A Word of Thanks - The Karua Puncture Story
Posted: Sun Aug 10, 2008 12:38 am
So,
It was Friday night, around 9:30pm and I was making good time northbound on the Pacific Highway, taking the 340km trip from Sydney to Taree in my old '87 L wagon. All of a sudden things got a little rough under the rear axle and I realised that I'd had a tyre failure and had lost pressure in the nearside rear tyre. I pulled up, about 4km from the Karua turn-off, with a badly flat radial.
There are no lights on this stretch of the Pacific Highway and nothing but scrub on either side of the road. Must have been about 8 degrees. The only activity out there is the constant passing of large semi-trailers and larger than life b-doubles.
I got out to change the wheel. The problem? I soon realised that the car (a recent purchase) had been supplied to me with a wheel brace that was too damn large for the nuts on the Subie's small wheels. I could jack the car up and the spare was in good shape, but the useless wheel brace couldn't pull grandpa off grandma. I cursed myself for having checked the spare and the jack, but not bothering to make sure the brace was correct.
I got back in the car and reached for the mobile phone. I got a good signal and made a call to the NRMA. As it happens, the L series wasn't joined up yet, so I paid the fee to put her on the books and the small premium for needing assistance on the date of joining (which I figured was better than sitting there in the freezing cold going nowhere). The operator said I had a 60 to 80 minute wait. I got out to grab the spare from under the bonnet. No sooner had I opened the hood than a white Subaru Brumby with a fine coat of mud pulled up beside the car. The driver leaned out to see what was going on. I said G'day and told him about my problem. He reached behind passengers seat and pulled out a cross style wheel brace and handed it straight over to me.
This Gent, in the dead of night, was kind enough to stop for a fellow Subie driver and render assistance. It took no more than 5 or so minutes to get the spare wheel secured on the car, but I'm eternally grateful to this bloke. He mentioned that he'd recently blown a ball joint in a remote spot on the road and had been stranded for quite some time, so he knew the vexation.
I told this good samaratin Brumby driver about a great site called AUsubaru.com, so hopefully he'll stop by here, discover a great forum and read this word of thanks. Thanks mate!
It was Friday night, around 9:30pm and I was making good time northbound on the Pacific Highway, taking the 340km trip from Sydney to Taree in my old '87 L wagon. All of a sudden things got a little rough under the rear axle and I realised that I'd had a tyre failure and had lost pressure in the nearside rear tyre. I pulled up, about 4km from the Karua turn-off, with a badly flat radial.
There are no lights on this stretch of the Pacific Highway and nothing but scrub on either side of the road. Must have been about 8 degrees. The only activity out there is the constant passing of large semi-trailers and larger than life b-doubles.
I got out to change the wheel. The problem? I soon realised that the car (a recent purchase) had been supplied to me with a wheel brace that was too damn large for the nuts on the Subie's small wheels. I could jack the car up and the spare was in good shape, but the useless wheel brace couldn't pull grandpa off grandma. I cursed myself for having checked the spare and the jack, but not bothering to make sure the brace was correct.
I got back in the car and reached for the mobile phone. I got a good signal and made a call to the NRMA. As it happens, the L series wasn't joined up yet, so I paid the fee to put her on the books and the small premium for needing assistance on the date of joining (which I figured was better than sitting there in the freezing cold going nowhere). The operator said I had a 60 to 80 minute wait. I got out to grab the spare from under the bonnet. No sooner had I opened the hood than a white Subaru Brumby with a fine coat of mud pulled up beside the car. The driver leaned out to see what was going on. I said G'day and told him about my problem. He reached behind passengers seat and pulled out a cross style wheel brace and handed it straight over to me.
This Gent, in the dead of night, was kind enough to stop for a fellow Subie driver and render assistance. It took no more than 5 or so minutes to get the spare wheel secured on the car, but I'm eternally grateful to this bloke. He mentioned that he'd recently blown a ball joint in a remote spot on the road and had been stranded for quite some time, so he knew the vexation.
I told this good samaratin Brumby driver about a great site called AUsubaru.com, so hopefully he'll stop by here, discover a great forum and read this word of thanks. Thanks mate!