Hard to believe but....

[Mrcoolabah1au]

Must have been george

[T1 Terry]

OK, a bit more of the story. The bus left on the truck at around 6:30pm, a quick packing of stuff into the big trailer and attach it to the Ford and off I went at around 9:30pm. Travelling through Wagga at around 1:30am and realised all the places I normally fuelled up at were closed, checked the trip computer and it said I would make it to Narrandera with 60km of fuel in reserve..... 10km out of Narrandera after a cough and splutter, no fuel and at this point I pictured the jerry can with the spare fuel still sitting in the patio at home, grrr.... Wait 2 hrs for the first rays of light, hitch into town, buy a jerry can, hitch back and we are on our way again, lost another 3 hrs so now the bus is 6hrs ahead of me as far as I know. Ring the driver at 7:30am to find he stopped the night in Hay, so he's only 160km ahead of me, not too bad.
Fairly uneventful till the fruit fly station on the SA border and a lady in the vehicle travelling behind me tells me I have been spraying them with bits of tyre from the left hand trailer wheel. A closer inspection reveals half the tyres tread is missing and I've been running on the steel belts.... and the mud guard is fairly mangled. Limp in 20km or so to Pinnaroo to get a new tyre as I'd left the spare at home leaning against the house (yet another item forgotten) an hr later I'm back on the road again, and the truck only beat me by 20 mins as he had to take a 30 min break at Tailem Bend, I must have been only mins behind him when the tyre let go Once the bus was unloaded, 3 hrs to get it on and about 20 secs to get it off, hadn't allowed long enough to pump up the air and the maxi brakes were locked off, lucky the engine cross member ploughed into the ground before I ran my trailer over and rammed it through the fence and the big water pipe out the back After that much fun I drove out to Dottie & George's for a bit of a claim down and they put me up for the night, bless their little cotton socks
After all the problems with the settlement not going through, Brian and Margaret had to make an express trip and drive all night, Margaret we running on empty about the same time as the Mazda was, just out of Lameroo, so a drive out there to pick her up and deliver her to the estate agent in Mannum, get that sorted and then get her settled back at the shed with Brian arriving not long after we reached Mannum. Brian and Margaret had a few medicines to settle the nerves while I went back to get the Mazda as that was our bedroom for the stay over here, leave the Ford on the side of the road and drive the Mazda back to Mannum. After a nights sleep Brian drove us back to Lameroo to collect the Ford.
Never a dull moment eh

[Dot]

To be continued

[pet-els]

So all that was normal.

PeterH

[Kelvin12]

Ah, just another day in the life of a bus converter eh Terry. You sometimes wonder how many things can go wrong don't you.

Dirk

[SteveW]

I feel a movie coming on!

[T1 Terry]

Ah, just another day in the life of a bus converter eh Terry. You sometimes wonder how many things can go wrong don't you.

Dirk

When nothing has gone wrong for the last 4 hrs you just know it's going to be a biggie when it does go wrong
More to the story to-night, and no I still haven't sorted the last problem yet Dottie

[Shirley]

Steve think it would be a laugh a minute comedy,

Hopefully all goes well from now Terry, New Year, new life in a new location best wishes to you both.

[supersparky]

And in the true spirit of adventure, never a backward step. Onward and upward T1, well done.
Oh, and Welcome to South Australia.

[T1 Terry]

Ok, next episode in the travel to Mannum saga At around the Wagga region Margaret rang to say the lights wouldn't come on, the Mazda had pulled this stunt before and I threatened to burn it and the lights magically came on, so that was about all I could suggest long distance. Brian and Margaret decided to call it a night and Margaret was following Brian back to a roadside stop and Bingo, the lights came back on There appeared to be no more issues that Margaret reported after that magic act so they carried on till the run out of fuel at Lameroo, but when I went to pick it up, it started, then all the gauges flicked on and off, then nothing, but the eng was still running, so I drove on back to Mannum, no brake lights, no indicators, nothing. When I got here it wouldn't turn off, Margaret then told me that the gauge flicking and not turning off had been happening on the trip over. The following morning, turn the key, nothing, check through the small fuses that link the house and start battery, blown fuse, cool, now there were dash lights and gauges, but nothing else. Pull the seat out, the alternator cable had come away from its tie down points and had burnt through on the exhaust manifold, tape that up and secure, still no go, crawl under neither where the battery originally lived, blown main 150 amp fuse.... Christmas day, where was I gunna find one of them. Dig through all the solar and battery fuse stuff, find an ANL fuse, I'm in a workshop with lots of gear, modify the fuse, bolt it in a and Bingo, the engine started.... but it still doesn't turn off..... can't fix all the bits in one day can you It still stops if you dump the clutch, good enough, off to Dottie & George's for Christmas