Cotton Tree

So there I was, happily touring about in NSW visiting people and places, when the wheels started falling off, so to speak. It's like -bad things happen in threes. Didn't think much of it when the dashboard fault lamp indicated the hydraulic switch that controls the park brake was malfunctioning: had replaced 3 over the years (this vehicle does not have a hand or foot brake, as such, but a button on the dashboard). Always travel with spares so pulled over and replaced the switch. Not hard, just a bit of groveling under the MH, spanner in hand.

But, about 2000km later, when the indicator came on again and the park brake would not release, I knew things were far more serious. Luckily I was stationary, at the time of failure, or I very soon would have been in a cloud of tyre smoke! Wasn't hard to see, from all the fluid sprayed everywhere under the MH, that the park brake hydraulic actuator had blown a seal. Won't go into details but I needed to be off road whilst I made the repairs.

Disconnect the park brake. Express trip back to Cotton Tree, chocking the wheels whenever I needed to stop. On-line research and ordering of parts. Sitting around waiting for deliveries. Installing the new bits. Cleaning other bits. Testing. Devising a monitoring circuit so I get a bit of a heads up should it start to happen again. Testing. Shakedown trip.

That's where I'm at, at the moment, the shakedown trip to make sure all is good. Touring around Kandanga and Amamoor for a couple of nights. It's also the best way I know of to work out what things need to go back in the MH, (what have I forgotten) before setting off on a new extended adventure.

She, my motorhome, is like her owner: not all the bits are working as good as they did when first coming out of the factory.