The Collapse Of Bearings

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DAY 362

Ok, so someday’s a day does not work out quite like you expect, and today is one of those days, remember Nick Leeson and the bringing about of the collapse of Barings Bank in 1995 losing £827 million speculating on futures, if you read on then you will find that we had a collapse of Bearings, fortunately it does not mean a prison sentence and we certainly did not lose quite so much, but lose it we did!

The day started normally with Andy up and about earlier than me, I was fast asleep but eventually I could hear Andy’s voice, he was over the road chatting to another camper. I awoke to find myself completely sausage rolled in a sheet, which was a vital step in my campaign to at least get a night where I am not being bitten, I may almost have succeeded if it was not for the fact that I found my head pressed against the mosquito screen in the night and felt some insect or another having a go at biting me.

Another leisurely start to the day, Andy called Helen at Woodstock to gauge when would be a good time for us to arrive, Andy is keen on helping with the harvest, I am not sure what good I can be, I am less than useless on the farm, unless loving the dogs helps I am not sure. The upshot is that we need to try and be at Woodstock for around 20th November, I am thinking about finding work in Canberra while Andy is helping on the farm, but I will have to stay away in the week, this pretty much would go back to the way things used to be in England at one point or another, but we will see.

We had quite a lazy pack up this morning, though there was a lot to do, but we put our backs in to it and it was soon done, I would have loved to stay in Airlie Beach a little bit longer and perhaps done some of the walks in the National Park, or done an Island hopping tour to take in Whitehaven Beach, but at $150 each we decided to do that on another trip.

In fact the couple that Andy was speaking to earlier said that they weren’t alone on Whitehaven Beach (a gorgeous paradise of white sand and turquoise water with a rainforest backdrop, there were about 20 other boats, their boat had about 15 people on with a capacity for 35, so do the maths and that is how many people would be on that so called deserted beach.

Amazingly we were packed up and pulling out about 20 minutes earlier than we usually do so we must have done something right. We had a few things to do on the way out of Airlie Beach, top of the list was to get some more allergy tablets, I have been bitten to pieces again and they itch like crazy, so short of smothering myself entirely with calamine lotion, less than flattering look, I need to get something decent to help reduce the inflammation.

We stop at Airlie Lagoon, Andy goes straight into the pool, while I find the chemist, I explain my predicament and the pharmacist comes up with some tablets that may just do the trick, “however keep the bites cool, and it looks like you are going swimming so being in the cool water will help!” I agree, I cannot wait to get into the cool water, as that seems to be the only place that I don’t itch.

I take a tablet using the water fountain near the pool, I soon find Andy wallowing in the cool water, and soon I am in, sooner than expected because Andy could not bear to watch me take my time so gently pushed me further into the water.

We both had a good swim, probably stayed in the pool for a good ¾ hour, there were a couple of guys in there just continually doing lengths, barely even stopping for a breather, one of the swimmers appeared to be wearing little webbed mittens which must help movement through the water.

Drying off and getting dressed, we head out of Airlie Beach and stop to fill up with Diesel and another important factor, we are low on propane gas, so that needs a refill so that we can cook dinner this evening especially as we aim to bush camp tonight.

That done, we are heading out towards the Bruce Highway, passing on the way one of the areas that we were looking ofr on the way in, had it been better signposted we may have taken the right turning for it.

That said, today was a little bit odd, nothing seemed to be signposted well, we were looking for Cape Hillsborough, having heard that it was a nice National Park with the possibility of seeing kangaroos on the beach and lolling in the surf. Did we see the turn off? No! We find that we have driven through Kuttabul and see the turning off to Eungella. I am amazed as we never saw any signs pointing us to Cape Hillsborough, least of all did we see any signs indicating which “towns” we had just driven through and of course I used the word town loosely as it which is where we want to go tomorrow night, so we make a decision to turn back 5 kilometres a decision which turns out could save us a whole lot of aggro.

We find our turning, in a short time we find Cape Hillsborough, there is a private campsite at the end of the road, but we want the bush camp in the National Park, so we head back the way we came (there is only one road in and out) and soon find Smalleys Beach Road.

We see the Bush Camp and look around at each vacant spot, however we do need Internet access in order to book as this whole site is bookable only! We jump out of the truck to have a look around before getting onto the Internet, but as Andy walks around the rear of the trailer he says, “we have a major problem!!” Now usually when Andy says that, its because we have run out of milk or biscuits, something major like that so as usual I think he is joking,

I went round to find Andy squatting next to the trailer offside wheel and see grease all over the trailer wheel. “That does not look good!”

I explained that one of the wheel bearings had disintegrated and was completely shot, thus the grease had turned to soup and sprayed the wheel. Ironically this happens only 1 week before getting back to the Sunshine Coast and getting the trailer maker to check the bearings, we have done 50,000k’s with this trailer dutifully following us up mountains and down rough dirt tracks, through rivers and it has not grumbled once, until today, so we have nothing to complain about at all.

I put the car jack under the trailer and lifted it a little to take the weight off the wheel and I demonstrated to Caroline, how the wheel wobbled around and what options were open to us.

My first thought was to keep the trailer hitched up and drive very carefully into MacKay, it is probably 50k’s and that would take us a couple of hours at a very careful speed. We thought about this, it was a poor option but one we may have to consider. I asked Caroline to boot up the laptop and see if we have got any Internet access but we found that about 1km down the road, Hurrah!

She did a search on Trailers in MacKay and finding a camper trailer place, gave them a call. We had already got the technical information off the trailer plate just in case they asked us a question we didn’t know the answers to.

We explained our predicament to a guy called Jason at MacKay Trailers, who said we shouldn’t drive too far with the trailer as it was, (Blimey this bloke should be a detective), well I am being a little unfair on him, we did ask after all.

I asked him if he thought he had a spare bearing in stock, he went and had a look and confirmed he did, providing it was a 45mm axel, fortunately it was). I said I could remove the wheel and take the hub off, and bring the hub in to match a bearing set, which I though would be much quicker, Jason agreed so now we had a plan.

We turned the truck and trailer around and went back to the bush campsite where we had just limped from, it was only 1k so we took it very gingerly.

We needed to find a place to park it as securely as possible, then strip it down, unhitch and fly in to MacKay as quickly as we could, by now it was mid afternoon and the trailer place closes at 5.00.

When we had been in to the bush camp the first time, there was a nice Jayco Expanda Caravan but no car. When we drove in again the car was there s we went up to these people and asked if they would mind us parking the trailer In the day area and if they could just keep an eye on it for us, until we get back.

They said that it wouldn’t be a problem, but we could park our trailer on their pitch and they felt it would be even more secure being that they had this pitch booked out so unless someone was up to no good there would not be anyone going in and out.

We thanked Dennis and Pam profusely and set about parking the trailer, then jacking it up and setting about removing the wheel, then the hub and the collapsed bearing. There was nothing left of it except for the inner and outer casing, not one roller bearing was there, we had obviously deposited them all some where along the many kilometres from Airlie beach.

Another camper was walking past just at the time of me furiously taking off the wheel and hub, and he came over and asked what I was doing. I explained what had happened and our course of action, and he started to give me a hand both of us ending up being covered in grease.

We wrapped the hub and the remaining bits in a piece of rag (my old favourite T-shirt), chucked it in the truck and raced off to MacKay, having never been to this town and only having an address, of 71 Malcolmson street. With ease we found it and pulled in grabbed our bits, and strode in.

We were greeted by a guy, who came out of the office marked MacKay Sheds and he asked me if he could be of service, I told him that I needed to see Jason from MacKay Trailers and he said that he could help me, hmmm, sheds, trailers. OK I can run with this.

I explained my conversation with Jason and needed to know if they had the correct spare parts in stock, which Jason said they had, he said he would go and get John and see.

John came over and introduced himself, he seemed to know what he was talking about, showing him the hub, and depositing a huge gob of grease all over his desk he set about looking at the hub and what was left of the bearing to try to get a part number so he could match it identically.

John then proceeded to ask us some technical questions which I couldn’t answer, but I knew a man who could, I asked John if it would be of any benefit if I phoned Joe the owner of Best Trailers in Caloundra and he could ask him those questions, so we did and Johns questions were all satisfactorily answered.

We left with all the parts in a box that we needed to get back and fit while it was still light, though we have a decent plug in 12 volt light so I could have fitted it in the dark if necessary.

The last thing we had to go and buy was a tub of bearing grease to pack the bearings, off the shelf they were dry, so we hunted around town and found a Supercheap Auto place and got a tub of what we needed.

We drove back to the camp, hoping that all the parts would fit, and when we turned in to the camp, Darryl they guy who helped me take off the hub was doing something under the wheel arch of the trailer where the wheel had been removed, I just couldn’t see what he was doing.

I went up to this fella who was honestly as big as a bear, and asked him if everything was good, he said that he had removed the last piece of the bearing casing and had cleaned the axel with petrol and we were all good to go. Wow he took my breath away, I’ve only know this guy for 3 minutes yet he has already given us his help.

I showed Darryl the box of bits, and the tub of grease, and was setting up the bits so I could pack the bearing as directed when he picked up the grease and the first bearing, stuck his two huge fingers in the grease and started to pack them himself, this guy was unstoppable.

At one stage we though the dust seal was the wrong size as it was not sliding over the axel, until Darryl and his huge hands pushed the seal over the axel and it all sat snugly as it should.

Soon it was all back together, I thanked Darryl for his help, it really was appreciated, I asked him if he wanted a cup of tea or a beer, but he said it was good, and he said he should get set up and we could chat in the morning.

We were blown away by his help, and even when we were away collecting parts, he was helping us by preparing the axel, you cannot get better help than that, covered in grease he still got involved and we just think this is what Australia is all about, mucking in, getting the job done, this country was forged on it. This is why we love Australia so much

If this little episode had happened on the Savannah Way then the story would be somewhat different, we could have easily been 300k’s away from any kind of civilisation and have possibly taken a couple of weeks to repair, so thankfully we are not sat in a remote Roadhouse somewhere in Australia waiting for parts.

The trailer is shifted on to our pitch that Caroline managed to book via the internet on the way back, we set up the trailer, we are relieved that we have our bed for the night, otherwise we could of least hopped in to the swag and bedded down in there.

It is dusk now, and Caroline set up our mini cooker and rummaged us up a cup of tea, its been a bust exciting day, maybe too much excitement for one day.

Everything has be gotten out of the trailer and we are set up, Caroline cooks the pork steaks that we have in the fridge, with carrots and pea’s as we had not had any lunch, no wonder we were hungry and by the time dinner is finished and we are cleared up there is only enough time to upload the blog, then virtually get into bed exhausted.

Until tomorrow, no dramas we hope!

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Photos

Parked
In the Double Car Park" in Airlie Beach as we wanted to go for a swim in the Lagoon

Tell Tale Sign
I said to Caroline that we had a major problem an we did.
With greas all over the wheel I was sure a bearing had let go

Alll jacked up
Wheel off

Me & Darryl
Getting the Hub of the wheel

Caroline asked if she could help
I would love a cup of tea darling, I haven't had one all day

Best I could do
With the stuff we had to clean up with

The Beach
At Cape HillsBorough National Park

kooki
As soon as dinner was on Kooki arrived.