total stranger, to get going again.

It is worth noting that I had replaced the bearings and hubs only 9 weeks ago, before my Cape York trip. I suspect that with all the water crossings on the Cape, I must have got water into the bearings and should have serviced them once I got back on the blacktop.