Well over the last 5 1/2 months we have had a few issues that have slowed us down, but given that we have covered nearly 30,000 kms and a large percentage of this was off the bitumen, we have been pretty lucky.

A part from the delivery issues like the trailer being nearly a week late, the fact that it only had one spare wheel carrier, the hubs on the trailer did not match the Subaru, it only had a 4KG gas bottle holder instead of a 9KG holder, the front wall of the annex was not ready, the zip on the Awning roof was damaged, so when the front wall was delivered to Byron Bay, it would not stay on and there was no rear door in the tent, we have had these other issues. 

The first problem we had was when the bike rack holder tore off the back of the trailer. given that we were only at Nambucca Heads, and the most outrageous think we had done was go over a speed bump, this was a little bit of a worry for an off road Trailer. We had to stay in Nambucca Heads an extra two days to get it fixed on Monday morning. The reason this happened was that the idiot who put it on must have no idea of physics, as the Box section was only welded to a thin piece of frame. Here is a close up picture. 

The next issue was the journey over to Fraser Island, before the suspension was raised. First we took the wrong road and went over a sand track that is not maintained and had very deep wheel ruts, this meant we got bogged just before reaching the safety of the east beach, we were easily towed out. on the way back (over the same track) we collect a log through the front air intake, which resulted in a broken front bumper, and a bit of damage to the Air-conditioning condenser.

We had the car lifted the next day, and headed off to Cania Gorge. As we drove towards Gingin, I called Bob Jane T Mart, where the wheel alignment had been done that morning to enquire about the pulling to the left, they explained it away as "radial pull", and that switching the tyres from left to right would alleviate the problem.

Things went reasonably smoothly until we decided to get the additional Spare wheel holder put on the trailer, the hubs changed over to match the car and a set of matching wheels with All Terrain tyres in Townsville. 

After hunting around and finding a set of Toyota Camry hubs, then a set of Forrester wheels and four Bridgestone Dueller A/Ts, we even found a man to do the job, so we headed off to Magnetic Island for three days while the work was done. 

The problems started when the engineer could not attach the hubs to the trailer as the trailer has a solid axle and the hubs could not accommodate this, so on the phone Terry arranges to return the hubs to the wrecker, cancel 3 of the four wheels and tyres and asks for the spare wheel carrier to be completed to carry the fourth wheel. 

We returned early to make sure all was okay and to return the hubs, only to find that the work had not started on the trailer, and the hubs had been dismantled and had to be reassembled before they could be returned. we finally got the trailer back late that afternoon.

We didn't have anymore problems until Cobbolt Gorge when a noise developed on our way over the corrugated roads. When we got there Terry jacked the car up to find that the bolts that connect the control arms on the front suspension to the chassis were undone about four turns. he tightened them up and checked all of the other bolts that had been tampered with during the suspension raising. 

He then noticed that the suspension on the trailer was collapsed down against the chassis, so on our way out we stopped at Georgetown, and had a mechanic look at it. 

The initial diagnosis was that the springs had gone soft so mark at Complete Campsite was called, and we were palmed off to the spring manufacturer, who then wanted to send springs from Sydney Georgetown, which would take about 4 days, problem was this was Friday, so they wouldn't be there until Thursday next week. While this discussion was taking place, the mechanic measured up the geometry of the trailer and discovered that the springs were attached at different positions on each side. 

This started all the alarm bells ringing as we had paid extra for a trailer that was supposedly aligned on a computer jig. The spring guy then asked the mechanic to measure the distance between the front and back of the springs. it was then discovered that not only were they different, but they were both wrong, and the hangers were welded too far forward.

The suspension need to be cut off and re welded as per the manufacturers specification. Obviously the same idiot who welded on the bike rack holder did the suspension as well.

We got back on the road and stooped for dinner at about 5:30 at Croydon, only to leave our pots and pans sitting at the picnic spot in town, we then had the most stressful 152 kms, driving to Normanton at night. We saw hundreds of Kangaroos and walleroos, 3 feral pigs and a huge white Brahman bull.

We followed all of this up with three flat tyres and a broken jack in three days between Lawn Hill  and Borroloola. luckily we got the first fixed in Adels Grove, at the entrance to the national park as two were on the trailer and one on the car. this would not have been a problem if the hubs matched as they were ordered to do, or the trailer had been supplied with the light truck tyres rather than the 10 year old perished crap they supplied instead.

While getting the tyre repaired in Daly Waters, the guy commented on the wear pattern. by the time we had reached Kakadu the left front was through to canvas on the inside shoulder. This was the result of the dodgy wheel alignment performed in Maryborough after the suspension lift, so we had now destroyed a set of tyres in 30,000kms instead of 40 - 45k.

 On arrival in Darwin we booked the car into another Bob Jane, and explained the situation, they too agreed that "radial pull" was the likely reason, so the wheels were realigned and new tyres ordered. The results of the wheel alignment surprised and alarmed us, as we were told by the "professionals" at Bob Jane that the left front strut was bent.

This sent terry in to a frenzy, heading off to the local Subaru Dealer to find out how the strut of an all wheel drive car, that has been driven on sand and corrugated dirt and not on rocky or unduly bumpy roads, could possibly have a bent strut. The warranty manager informed first and foremost that they would take no responsibility as the Lift Kit voided the warranty (which is debateable) but they doubted it was bent. they put it up on the hoist and could not see where an impact had bent the strut, so sent me around to City Tyre Services, who they use for alignments to check the alignment.

After half an hour, the guy called and told me the car was ready and that the alignment was all fixed, and there was no bent strut. It appears that Bob Janes "professionals" do not even know that the Subaru Outback has a camber adjustment in the wheel alignment. 

We then booked the car in to City Tyres for the new tyres, to machine the brakes and to check the suspension for a creaking noise in the left front, they were also going to fit new wheels and tyres to the trailer. We also dropped the trailer off to We're about engineering, to have the swing away bike rack made and the awning roof to have the zip replaced so the front wall won't fall down, while we were in Noosa for the Jazz festival.

On our return, the man at We're about had done a magnificent job of the swing a way bar, the car had 5 new tyres and new brake pads, the trailer had 2 new wheels and tyres that would be able to be swapped with the cars in an emergency, but the zip man had not even moved the awning from where Terry put it two weeks earlier, and the creeek from the front end was still there.

Anyway, we headed off to Litchfield National Park and down to Douglas hot springs and Butterfly Gorge. On our way out of Butterfly Gorge, the creek seemed to move to the right hand side. 

We headed down the road to Katherine, on the way we were forced to top up the car with standard unleaded instead of premium, so to be safe we put in 30 litres to do the 140kms as the fuel economy standard is BAD!!! but we didn't realise how bad. The fuel light came on with 40kms to go which under normal premium would be heaps, but because we had just chewed through half a tank in 100kms we were very very worried.

We made it into Katherine on fumes, only to have a car pull out in front of us as we were turning into the gas station, so we hit the breaks and there was a loud pop and the clunk of metal hitting metal. On close inspection, the problem with the control arm bolts had reared its head again and the captive nut inside the chassis had torn free due to the earlier fatigue.

This was repaired in two days at the expense of John from Six Star Motors in Maryborough, who put the lift kit in, and also asked them to fix the left side while they were at it.

We hit the road on the following Monday, only to get 5 kms from Katherine to hear a clunk from under the car. Paranoia was at its peak, so Terry got out on the side of the main highway and climbed under the car to see what he could see, but found nothing. By luck, as he was getting back in the car, he heard a faint his from the right rear, and found a bolt through the brand new tyre, other wise it would have been torn apart at 100km/h while trying to stop the trailer.

The very next day on leaving Limestone Gorge another metal on metal noise started from the left rear, so after arriving in Kunanura we tried to find a garage so we could put it up on the hoist to locate the problem, after visiting every mechanic in town, and finding they all wanted two weeks before they would even look at it, things looked grim.

A little bit of bush mechanics came in to play. While Margaret drove 30km/h along a bumpy dirt road, Terry lay across the floor in the back with his head out the door looking under the car. It worked and we tightened up three more loose bolts.

Off to the Bungle Bungles and after130 kms of very windy roads and 14 river crossings, we emerged back on the main Highway, to hear the familiar creek back in the left hand side.

We were now faced with the choice, turn right and face the possibility of two weeks in Kunanura waiting for a slack arse mechanic, or even worse have something break on the Gibb River road, OR turn left and travel 950kms to Broome. 

It was a unanimous decision, we would both rather be stuck in Broome for two weeks than Kunanura. We made it after a stop in Halls Creek for the night then breaking all our travel records by doing 750kms in one day (thank you Benjamin), then 5 kms from Broome, a kangaroo jumped out in front of us, we hit the brakes and the left side let go.

Saturday in Broome, Monday is a public holiday, and we have no car. Thankfully whilst in an internet cafe in Katherine a week earlier Margaret had upgraded our NRMA membership to Plus. We were now entitled to a rental car and $600 worth of accommodation, so off to Bali Hai for three nights of luxury.

So apart from having to deal with unprofessionally motivated trailer man and the mistake made by the suspension man, we have had very few problems in all.