South West Coast Part 1 – The troubling part

20th November 14th December

Readers beware.  Apart from a few photos of Ospreys, (must see so scroll down,) this is mostly a technical post, so lots of reading.

We ended up spending eight days back at the Fremantle village, and for a change everything went to plan. The car went in on Monday to get the front passenger side mud guard Replaced. Tom the mobile caravan repair guy (Tom isn’t his real name, it means The Original Mechanic) came out on the Tuesday to replace our bent axles. We had new tires fitted on the van on the Wednesday, and we picked up the car late Friday afternoon, just in time for Peter to take me out for my birthday dinner. Our wallet is a little lighter after all that, but we are pleased to have finally gotten everything fixed and we were on the road to explore the South West Coastline by the 27th November.

We were only twenty minutes from the caravan park when the brakes began to make an unpleasant sound. Peter hit the hazards, pulled over and called Tom who told us this was normal, the brakes were just settling in. So, we continued on our not so merry way.  Fifteen minutes after that, we pulled over again and Peter went around touching the hubs, which were hot, and the brake drums, which were very hot. We continued carefully to an overnight rest area at Blythewood, some 85 kms from Fremantle and decided to stay there that night. By this stage the brakes were squealing, and far too hot to touch.  We recorded the sound, called Tom back and again he said: “That’s normal!”

Well clearly it wasn’t, but we were halfway between Fremantle and our destination, so we decided to continue on the following day. We drove very carefully, cringing every time the brakes were engaged, pulling over frequently to cool them. It was a very stressful 73 km from Blythewood to Australind. When we pulled into the caravan park there we were greeted by a fellow traveler with,

“You got problems with your brakes there mate”.

Tell us something we don’t know. In fact, the brakes were actually working, but it sounded like metal on metal – not good, and when we stopped, we could clearly see the brake hubs had been hot enough to burn off the paint.

Anyway, a quick diversion from the brakes. We stayed at Australind for three nights. It was quite nice, not a holiday destination, mind you. The park was right on the main road, but across the road was the waterway, the facilities were dated, but clean and we don’t use them anyway. Despite the many bad reviews on Wiki Camps, it was as good a place as any to hole up.

We were able to get the kayaks wet while we were there. Just a couple of minutes from the caravan park was the Collie River. We met a lovely couple on the river who drew our attention to an Osprey nest. Apparently, the nest has been there for many years and, presumably, used by the same family each year.

I hadn’t taken my good camera with me, and the Osprey nest was too far away or me to get any decent shots, but Peter being who he is, decided I needed to get close. So, after our time on the water, we packed up and he told me he would find the location of the nest for me. I am so pleased to say he succeeded.

The mother was so protective of her young, and dad sat proudly high above them; It was lovely to see. Made my day.

Back to the brakes. As you can imagine, we were really concerned by this time, and when we sent Tom images of the discolouration, he finally accepted we had a problem and was quick to tell us that it was the Brake controller, (BC). The BC is a little knob that sits in the cab of the car and is used to adjust the strength of the brakes.  It was Tom’s contention that the brake controller was not releasing, therefore the brakes were continually on, hence the overheating. We didn’t think it was, but whatever the issue was, we had to move on.

I won’t bore you with all the details, oh – what the heck, I will. I’ve learned a lot about brakes over the last few weeks so let me impart my knowledge.  I’ll try to keep it brief. Tom, who as chance would have it was in Albany south of us, agreed to come and look at the brakes on his way home, with the proviso that if it was the brake controller, as he had been saying, and not his workmanship, we would fit the bill. Fare enough. Peter did not believe it was the BC, nor did a couple of our neighbours, who had far more knowledge about this stuff that we did. Still, to cover our butts, we found an independent auto electrician who came out to us. He checked the BC and it was working fine. He also told us we were lucky that the brakes didn’t burst into flames considering the heat emanating from them. He also told us in no uncertain terms not to tow the van anywhere until the brakes had been fixed.

Tom arrived a few days later, (yes, our three-night stay was extended, spoiler alert, we didn’t leave until the 14^th).  He removed the wheels, looked at each assembly carefully and said they looked fine and put a shiny new coat of silver paint on the discoloured brake drums. He had trouble fitting one hub back on, so he hit the brake pads with a hammer, in order to fit the hub back on. He also backed the brakes off by another 5 clicks (meaning that he tightened the brakes up then backed them off a total of 15 clicks. He emphasized a number of times that his standard procedure was to back them off 10 clicks.

We test-drove the van and the problem was still there. Tom still asserted that his work was all good and again blamed the BC. To prove his point, he took out his multi-meter and stuck it in the 9-pin plug, which measured 1.7 volts and he determined that yes, the fault was the brake controller, and that this measly 1.7 volts was enough to operate the four magnets of the caravan brakes! We discussed this at the time because as Peter said: “But there’s no circuit, so the brake controller isn’t sensing the brakes and it’s not even operating. (Voltmeters present very high resistance, as close to an open circuit as possible – virtually no current flow, so it’s like there was nothing connected at all).

But Tom was the mechanic and by this time he had revealed to us that he is also an auto electrician. With a great deal of doubt in our minds and growing stress, Tom left us with the assertion that he had proven the brake controller to be faulty and off he went. But clearly, we were still going nowhere and the earliest we could get into any caravan/trailer repairer was mid January. Tom didn’t (or perhaps couldn’t) troubleshoot to find out what the problem was. In his mind there were just two options: Either his work was the cause of the problem, or it was the brake controller, and he was there to prove his workmanship, not to solve the problem.

It was time to do some research (maybe we should have done this a bit earlier). Our first conversation was with a neighbouring camper and telling him the story the very first thing he said was that you can’t test a brake controller with a multi-meter.  He gave us instructions on how to make up a rig using a 21 watt bulb and how to use it. Peter also got onto the Redarc site (the makers of our BC) and watched a video about how to test it. This was the same as our neighbour had described. Making up the rig we carried out the Redarc tests and the brake controller got a clean bill of health. That just reinforced what the $100.00 service call from the auto electrician had told us. The break Controller was working! Arrr!

But we were still stranded. Now those of you who know us will know that these situations generally don’t bother us. But…we had only four days before we had to be in Perth to pick Mum up from the airport. In desperation, I got onto the Caravan and Campers group on Face Book. I got heaps of responses, lots of great suggestions to fault find, most of which we had already done, a few suggestions for places to call, all of which we had already contacted, then one message that said, I know a guy in the area that might help. Do you want his details? What do you reckon?

Details were exchanged and the very next day Rick was outside our van bright and early. Long story short, Rick found that the brakes were all set incorrectly, one was so out of alignment that it was loose and quite likely jamming against part of the backing plate assembly, this could certainly hold that brake on. Rick adjusted all the brakes and commented that they were waaay out of adjustment.  

Tom’s work came under more criticism by our camper neighbour and Rick when they independently pointed out that the brackets that Tom had used to secure the axles were too short for the axles and there was insufficient thread exposed after the nuts, and there were no fitted washers.

But wait…there’s more!

Rick was a champion. He said: “I’ve got a mate who’s a welder. I’ll give him a call.”

But it begs the question: Why didn’t Tom see it? He had done a full service on the caravan. Then later replaced the axles, not to mention his third visit when he came to prove there was no fault with his workmanship. How could he have missed this serious problem?

All in all we found this to be a very stressful period. Not just because of the brakes, but mum was flying from the east coast to spend Christmas with us, accommodation and activities had been pre-booked and paid for. Three days before mum’s arrival, we were beginning to think that we might have to call her and ask her to cancel her flight.  

Luckily it was all fixed by the 12^th December. We stayed on at Glenwood for a couple of days just to relax, and believe me…we needed to. The big test will be the three-and-a-half-hour drive back to Perth. I’ll let you know on the next post if we made it.

See you out there somewhere

On tow and on the go!