December 5, 2016
Having finally left Firefly on October13, Keith arrived back in Brisbane (at Olivia;s) on the 14th having stayed overnight in the Rest Area at Dinjerrra Road, just South of Grafton and at the halfway mark (about 330km each way.
On October 19 I went back down to Murwillumbah Showgrounds for 2 days to catch up with Rob from Full Range Camping and discuss a few things. From there it was back up to Brisbane and to Zoe’s at Moggill for 2 nights to coincide with Ollie’s 4th birthday party on the Saturday.
From there a cross town trip to Deception Bay (75km) (Laura’s) and squeeze the van past the fence into the front yard of their new home. Frances finally returned from her UK trip on November 8 after 5 weeks there and 6 weeks away from me.
Planning to head down next to Olivia’s for a few days the Jackaroo broke down on the 17th – it started, stopped like you turned off the key and wouldn’t start? RACQ took it to Diesel Specialists who diagnosed and replaced the oil rail pressure sensor and all seemed well. Moved to Olivia’s on the 22nd and on the 24th it stopped again, this time after losing power under load up a steep hill. RACQ did get it started but sent it home on a tow truck and it only started once more. Having decided that we would not keep spending money on repairs once it became troublesome we decided that was it! We have owned it for 4 years and got 3 years towing and touring out of it with minimal problems other than the faulty new injectors we had in 2015. Time to cut our losses and write it off.
So we went shopping for a secondhand Landcruiser and decided not to be fussy and go Diesel as Cruiser diesels still attract a fairly high price for age and mileage, we looked for a 4.5 litre petrol variant (105 series for the 3.5 tonne towing capability) with reasonably low kms. The amount of distance we travel each year and the amount of towing means an extra fuel bill of only a few hundred dollars a year by going petrol; it’s not like the Jackaroo was as efficient as modern diesels anyway.
Found a couple of Landcruisers to look at and settled on a 1999 with only 231k and in very good condition through a dealer who seems to thoroughly check his vehicles and present them in the best condition (looked at a newer one that was really rough), By staying post 1998 we get the 105 with 3.5 tonne towing for the future.
So now we have to do a fitout all over again but now have almost all the right gear! Took absolutely everything off the Jackaroo that was useable or saleable and get it ready to have towed to the wreckers; out of nowhere came a buyer for what was left (without wheels) for $600 so there it went to a new home near Toowoomba. I commented to one of the girls that I have never had a “dead” car before and feel like we should ceremoniously have buried it somewhere!
Anyway – here we go for 2017 and beyond.