24 April 2015 Friday
Settled into WinterSun resort - swimming pool, BBQ’s, wine, beer, plenty of food, good bed etc ….. LOTS of Germans &/or Swiss travellers, at the moment.
Today I received a call from the insurance company giving me the go-ahead for the repairs. I had anticipated this so I had emptied as much as I could out of the car and into the Kamper. It is after all a rather small, cluttered room (now).
On arrival, yesterday, the handle detached itself from the jockey wheel. After a quick inspection it seemed that a single screw held it in place and must have vibrated loose over the velvety smooth roads we had been travelling on. As the Kamper is “king of the OFF road” this single screw would have been done up with Locktight (or similar). They must have forgotten this when they built this one! So I added a drop of Locktight - hopefully this will never happen again.
I also washed the car yesterday - yep, apparently it is a very dark blue car - underneath all that dust.
The fridge slide on the 'stove and saucepans' started to develop the habit of not locking into place. Didn’t lock open - didn’t lock shut. On closer inspection metal fatigue - after all the Kamper was really 12 months old! - had caused a crack at a join.
Got up early today to get the car greased-and-oil-changed. While I was waiting I walked to another ‘
shop’ in the industrial part of Alice and described my ‘fridge-slide problem’. Bring it in and we’ll fix it today. !!!! It was full of the stuff out of the car!!!!
So after the car had its oil changed I drove back to my luxurious resort, unpacked the Kamper back into the car, packed up the Kamper and drove it the the welding
shop. They noticed both slides had the same problem. Both were welded. (I had gone the TJM - or it might have been ARB, I forget which - and they said that they only sell heavy duty slides!. I’m sure the “king of the OFF road’ wouldn’t save on costs by installing standard (flimsy?) fridge slides!!!!!
I not only know TJM and ARB but also Alice’s Bunnings, Supercheap Auto, Jaycar, Repco and a couple of other really interesting shops. :-)
So 'back at the ranch’ (resort - still haven’t used
the pool yet - been a bit busy - Oh I also got the air compressor, both fixed (blown fuse) and improved upon - Anderson plug rather than clamps) - where was I - back at the resort, I had received the go ahead for the door to be fixed. So all I had to do was to set up the Kamper (again) and take everything (nearly) out of the car and into the Kammer (again),
Tomorrow, being Anzac Day is a day of rest, I believe.