[Private_collector]

With the weather finally cooling down, it shouldn't be too long before I resume work on the engine. It should come along fairly quickly.

What I really wanted to write about here, was an incident which unfolded weekend before last. I had driven the truck into town, to do some work at my Mothers place, and on the trip home I had some significant misfortune. My Father was an excellent driver for most of his life (except last 6 mths), and had instilled in me his mantra of plan for events before they occur. This way of thinking literally saved my life a handful of years ago, when a modern vehicle (nearly new) I was driving had a malfunction of the throttle electronics and continued to gather speed after overtaking, to the point where I stopped looking at the speedo around 155km/h. Long story short, I'm still here thanks to Fathers philosophy. He had passed away several years prior, and I couldn't thank him, unfortunately.

Now back to recent weekend. I'm travelling home from town, on the Bruce hwy, which is really quite narrow in places. Not to mention uneven surface, and frequent potholing. In the heat of summer, you can see the tar melting in places, and a quick look under the sills of your car confirms where it has gone to. As such, the road surfacein hot weather is rather conducive to holding foreign objects, whereas it may otherwise allow them to be flicked to the side. I suspect the surface type and 'stickyness' on the day, contributed to my misfortune. I'm always mindful of holding up traffic, putting along in the truck at around 85-90km/h, so make a rule of taking an alternative back road to/from town, which allows me to avoid the highway for perhaps 40% of the total trip distance. That road is Harvey Siding Rd. It has a number of poor quality concrete paved causeways, and in order to maintain sufficient speed to climb the rises after each one, I hit them at speed sufficiently enough to bounce me clean out of my seat. I'm used to it, and always try to find the least subsided portion of the worst sections. Sometimes I have more success than others, and on the day I thought I did quite well in that regard. Having turned from Harvey Siding onto the highway, I made as much speed as possible, because there is a sweeping curve where highway traffic would come up behind me very quickly before they can see im even there. After 30 to 60 seconds highway travel, I begin to feel something unusual occuring. My truck is diesel, and the symphony of noise is ever present, but I notice an almost imperceptible change in sound. While processing this in my mind, I then begin to notice another bizarre change. The steering has a very slight wander, over and above the norm. I'm now on a recently repaved section of road that, while newly replaced, leaves me with nowhere to go in case of emergency, due to the 45 degree slant of terrain beyond the road edges. With the wander slowly worsening, I begin to look for next available place to come to a safe stop, while simultaneously working though in my mind exactly what the hell is happening. I now feel very vulnerable, in a vehicle with no safety systems beyond the crude lap-belt seatbelt.....which I begin tightening with one hand. My first consideration, having never had this experience before, was 'I wonder if I have broken a spring end' that is now obvious at the 'higher' speed of highway travel. In the following 10 seconds I would become completely aware of the true nature of my dilema. The truck is now 'steering' from both front AND the rear. Every slight correction in steering is met with an equal and opposite correction from rear end of the vehicle, making directional stability a fading memory. By this time I no longer have consideration for traffic behind me, and am slowing down as quickly as possible. At this point, I also check the seatbelt another time, mentally picturing the truck taking to the ditch at speeds, and it's not an image I encourage as reality. With around 200-300mtrs travel still between the now slewing vehicle and a side road where I can safely stop, it all comes to a crescendo. The right rear tyre rapidly completes it's now obvious deflation, and I have resolution to the "what the..." question. I'm now down to around 35-40km/h, though I must say that is only a guess, as I have other, more pressing, things to worry about than looking at the speedo. The noise of a tyre turning, totally bereft of pressure, is very disconcerting. In other words, it's a dreadful noise, and not a overly settling physical feeling either.

I'm now at full stop, safely off the highway, but close enough still to feel the rush of air with each heavy vehicle that screams past. I disembark gingerly, to examine the damage. One very flat tyre, right rear side. No problem, I have a spare, a jack, and spanners. I curse the trucks previous owner, who engineered the retaining assembly of the rear-of-cab mounted spare tyre, to the extent that it would remain securely in place following a direct nuclear strike. Finally I remove the tyre. It is one of those that nobody else (including me) seems able to install on the type of rim it is clearly seated to. I take little time to wonder about this, because it's a VERY warm day, I'm 20 minutes from home, and I just want this journey to be over. I remove the bottle jack from the cab, and get my toolbox out from one of the many lockable storage compartments on the rear body. It's at this point that I discover I do not have the correct size spanner for the wheel nuts. With a new appreciation for mobile telephones, I phone my Wife to come retrieve me. She doesn't answer, and I have a mental image of her mowing the lawn, which would later prove to have been the case. In disgust, I leave a message for her, and formulate another plan. I phone our next door neighbour, who promptly answers but is not actually at home. She is, in fact, almost 2000km from home, in Darwin, Northern Territory. She phones her housemate, who IS at home, and that lady manages to catch my Wifes attention. Mrs B then rings me, and begins the drive to come to my rescue. I accompany her home, thoroughly enjoying the airconditioning during the trip, and get more appropriate tools and my trolley jack. The bottle jack could have proven to be fatal, as the road surface the truck is on has a significant camber, and the pumping handle was only very short. This would have meant I needed to be UNDER the truck to pump it up. STUFF THAT! Besides, I would have been fried by the road surface heat itself.

My Wife and I return to the truck, and I have no trouble undoing the wheel nuts. It is obvious that previous owner had applied a type of anti-cease to each one. God bless him. I remove the flat tyre, and install the spare. Wheel nuts finger tightened, I lower the vehicle. Then I see a sight which makes my heart sink. The spare tyre........is half flat! Having planned for this possibility, thanks to Dads teachings, I had checked that my 12 volt air compressor was in the boot of the car BEFORE we left home for the return to the truck. With a certain 'take that, universe' smugness, I open the compressors carry case, and have yet another sinking feeling. A vital part of the compressor is missing, having been removed, by me, for use with another compressor of same type, to inflate the tyres on my ride-on mower........several weeks prior. It had completely slipped my mind to return it from whence it came. After sending Mrs B home again, to get the missing part, I settle into the cab for the 45-50 minute round trip waiting period. With the vital part now available, the tyre is inflated and I finally get home. The journey that SHOULD have taken 40min, has now taken almost three and a half hours.

I won't dare drive the truck without a spare, and will arrange that as soon as possible. The original tyre may be salvagable. It's copped a whacking, but didn't come apart, so i'll get it inspected. The silver lining, if there is one, is that the spare tyre tread pattern really does look good. I just need another four of them onto rims, and they will look grand.

Foot Note: The truck now has a greatly improved quantity of suitable tools, safely secured in one of the rear lockers. Tomorrow, I hope to purchase another compressor, especially for keeping in the truck.

Apologies for any spelling mistakes in the above ramblings. It's late. I'm tired. And I'm too lazy to proof read anything tonight. Buenos noches!