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Rock the top end |
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Damage & Breakages
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Windscreen Rock into the windscreen, watched it all the way to impact directly in front of me just above head level. Just a big chip and star with the windscreen staying together. Happened on day 2 on a section of the Great Central Road that was totally covered in stone, about the size golf balls. Current status—Still there, no worse. |
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Snorkel Driving on a very corrugated section of the Mereenie Loop (NT) the head of the snorkel vibrated itself up and off the snorkel, coming off as we were driving. A quick stop to go and retrieve then put back on with the clamps much tighter.... Current status—All good. |
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Camper Battery Noticed the battery was not lasting very long and we were getting fluctuation in the voltage. Had it checked out once in town and a cell had collapsed, so a new battery was then put in. Current status—All good. |
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Suspension air bags—rear When leaving Kakadu found that the left rear air bag in the suspension would not inflate, these are to help support the weight of the camper and keep the car level when towing. Took a week for one of the authorized warranty repairers in Darwin to even look at it, then after 10min we got a call to say come and pick up the car, got back to Pedders in Darwin to be told by Dean that they were not going to fix it, he’d had a gut full of fixing other people’s stuff ups, that the bags fitted were the wrong size and not fitted properly… A call the PolyAir about this who then found another company TJM who would do the job, straight around to book in, and an initial look then arranged with PolyAir for an entire kit to be shipped up to cover whatever the problem was. Car was looked at and fixed the day the parts arrived (overnight airbag to Darwin takes a couple of days!). Found that the bags fitted originally by ORE were the incorrect size and the hole drilled for the airline was also too small, so both bags in the left and right rear were replaced with the correct size. Current status—All good. |
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Sheared wheel studs When at El Questro we noticed a knocking from the left rear wheel, happening after water crossings and then disappearing after a while until in water again. The mechanic at El Questro checked it out and could not find any problems, scratching his head. So next morning we packed up and headed off as planned, we got about 30/40km on the Gibb River Road until a shake that was not the corrugations was felt, stopped and found 2 wheel studs sheared and 3 remaining wheel nuts just on, with the right rear wheel having all nuts just loose. Flagged down a passing car, got a ride to Emma Gorge (10min drive) and arranged a tow back to Kununurra. It appears the wheel nuts were not fully tightened in Darwin when repairing the Suspension.. The guys at Top End towing were great. Current status—All good. |
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Camera When taking photo’s on a boat tour of Geiki Gorge there was an odd noise, then another clanging noise and the photo taken was only a partial shot. Took of the lens to see something loose so quickly put it back on and sat back for the rest of the boat ride spitting chips. Had a better look later to find the main mirror had come off, looking on the internet found that this was a known problem in hot and/or humid conditions for which the camera in the US had been recalled and repaired, though in Aus Canon will fix for free (not including postage) and it takes up to 4 weeks…. Called Canon speaking to the service desk and tech support, explaining the situation, knowing it was 4 dots of glue that had broken down I wanted to know what glue I could use, no luck other than being told it was canon glue! So asked about using doubled sided tape, eventually they said to try though best solution is to send it to them.. Took a couple of towns to find double sided tape, tied it and it worked for a few shots then came off, so I tried more and changed some settings on the camera for how it takes the shots to reduce the shock on the mirror (though I have to press the shutter button twice to take photos). This has worked so far and is still holding, though having to press the shutter button twice (once lifts the mirror, the second takes the shot) makes it really difficult with wildlife. Will send it off for repairs once home, not happy Canon. Current status— Double sided tape holding. |
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Video Camera Hard Disk in the Video Camera storing all the footage has given out, all the vibrations have eventually got the better of the camera. Happened during the flight on the Trike in Broome. Luckily we have been copying the footage onto an external hard disk and DVD’s, though still lost some footage from whale watching and a good night at Karen’s (some classic footage lost). Also lucky in that the video camera has a secondary memory card which we have 4gb on, so we are now recording direct to the memory card. With some luck they can retrieve footage from the damaged disk though not holding out much hope. Current status— Running on memory card, hard disk still broken. Now in the shop for repairs |
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Spare Wheel Carrier A rattling had been coming from the rear door for a while, on return home finally found where. A nut holding the bracket behind the spare wheel that holds the mount onto the rear swing door was loose, easy tightened, though when I took the spare wheel off to tighten the offending nut I noticed another problem, another bolt further across that supports the carrier was totally missing and behind that the metal had fatigued, splitting out from the bolt hole in 4 lines, one joining to another nearby hole for wires. Not good, the bolt has totally pulled through the metal of the door. Current status— No rattling but the metal cracks and splits remain, waiting on a quote and options when the car goes into the panel beaters soon for repairs from a break in (the week before we went away). |