RV FEATURE
If you ’ re as passionate as we are about seeing the country , you ’ ll inevitably find yourself travelling on remote gravel roads . And it ’ s here where the saying “ the more remote you go , the better prepared you need to be ” rings loud and true . Should you find yourself in the middle of nowhere with things having gone wrong , the likelihood of getting immediate assistance is low .
Phone reception could be nonexistent as well , and that could mean the cost of getting someone to come and help will not be cheap . In fact , you could be looking at upwards of a few thousand dollars . While fully servicing your setup before each trip will no doubt help prevent breakdowns and failures , it is nearly impossible to foresee every conceivable breakdown . That leads us to the question of what spare parts you should carry for your setup .
We ’ ve found that by equipping toolboxes with a few power tools , some hand tools , plus a few bits and pieces from the hardware store , there ’ s a fair chance we can make a bush-style repair . We ’ re talking the type of repair that ’ s good enough to keep you going so you ’ re not up for big bucks to get rescued . The aim here is to get yourself going to where a permanent fix can be made .
Cutting the bracket to size .
Here ' s an example of a bush fix using some basic things we had with us when a water tank strap broke on our camper trailer on the Kimberley ’ s infamous Gibb River Road . Surprisingly , this type of failure isn ’ t as uncommon as you might think . For us , our circumstances could have been quite different if we were unable to get ourselves out of this pickle .
DISASTER STRIKES
While daily maintenance checks of our vehicle and trailer are an important routine for us , it was during a water crossing where we noticed one of our camper trailer ’ s water tank straps was swinging in the breeze .
Taking a closer look , we saw the welded bracket bolting attachment had fatigued and sheared off . We knew there was no way of reattaching it without first removing the broken welded bolt and putting a new one in its spot . We were lucky that the second bracket was still in place .
/ 55