We Were Just Going to Hang Around Camp Today

After everything that had happened at Kalbar, we'd finally moved on.

Not far.

About 20 kilometres down the road to Aratula.

We'd found a great little free camp behind the pub. There was hardly anyone else around, Wal and Cheech had plenty of room, and after the flooding, weighing and near-demolition of the caretaker's office, we were ready for a quiet day.

No travelling.

No big plans.

No dramas.

We were just going to hang around camp.

Which, by now, really should have been our first warning.

First, the jockey wheel situation

After the weighing debacle, we'd been left without a usable jockey wheel.

That afternoon we'd managed to get an emergency replacement from Mitre 10, but it wasn't rated highly enough for Maximus.

Our mate Robert, who was staying in the van near us, had lent us his 8000kg jack so we could use that as extra support for the night.

The following morning, we went and bought a properly rated 350kg jockey wheel.

So we were sorted.

But we also already owned something much better.

Our Gator electric jack.

We'd used it on Loki and had kept it when we changed vans.

The only problem was that we hadn't been able to mount it onto Maximus because it needed a different mounting plate.

So we'd had a new plate fabricated.

All we needed to do was pick it up and fit the Gator.

One little job.

Easy.

😂

There was also another small complication

At the time, we weren't travelling with just Wal and Cheech.

We were also looking after our son's dog.

And let's just say...

camp life was not really his thing.

This dog liked to chew.

A lot.

He'd already chewed through two leads.

We'd put up a dog pen.

He'd already escaped from that.

And at one point he'd chewed through one of the flyscreens on Maximus.

I discovered this when I found him hanging out of the side of the van, head and front legs through the screen, apparently attempting to complete the rest of his escape.

Excellent.

🤣

So leaving all three dogs unattended while we went gallivanting around Boonah wasn't really an option.

Col stayed at camp with the dogs.

And I headed off in Shaun by myself to collect the new mounting plate.

Shouldn't I take those mirrors off?

Because I wasn't towing Maximus, Shaun didn't need his little removable towing mirrors.

I looked at them and thought they probably should come off.

So I said to Col:

“Shouldn't we take the towing mirrors off?”

Col?

“Nah, they'll be right.”

I gave him The Look.

You know the one.

The look that says:

I have expressed my concern, you have chosen to ignore it, and I would now like it officially recorded that whatever happens next is not my fault.

But Col was adamant.

They'd be right.

Fine.

Off I went.

And, to be fair...

they were right.

For now.

😂

Back at camp

I collected the plate, came back to Aratula and we started what should have been the very simple job of fitting our existing Gator jack onto Maximus.

Except the bolts didn't fit.

The original bolts were too big for the holes in the new plate.

Okay.

We'll use the bolts that came with the Gator.

Except...

they were too long.

Of course they were.

There was also a bit of manoeuvring, discussion and general stuffing around working out exactly how the new plate was supposed to sit.

At one point we had it fitted.

Excellent.

Except we'd put the bloody thing on...

the wrong way around.

Off it came again.

Our relaxing day around camp was going beautifully.

We need bolts

We needed different bolts.

Col's solution was to drive to Bunnings.

Which was about 50 minutes away.

I looked at him somewhat bewildered.

We had literally just come from Boonah.

There was a Mitre 10 in Boonah.

Perhaps...

and I was just throwing ideas around here...

we could try Boonah Mitre 10 first?

😂

So off Col went.

Back to Boonah.

In Shaun.

With the towing mirrors still attached.

Remember those.

“Nah, they'll be right.”

Col was cruising along the highway when a truck went past.

The driver's-side towing mirror started to wobble.

Then it came loose.

Col saw it happening and tried to get the window down so he could grab it.

He didn't quite make it.

Off it went.

Onto the road.

And in his rear-view mirror, Col watched it break into several pieces.

No more towing mirror.

Somewhere back at camp...

The Look had just been vindicated.

🤣🤣🤣

I feel there are certain moments in a marriage where you don't actually need to say anything.

This was one of them.

Right. We have bolts. What now?

Eventually Col returned from Boonah and we were back in business.

Correct bolts.

Mounting plate.

Gator.

Tools.

Surely we'd exhausted the possible problems by now.

No.

Because one of the nuts we needed to remove was completely seized.

Wouldn't budge.

We tried.

And tried.

Nothing.

There were some blokes working on the roof of the pub nearby, so I wandered over and asked if we could borrow a hacksaw.

Instead, they offered me an angle grinder.

I looked at it.

Yep. That'll do it.

🤣

At this point our simple little Gator installation had escalated to borrowing power tools from blokes working on the roof of a pub.

And honestly, this sort of thing is becoming completely normal.

The angle grinder did the job.

Stubborn nut gone.

Back to work.

Finally...

Plate facing the correct direction.

Correct bolts.

Seized nut dealt with.

Gator in place.

We were getting somewhere.

There was just one more thing.

Power.

The Gator runs from an Anderson plug.

No problem.

Maximus has an Anderson plug that normally connects to Shaun when we're towing.

We plugged the Gator into it.

Nothing.

No power.

Seriously?

😂

After everything we'd been through just getting the bloody thing physically attached, now we couldn't even make it go up and down.

We tried to work out why the Anderson plug from Maximus wasn't supplying power to the jack.

And then, thankfully, we remembered we had an Anderson plug extension lead.

We could run that directly from Shaun to the Gator.

Plugged it in.

Power.

HALLE-FUCKING-LUJAH.

🤣

The Gator worked.

It was mounted.

It went up.

It went down.

Nobody had strained a phoo-phoo.

Maximus had an electric jack again.

Gatorgate was finally over.

So much for hanging around camp

Let's recap our nice, relaxing day.

I drove to Boonah to collect a fabricated mounting plate while Col stayed behind guarding three dogs, one of whom appeared determined to eat his way out of Maximus.

The bolts didn't fit.

The plate went on the wrong way.

Col nearly drove 50 minutes to Bunnings before I suggested the Mitre 10 that was considerably closer.

He ignored my advice about removing the towing mirrors.

A truck promptly relieved him of one.

A nut seized.

I went looking for a hacksaw and came back with an angle grinder borrowed from some blokes on a pub roof.

Then, after finally getting the Gator mounted, the Anderson plug wouldn't power it.

So we ran an extension from Shaun.

And somehow...

we got the bloody thing working.

All in a day's work.

😂

A few things we've learnt

There is apparently no such thing as a five-minute job on a caravan.

Boonah Mitre 10 should probably just issue us with staff badges.

Random people at camps and country pubs are absolute legends when you need a hand.

Always carry spare leads, plugs, bolts and whatever else you think you'll never need.

And perhaps most importantly...

If your wife looks at the towing mirrors and says:

“Shouldn't we take those off?”

And then gives you The Look...

Take.

The bloody.

Mirrors.

Off.

🤣

By the end of the day, though, we'd done it.

The Gator was finally mounted on Maximus.

The dogs were all still accounted for.

We had one fewer towing mirror.

And the quiet day we'd planned to spend doing absolutely bugger-all had somehow turned into another full-scale operation.

But Maximus was ready.

We were on the road.

And we were slowly making our way towards Hay, with Shaun's GVM upgrade waiting for us in Wagga.

At least...

that's the plan.

And by now, we really should know better.

❤️