Don’t Forget to Pay the Rego, Jo!

So, here we are, back in Broken Hill. Why? I hear you ask. Well, as I mentioned I let the registration lapse on Chunky Bum and Broken Hill is the closest place we can re-register. Should be easy.

After a few phone calls Peter managed to find a garage that could provide us with a “Blue Slip” (which is actually a brown slip) and made an appointment for 8am on a Tuesday morning. Bright and early, we got to the garage, and then it began.

First up, our “Blue Slip” dude was fifteen minutes late, but that was OK. When he arrived, the first thing he asked was,

‘Where’s your weight certificate?’

We, of course, did not have a weight certificate, so he gave us directions to go and get one, and off we went.

That part was relatively easy, and half an hour later we were back at the garage. The dude looked at the weight cert and said,

              ‘Your rig’s too heavy for me. I can only do rigs up to two and a half ton. I’ll tell you where to go.’

He gave us more directions and…off we went. The next dude had a different problem.

He said, ‘Dunno why he sent you to me. Your rig’s too light for me, I only do rigs over eight ton!’

We must have looked desperate enough for him to take pity on us.

He said, ‘Show me your rig.’

He took some time to look Chunky Bum over, and said, ‘Yeah alright I’ll do it for you, but I’m telling you now, I can’t give you a blue slip ’cause you don’t comply with NSW regulations, you need a break-a-way switch battery monitor in your cab.’ He then went on in detail and told us how to install it, finishing with, ‘It’s easy enough mate , but I can’t do it. Get a break-away switch battery monitor fitted and come back here on Thursday, one o’clock.’

So, off we went. We tried three places before we found someone, ARB, who could supply and fit it for us but when Peter explained the instructions we were given, they said,

              ‘That won’t work!’

Ahh poop!

This led to hours of debate, do we install it the way it should be, or the way we were told to do it? In the end we decided to have it installed to our “Blue slip” dude’s spec. After all, he was the one who was going to give us the little bit of paper we needed to get registered. On the way home, just to be sure, we called into Service NSW to check if there was anything else we would need. They told us,

              ‘You need a NSW address, and we need proof that you can garage the van there.’

This revelation prompted a call to mum, whose address we were going to use. Of course, no problems there. Thank you, mammy.

Thursday came and we were up and ready. Peter hooked Chunky Bum up to Big Ears, and he headed to ARB for his 08:30 appointment. He hung around for an hour and a half then picked the van up at 10:00 and came back here. Here being the Broken Hill Racecourse, (that’s where we’re staying, very nice too,) where we waited for our 13:00 appointment with the “Blue slip” dude.

The ‘Blue slip’ dude checked out the work done, tested the break-away switch, and completed a thorough check of the van. That took about twenty minutes. He then took an hour and ten minutes to complete two, single sided, A4 forms, before giving us our “Blue Slip”.

From there we headed straight to NSW Service Center to get our registration, we weren’t confident of a successful visit, so we had everything possible crossed, just for luck. We needn’t have worried though, the actual application went very well and was quick. Within twenty minutes, we walked out the door, proud owners of a shiny yellow, NSW Licence plate.

The whole process from start to end, cost us eleven hours of our time, and cost a $1000.

See, easy!

See you out there somewhere

On tow and on the go!