15th October 2012 "On The Road Again"

Well after almost 4 weeks in Sydney we are finally back on the road...but not without more problems..

We left Camden on the 15th October,on what we knew would be a very long day, as we had to fly to the Sunshine Coast where my brother Derek picked us up and drove us to Gympie, approx 100 kms.. Once there we picked up our 5th Wheeler again and headed back down the 100km to Cottontree Caravan Park which is at Maroochydore ...

Once nearing the area we missed a turn off and ended up on a narrow winding road, where it was impossible to turn around and go back... So we followed the road, which had some very very steep hills... John made the comment that he didn't think the truck was pulling as good as it normally does... After climbing our 3 rd very steep hill the truck decided that it didn't want to do this anymore.... And stopped... And nothing John did could convince it to go further... So here we are very tired after a very very long day..me 2 days out of hospital so not feeling the best and stuck on a very very steep hill going nowhere ....Clutch smelling like it's on fire... !!!

We called the Iveco Emergency Service and they were very good, lucky for us an Iveco repairers was not too far away, they promptly came out and after some discussion it was decided that we would have to be towed.... 5th wheeler and all....

They were able to tow us to the top of the hill, and then the mechanic and the tow truck escorts us to the Iveco yard... where we had to leave them for the night... thank goodness my brother Derek lived close by and was able to come and get us again.... And put us up for the night...what a nightmare....

Returned to the yard the next morning...they wanted to take it to the weigh bridge to get it weighed to work out what was what with the diff etc...John drove it there with the mechanic.... after we took the trailer to the caravan park and parked it and he took the truck back to the yard to be fixed. As long as we didn't find any hills it was ok.

The outcome is that apparently when we purchased the truck the diff ratio was not correct to pull the weight of the trailer... so it was changed to a bigger diff..... BUT they are now saying that the people at Newcastle that changed the diff didn't put a big enough one in so therefore it's now burnt the clutch out... And because it's an application that has been changed on the Truck it's not covered by Iveco warranty... So they are all fighting over who is going to pay for all this work... Hope it's not us

Trucks been in for repair for a 10 days now and still don't know when we are getting it back... Grrrr