Day 5: Fri 17 Feb 23 - Epsom to Ararat

February 17, 2023

Fri 17 Feb - Epsom to Ararat (Towed 170 km)

We woke to a warm 22 Deg and slightly overcast morning. By 1400 in Ararat it had reached a scorching 39 Deg. We drove away from Epsom by 0800, and made our way through the city of Bendigo towards Ararat. We had originally planned to stay a few nights to look around Bendigo, but with delays in getting away from Canberra due to the car issues, we decided we would came back another time and stay a bit longer. As we drove through the city, it looked very appealing, so we will definitely come back. The aim of this trip is South Australia and we are keen to get there to make the most of the distance to get there.

Our first stop was at Maryborough about 76km into the journey where we stopped for a leg stretch. For the first time since I collected the van from a service at Albury, I checked the wheels and brakes for any overheating. Unfortunately, two wheels were abnormally hot, and one was dangerously hot (could not touch it)....I called Simply Caravans in Albury and they suggested I back the brakes off a few more notches to release the brake pads which we thought were grabbing. I towed the van back a few kms to Tyre Power whose mechanic kindly lifted the van with his heavy duty jack and backed off two recalcitrant overheating brakes. They didn't charge me anything for their work which was very kind. Onwards we continued, stopping a few KMs up the road to recheck for heat, and all appeared well. 26km later however, we stopped again at a small town called Avoca to check out a painted silo. I also decided to check the wheel temps again just to be sure, and the worst of the overheating wheels was hotter than when I noticed it earlier in Maryborough. Short story is we had a very slow trip with many stops for the remainder of our very nervous trip from Avoca to Ararat where I managed to get in touch with a Caravan Repair business. As we arrived (about 1230), they were closing up and about to leave for the weekend. These guys were brilliant - after a few calls back to Simply Caravans in Albury to discuss what was done during our service, they lifted the van, removed the worst of the overheating wheels, and discovered that the nut holding the bearings in place weren't tensioned correctly - essentially meaning there was excessive movement in the wheel (it wobbled). They removed all four wheels and found they all had the same issue (obviously I had the newbie with no experience and no quality control checks doing my service). Almost two hours later after handing over $330, we were on our way again. I was so grateful that these guys stayed around to help me out - they were awesome and very friendly. Our destination for the night was just around the corner in a rundown old caravan park which is being renovated (there's a lot of renovating to be done). With the temperature hitting 39Deg, we headed straight for the caravan park to get setup, turn on the air conditioner and have some food and coffee - it's been a very stressful day. I'm hoping the issues are all sorted, but I won't know for certain until tomorrow when we set off for the 235km drive to Mount Gambier in South Australia. Fingers are crossed that all will be good. After a short rest, we drove into Ararat to do a bit of shopping for dinner, and a very brief look around in 37Deg heat. We were soon back at the van and settled in for the evening, hoping for a better day tomorrow.