When I packed the CT away after drying it out after my first trip away I thought that all I needed to do was load up base of the trailer with my weekend needs and just take off. My house sitter was all lined up. The trip to Island Reach at Imbil was part of the Australian Camper Trailer Club Queensland branch regular get togethers. I had joined this informal club via the internet and it would be a good chance to meet the local members. There were about 20 plus CTs coming to the meet. The only problem was that in Queensland we have cyclones in summer.
On the Monday before the meet a cyclone, called Marcia, formed in the Coral Sea and tracked south along the Queensland Coast and was expected to make landfall at Yeppoon. It was only a Category 1 cyclone at the time. Over the next couple of days it developed into a Category 5 cyclone, the highest, so even a few hundred kilometres south on the Sunshine Coast we began to batten down the hatches. By Wednesday we were having very heavy rain, the Yabba Creek through Imbil began to rise and the Island Reach Camping Ground evacuated. The ACTC notified us that the meet was cancelled.
The Island Reach Facebook page shows photos as the creek flooded the camping ground but as quickly as it flooded it went away and by the following Monday they were open for business again.
The Sunshine Coast was spared the worst of Marcia's fury but further north she did tremendous damage with many homes destroyed.
I decided that I would use the following weekend as a solo camping trip to try out my 12 volt electrical system and solar charging system. I booked an unpowered site at Island Reach and and re-booked my house sitter and began to load up the CT when I found a major problem. The hydraulic line to the CT disk brakes had failed and there was a pool of hydraulic fluid on my garage floor.
Perhaps I should explain that when towed behind my Jazz the CT does not require brakes as I can legally tow up to 500Kg without them. I had opted for the brakes as if I decided to sell the CT the brakes would make it easier to sell to bike motorbike owners as they need brakes. I also had noticed that I could feel the brakes working when coasting down the range to Tewantin thus lightening the load on the Jazz's brakes on long descents.
I took the wheels of the CT and took some photos and sent them off to the CT manufacturer, Steve, via email. After reviewing the photos and inspecting another CT being built at his factory he agreed that it was a manufacturing fault. As I was towing the CT using a car the trailer axle was mounted above the leaf springs to give a better towing angle with respect to the car's tow bar. Unfortunately he had manufactured the axle assembly with the disk brake calipers mounted for a motor cycle set up. This meant that the left/near side caliper was mounted very near the ground. At first I thought that something had caught the hydraulic line due to the low caliper but it was actually a failure of the line because it was under too much tension. The main line was mounted above the axle and the LHS caliper was mounted below the axle and the line to it was too short. It actually failed in my garage as I heaved the handbrake on after the last trip.
Anyway Steve said that the only proper solution was to replace the axle with the calipers both welded at 90 degrees to the axle. He is sending me a new axle and hydraulic line for assembly by a local mechanic. He also said that if I locked out the brakes using the supplied lock out mechanism I would have no problems towing the CT.
So at Friday lunchtime Jenny came to house sit and I set off to Imbil.
I was fortunate to get the last available site down by the creek and after unloading the CT set up the tent section in record time - under an hour!
The setting up of the annex met a problem early on. The annex fits to the the tent with a big zip and then a tent pole is pushed through a spreader bar, the annex canvas and the tent canvas using a spike on the end of the pole. It had fallen out! Note this junction is at the peak of the tent and to work on it I needed my step ladder.
I didn't have a spare pole but finally it managed to insert a small screwdriver through the holes in the tent and annex canvas. then I lined up the s holes in the spreader pole and the tent pole and wiggle the screwdriver into them. Pushing up the tent pole to it full height held everything in place. It had taken an hour in the full sunlight, on a hot afternoon perched onto of a step ladder and I was knackered.
I put up the rest of the annex poles and spreader bars when the lady from a nearby CT being corrected skillfully and quickly by she and her husband came across and advised me to stop and have a drink. I got a beer out of my fridge and joined them for a chat in the shade of their CT. We introduced ourselves. They were Triff and Steve and by sheer chance I had stumbled on Triff's and her sisters camping blog, The tent, the trailer and the caravan. She was the trailer, her sister the caravan was arriving next day. There was a tent with them but not the one in the blog. Anyway I was invited to join them for a camp oven roast dinner on Saturday night.
I put up the walls of the annex without any problems and installed the floor for the first time. I set up my camp table/kitchen and went for a shower before settling down for a rest before dinner.
I had set up my solar panels to charge the CT's 12 volt battery and set up my 12 volt led light for the evening. I had a nice bottle of wine with sausages and onions cooked on my little camp stove with a pre-prepared coleslaw and potato salad.
After dinner I wrote up my blog entry for the first CT trip and was in bed by 9.00pm.
I slept like a log which even and old man's bladder couldn't disturb. I was was woken by the sunrise streaming into my bedroom. After a quick dash to the loo in my pajamas I dressed and took a walk around the camping ground before breakfast. The creek was beautiful. My next door neighbour by the creek went out fishing in his kayak and caught two nice fish. Triff took a photo which she put on their Facebook page . I had a light breakfast and washed up everything from the night before.
I checked my battery's charge and repositioned the solar panel before setting out for a long walk around Imbil. I ended up at the local pub for a beer and there were Triff and Steve so I joined them.
I had restful afternoon and snoozed for a while before meeting the caravan crew and other Triff and Steve's friends who had arrived for dinner. Over a fer beers Steve set up the camp fire and there were soon three camp ovens cooking roast lamb, roast beef and a ham. Triff had cooked a sweet on the camp fire earlier in the day which is shown on the Facebook page.
I provided a pate', a nice vintage cheddar cheese and some water biscuits to go with the meal and we had a great evening before I collapsed in bed about 10.00pm.
I had another good night. Triff and Steve packed up and went home as tomorrow was a working day.
I checked my battery and reset the solar panels before going for a drive to Maleny for lunch. This a beautiful dive and Maleny was Margaret's favourite hinterland town.
After a restful afternoon I used the camp kitchen barbeque to cook a steak for dinner with the remains of my salad and a half bottle of red wine. I had another early night.
After another good sleep I had a light breakfast before having a final walk and packing up.
I was back home by midday. Jenny had gone off to work as a volunteer at the local information centre. Louis was quite pleased to see me.
It had been a lovely restful weekend and I had made new friends.
My 12 volt system was on its limits after 3 nights but I survived.
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| The righthandside/good caliper |
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| The lefthandside/bad brake - the caliper is underneath. Note the hydraulic line resting on the jack. |
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| A blurry picture of the LHS caliper and the hydraulic line in mid air. |
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| Island Reach from my CT |
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| Island Reach from my CT |
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| Imbil |
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| My campsite |
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